How to Decorate with Flowers:

5 Floral Ideas That Everyone Can Enjoy 

Flowers, especially fresh ones, make everything better. That’s why we at Pottery Barn want to give you some of our best floral decorating ideas to liven up home. Buy one big, beautiful bunches of flowers, succulents and foliage and you’ll see how to divvy them up and spread the cheer around your house.

Craft a Random Vase

Go beyond traditional glass and crystal flower vases. You can make one out of just about anything that holds water. Rather than stow lonely teacups away in cabinet, grab them and put them to use as bud vases. If you’re sentimental about your kids’ cute and colorful plastic rain boots that they’ve since grown out of, use them on the floor of your mudroom or entryway to hold long-stemmed tulips. 

Make your serving bowls play double duty as vases. To arrange flowers in a bowl, use floral tape in a similar color as your vessel to create a crisscross grid across the mouth of the bowl. Place stems in the grid in a pattern. The tape keeps each stem in place without causing flowers to flop over. Use white sports tape in a pinch for a white bowl, for example. Make sure flowers on the outer part of the grid spill over just enough to hide the edges of the tape.

Create a Centerpiece

Shallow bowls filled with water hold floating flower arrangements that look like works of art. Some of the hardier florals in full bloom make the best floaters, such as Gerber daisies, roses and peonies. Use live florals for floating arrangements; faux may sink. For a more delicate arrangement, pluck the petals or heads off of a small flower, such as a pansy. Place the petals around the rim of the bowl. Then, fill in with smaller heads and petals from another flower. Add votive candles, tea lights or a tall pillar candle in the middle of the bowl. Place floral foam inside a shallow dish or bowl. Cover it entirely with blossoms pushed into the foam. Then add water to give it a look of floating flowers. 

For submerged florals, use a tall cylinder vase. Add glass rocks to the bottom one-third of the way up. Add water and secure a tiny fish weight to the stem of one large flower in full bloom. Stick it in the rocks, and you have an elegant centerpiece. 

Colored bottles, even clear glass bottles, create some of the most simple but stunning centerpieces indoors and out. Arrange a handful of bottles in a line along the center of the table. Place a stemmed blossom in each. Choose bottles that pick up or contrast with the color of your dinnerware. Though tall, this centerpiece design allows you to easily see and talk to others across the table.

Cast Tiny Bouquets

Sprinkle romance around your bedroom or bathroom with tiny bouquets in little clear drinking glasses or bud vases. Place one large blossom in a glass and surround it with some baby’s breath. Or, accent it with a sprig of Queen Anne’s lace for an airy look. Use succulents for a touch of green. Miniature soft and hardy succulents keep longer than fresh petals. For example, Rosularia serpentinica are small green rosettes that look as romantic as their rose cousins. Experiment with succulents that look like flowers. Tuck them into shells, baskets or concave rocks. Or fashion them into wreaths or garlands for green freshness on your wall or door. 

Create Foliage Walls

For ambitious decorators, hang up a living (or faux) wall of succulents. For crafters, fashion a wreath from real (or faux) succulents or green foliage accented with florals for freshness on your wall or door. Use succulents (faux is best for this idea) in shadow boxes or frames hung in pairs or trios. What’s the best way to create a floral or foliage wall? Invest in wall-mountable vases and baskets. Group them together or space them equally apart on the wall. Then, fill them with live or faux flowers and foliage. 

Coordinate Colors

Turn heads with blooms in a vivid color. Match it with a small flower vase or bottle of the same color, or one that sets off the blossom. Learning how to decorate with flowers and accessories in your home comes down to color, too. Match the hue of an accent pillow or two with flowers placed on a nearby table to create a vibrant vignette of color. Or, coordinate floral pillows with vases of the same flower for an enveloping feeling of sitting in a fragrant garden. Sophisticated monochromatic vignettes, such as crisp white flowers in a delicate white vase near white furnishings and accessories, adds a decorator’s touch to any space.