Frugal Floral: Five Tips on Decorating with Flowers on a Budget

Contemporary or traditional, cottage or castle, casual or formal, there is one characteristic touch in each of the beautiful rooms that grace the glossy magazines we love so much:  floral accents.  Imagine the room above from designer Jill Brinson:  try to picture it without the burst of fushia flowers--wouldn't be the same, would it?  So I guess there's no debate about whether or not flowers finish off the look of a room;  the only question is, how can the average person afford to fill their house with flowers on a budget?  I have a couple of tips.  But first, a couple of provisos:  first, the word frugal---I'm not using it to necessarily mean cheap--I'm using it in the sense of getting the most bang for the buck--the most impact, use, and longevity for the money spent.  Second, some of my suggestions are for creating the impact of flowers (their color, interest, and texture) with substitutes.

1.  Think high impact.  One of the great uses of flowers is to inject a bright spot of color into a room.  If you look at the two rooms above, the designers have used contrasting flowers that pick up an accent color also used in accessories, creating a win-win situation where the accessories make the flowers pop and vice versa.  They also show an important principle---put your floral money where it will do the most for the room--here, the major arrangements are on the coffee tables, the centers of the space.  The other important factor with these arrangements is the impact of a large number of one flower, without any other foliage or filler to distract.  To keep cost down, use inexpensive and long lasting flowers like chrysanthemums, alstroemerias, and carnations, available at most supermarkets.    Decorate the main areas of your room,  the areas you see --don't worry so  much about the formal living room or dining room if you don't use these areas often--there are others things you can do there.

2. Foliage is your friend.  In the above images, you can see that bringing in a branch or tropical foliage can do the same sort of magic for a room that flowers can--bringing nature inside.  Foliage can be easily gathered from your own back yard, and some leaves, like the split leaf philodendrens in the galvanized tub and  variagated ginger leaves (not shown) can last for weeks if you put a tsp or so of bleach in the water and change it weekly.  Even if you buy it, foliage is usually a cheaper option than flowers.

3.  Grow them yourself.   It can take a while to get into the act of gardening, but if it's a hobby you'd like to develop, you can reap great rewards.  In any case, if there are certain florals you like, go down to your local nursery, talk to someone knowledgable on staff,  see if the plants can work in your area, and then consider planting a fex.  After a few years, that $14 hydrangea bush can yield bouquet after bouquet.  I personally planted the philodendren and ginger mentioned above to pillage their leaves.  This can be a major investment at first, depending on your budget (I spent about $125 on 4 plants), but if you divide the cost by the number of arrangements you get out of them, it's money well spent.  In the past two years, the original plants have grown enough that I can constantly have their foliage indoors.


4.  Don't forget about houseplants.  Great florals don't have to just come in a vase, they can also come in pots.  I think that houseplants have kind of a frumpy image--I have to admit, when I think of the term "houseplants,"  I tend to think of the sad little African violets I used to see on my female relatives' kitchen windowsills growing up, or that equally sad, trailing philodendren that so many apartment dwellers had in the '80s.  But houseplants are  a great budget helper--with a little effort they can last months or even years, and they include orchids, topiaries, indoor trees, and other high-end floral effects.  

True, a mass of orchids like in this Miles Redd entry would be expensive, but at around $20 each, it's still comparable to the cost of a major arrangement, and even without re-blooming, would last for 6 weeks or so, compared to an arrangement's 1 week life-span.

Even without the arrangement on the cocktail ottoman, this room would feel bright and lively because of the long lasting (and inexpensive) fern and palm.  Each cost about $12 and could last years with proper care.

Ignore the large (and incredibly expensive) arrangment to the left, and focus on the topiaries through the arch.

Even the humble ficus can make a statement with a little pruning, a pair of great containers, and a playful sense of scale.

5.  Substitute if needed.  People use flowers in interiors for 2 main reasons.  One is for a love of the flowers themselves (who can resist the first daffodils of spring), the other reason is to add a touch of nature, a touch of color or texture, and a point of interest.  So, in other words, you can substitute other items which are either cheaper or more longer lasting than flowers to do the same job.

One  example is food, usually, but not limited to, fruit.  There is nothing like a bowl of beautiful citrus to add zest (sorry , I couldn't leave the pun just laying there) to a room.  Other decorative foods are apples (I especially love green apples), artichokes, pomegranites, red onions, grapes, pears, pots of rosemary, thyme, basil, and even glass containers of legumes and grains.    I do think that most food items look best in kitchens, casual dens, and dining areas---I've seen bowls of apples in bedrooms, studies, and formal living rooms and I think it looks a little odd.  I prefer bowls of fruit in a setting where they might conceivably be used.  The benefit of decorating with fruits, pots of herbs, and vegetables is threefold--first, their inherent beauty.  Second, they are usually cheaper than flowers and last longer.  And finally, they can be consumed.

Another great substitute (though overused a couple of years ago,it's still viable) is bowls and balls of moss, which are especially well  suited to stone and concrete vessels.  Though long lasting, they will need to be refreshed periodically.

And finally, you can use clusters of  decorative objects ( or "objets d'art" if you want to add a little pretension to your daily design diet) for interest and color.  Here, a collection of glass objects takes  the place of flowers on the dining table and sideboard.

The last two images show a combination approach--the centerpieces of the dining tables are made from food items and decorative items.


So, in conclusion, can you add the brightness and freshness of floral to your home on a regular basis and not break the bank?  The answer is yes, but like all decorating on a dime activities, it  is going to require patience, planning,  time, and ingenuity.

All images from the House Beautiful website.

A thank you bouquet

My friend Candice and her friend Graham are visting, and Candice noticed this vintage pitcher in my kitchen. While I was meeting clients, she snuck out and bought this beautiful bunch of lilies in purple and yellow as a hostess gift to fill the yellow pitcher (flowers don't always have to go into vases....any container that can contain water or hold another container that can hold water can be a vase).

And here is the completed bouquet. Notice how the yellow, purple, and green match the Mardi Gras sign over the sink. Thanks so much, Candice.

Cheap Chic 2: a floral centerpiece for $10

I've caught the spring cleaning bug late. But now, that I have it, I've been looking around the house thinking about what I'd like to change (everything), and what I can afford to change (maybe a light bulb). All joking aside, I do intend to make some changes to the house--primarily a purge of extraneous crap (i.e. all of Thomas's things...mine are treasures, I swear), some painting, and some slipcovers. However, after making my intial to do lists (I love to make lists...actually doing the items on said list-not so much), I was so overwhelmed, I decided to smart small by cleaning the dining room, which is the smallest least cluttered room in the house and bringing in some fresh flowers for the table. Since money is tighter around here than last year's girdle, I did it with things I already owned and a couple of supermarket bouquets.
My inspiration: a white bowl (wal mart) filled with some green pears with touches of yellow ( faux, and a gift) that complement the orange stripes in the dining room and echo the pale green of the adjoining kitchen. Plus, light, bright green and white just feel like summer, especially with yellow accents. I wanted a large arrangement, but I don't have a large vase. So in order to create a large scale arrangement, I placed the bowl of pears and two white vases on a small pale green wooded tray to create one large centerpiece.

The materials. Variagated ginger leaves from the garden, yellow aster, lemons to jazz up the friut bowl (key tip for using faux friut and flowers...add some real items and it elevates the fake), and some white flower whose name I don't know but that I've used before and know lasts for a long time in a vase. I purposely kept the palette limited: green and yellow to echo the pears, white to echo the vase and to add freshness. Btw, ginger and split leaf philodendrums are great plants to put in the garden: they are super easy to grow, and their greenery looks great alone or in an arrangement, and they can last for several weeks if you change the water every now and then.

First, I like to start with the greenery, in this case ginger leaves, to give the basic structure to the arrangement. I also usually follow the pyramid rule in arrangeing flowers. In this case, it means the tallest point would be in the taller vase in the back.

Nest, I added the filler flowers, cutting the stems to fit the vase, and removing all greenery and blooms that would be under the level of the rim.

Next, I add the main white flower, again trimming the stem to fit the vase and stripping extra leaves and blooms. After that, I piled the real lemons over the faux pears.

Voila, an arrangement for $10, using what I already owned, that should last for a week to ten days. I will also use the lemons for cooking, lemonade, or a twist in my martini. In fact, my motto is, "If life gives you lemons, make a martini."

This angle shows how the bright green of the arrangement picks up the avacado kitchen.

Cheap Chic: Recession Decorating for under $10.

Last night, I was feeling a little blue. Nothing serious, just the unfortunately usual money worries. I would have been really blue had I forseen the results of my at home buzz cut I am currently sporting. (Note to self: find another cost cutting technique.) To cheer me up, Thomas picked up a supermarket bouquet of white chrysathemums. There is nothing like fresh flowers to perk up a room, as well as a blue queen. One easy way to a chic arrangement is to use all of one kind of flower and then to match that color to their container.

$4 of white mums
added to $3 Goodwill urn (the finish is slightly chipped, but so is mine)

= a chic, happy spot in a blue day.