They say everyone has a superpower, and I most definitely believe this to be true. My husband can back into even the narrowest of parking spaces without using the car's back-up camera (a talent honed from years of driving fire trucks and ambulances). My dad can correctly answer virtually any Trivial Pursuit question in the geography category. I am endowed with the ability to (almost) always know what time it is, without a watch and even without the benefit of seeing how low or high the sun is in the sky. That’s not to say that I don’t ever lose myself in a task, or that daylight savings time doesn’t throw me off, but I just seem to have a really good internal timekeeping device.
My secondary superpower – slightly less random, given that I’m a flower farmer/florist – is that I can look at a room and almost immediately know what type of florals would enhance the design – including the type of vessel, the size, and the type(s) of flowers in the arrangement.
Adding flowers to a room is like adding accessories to an outfit. Now, I'm no fashionista -- admittedly, I buy an awful lot of my clothes at Costco (I'm a farmer, after all) -- but in my suit-wearing days I never walked out of the house without at least a pair of earrings. Your home is no different. No matter how beautiful the decor and furnishings in a room, the introduction of flowers or foliage is an accessory that can pull the whole thing together, add a needed pop of color or organic element, or even distract from something that you'd rather ignore (mountain of mail in the kitchen, I'm looking at you...).
Like so many others, I love flipping through home design magazines (or watching HGTV), admiring the beautiful spaces and clipping pages to use as inspiration when the day finally comes that we have enough time/money/energy to embark on a remodel or home improvement project of our own.
In some magazines, like Veranda, one of my favorite indulgences, the floral designs and potted plants are typically elaborate, massive, and pricey -- just like the high-end spaces they adorn. But other publications, like the free magazines that are produced in order to highlight local builders, designers and home furnishing providers, offer great opportunities to imagine how flowers -- even a modest bouquet or one of our mini milk jar-sized Powder Room Posies -- could enhance and improve the design.
Usually I leave these ruminations inside my own head, but I thought I’d share some of them with you (via short videos) in case you find them entertaining or perhaps even educational. Please note that my intent here isn’t to criticize any of the designs shown – to the contrary, I’ve selected only designs that I truly love. My thoughts on the addition of, or tweaks to, the florals is only meant to enhance these already beautiful spaces. I'm also not being compensated in any way for this content.
All of the photos shown here come from the magazine shown above: Home & Design Idea Book 2022, which focuses on the Northern Virginia (including Loudoun County) area.
First up, a beautiful teal bathroom that is crying out for flowers. Design by Shannon Embly, Capital Design LLC.
Next -- something I very much want in my own house -- a white kitchen. It's so beautiful, but deserves more floral decoration than a sweet, but kind of sad, little wreath. Design: Boss Design (bossdesigncenter.com).
Finally, a light and airy sitting area that doesn't actually need any flowers (!). It's perfect and I want to curl up there with a cup of tea right now. Design by Nancy Powell and Bethany Brower, Powell Brower Interiors.
I hope you enjoyed these. Please let me know if you'd like to see more. Trust me, I have plenty of opinions when it comes to putting the final (floral) touches on a beautiful interior space!
