Houseplants and fresh greenery are key to my neutral decorating style … but first came my love of flowers.
As a teenager, when other girls were covering their bedroom walls with cute boys and fashion tips, mine were filled with magazine tear outs of flowers. Martha Stewart Weddings was my first subscription and I couldn’t wait to pore over the pages looking at all the breathtaking bouquets, boutonnieres, arches and table arrangements. I noticed the color combinations, learned the flower names, and mostly, just admired the beauty and intricacy of each petal, each leaf, each bud.
This love of flowers grew deeper when I met my future mother-in-law.
Robyn has two sons and was more than thrilled to finally have a girl in the house for dinner and visits. She would show me her latest thrift store find or tell me her decorating plans and I would almost always leave with a gorgeous arrangement of freshly picked garden flowers that she threw together so effortlessly.
Robyn showed me that flowers are not only for weddings and fancy events – they are just as important in the every day.
If you spend any amount of time looking through home magazines, reading decorating blogs or following interior design instagrammers, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that flowers are always part of the equation. You can have a perfectly decorated space but until the flowers are in, the room feels somewhat lifeless.
And don’t they just make you happy?!
It would be pretty dreamy to have gorgeous flower arrangements delivered weekly or a cutting garden full of blooms. But that’s not reality for most of us.
So here are a few tips for how to incorporate flowers into our homes even if we don’t have an endless flower budget (or garden):
BRING IN HOUSEPLANTS
The main reason I have so many plants in our house is that they bring life to our otherwise pretty dark interior. If I could, I would fill the space with flowers, but that would be crazy expensive. So as an alternative, I use a few houseplants and then bring in a simple arrangement of flowers for color.
CUT FROM OUTDOORS
Now that spring is here, more trees and plants are blooming outdoors. It is the perfect time to clip branches or stems and bring them into our homes.
Perhaps I should not admit this, but I have been known to pull over on the side of the road and clip lilacs from an abandoned tree, peonies from a vacant lot and armfuls of hydrangea blooms from a neighbor’s yard for our wedding bouquets (don’t worry, we asked for permission). Keep an eye out for wildflowers, flowering shrubs, and branches.
BUY READILY-AVAILABLE FLOWERS FROM THE GROCERY STORE
Look no further than your grocery store floral department for reasonably priced blooms. Most carry a good selection of mixed bouquets and single variety bunches. With a bit of intention, you can bring flowers home, prolong their vase life by trimming and feeding them and arrange in a way that gives generic cut flowers the organically arranged look we all admire.
So how, exactly, do you arrange flowers?
The temptation is to bring them home from the store, remove the wrapping and pop them into a vase.
RESIST THE URGE!
Instead, take a few extra minutes to cut the stems, give your flowers a chance to hydrate, clip extra greenery from outside and build a simple arrangement that looks sweet and much more impactful than the original cut bouquet from the store. Not only will it look amazing, but it will actually last longer! Win and win.
If you want to learn how to arrange flowers for your home and to give as gifts (who doesn’t love a sweet bouquet from a friend?!), if you need help figuring out the best tricks, tools and techniques for caring and prolonging the vase life of cut flowers, and if you’d like to figure out how to make those grocery store mixed bouquets look fabulous, you’ll love Simplified Flowers.
SIMPLIFIED FLOWERS
You can create beautiful flower arrangements.
My mother-in-law, Robyn, is your teacher for this applicable, informative and enjoyable online class. She will show you how to create a handful of flower arrangements using flowers from the grocery store. Nothing super fancy or unattainable, just beautiful arrangments to bring life and beauty to your home.
The class takes place online where you can go at your own pace, moving from lesson to lesson as quickly or slowly as needed. You will have unlimited access to the class and can always refer back to it as needed.
AFTER TAKING THIS CLASS, YOU’LL KNOW HOW TO:
- Identify common flower + greenery varieties so you know what to choose
- Properly care for flowers to encourage growth and prolong cut life
- Build shape, texture and contrast into your arrangements
- Incorporate unexpected elements – like produce! – into your arrangements
- Take generic mixed bouquets and make them stunning
For 3 days only, get the class for only $29 using discount code SPRING!
(that’s 50% off!)
Grab a friend and join the class today! Because life is beautiful … but it sure is prettier with flowers :)
i bought the class the first time you offered it and I have to say if was really great. Your mother-in-law seems was awesome. There is always something new to be learned about flower arranging.
Is that a lime tree with limes on it in your dining room? I live in the PNW also and never thought to grow citrus indoors. How do you care for it?
It was an orange tree and it died :( Just not enough warmth and humidity for it to thrive indoors.
How does the info covered compare to Floret Flowers Cut Flower Garden Book??
It probably overlaps quite a bit. That book is so lovely! The videos in the class are fun to watch and sometimes it is nice to see the actions in video rather than still images.
I think as the kids get older and you have more time, you should try a small cutting garden.
Even when it isn’t filled with blooms, it’s got wonderful foliage that can make a small grocery store bouquet look like a huge custom arrangement….
I totally agree. I have hydrangeas and two peonies, but I need to plant more flowers!
Emily, my girls and I completed the flower class last year and had the best time. Started the afternoon at our local grocery store. After we each picked out a bundle of flowers, we scavenged in the yard for greenery and had such a fun filled afternoon laughing, creating and admiring our arrangements which lasted weeks! Thanks to you and Robyn!
What wonderful feedback! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Oh my goodness …. the difference in the store bought ones after you’ve arranged them is amazing. I’m so going to try that.