The Simplest (and Cheapest) Way to Decorate With Flowers
It starts in your own backyard (or the tiny container garden on your balcony): “You can put a single bloom in a flower vase, and that is often enough.”
What’s the easiest way to make any room look better? A vase of fresh flowers.
It’s also one of the least expensive ways — if you have access to a garden, a yard or a container garden on a balcony.
Assembling flower arrangements like the ones you see in magazines or on social media doesn’t have to mean spending a small fortune at an upscale flower shop, where they do the arranging for you. A simple grouping of flowers, branches, leaves and even vegetables can look equally appealing.
“You don’t have to grow, like, 5,000 peonies,” said Christopher Spitzmiller, 52, who designs lamps and ceramics. “You can put a single bloom in a flower vase, and that is often enough.”
As it happens, Mr. Spitzmiller has an enviable garden at Clove Brook Farm, the Millbrook, N.Y., home he shares with his husband, Anthony Bellomo, the owner of Orangerie, a garden shop. But they agree that simpler can sometimes be better.
“We’ll often put kale, chard or leafy greens that you would eat into arrangements,” said Mr. Bellomo, 45.
Here’s how they decorate their dining room with flowers and greenery when they want to impress their friends.
Before cutting any branches or flowers, Mr. Spitzmiller and Mr. Bellomo set the table, which establishes a color palette.
“The tablecloth, the glasses and the other things you plan to use drive the choice of flowers,” Mr. Bellomo said. “If we’re doing pink plates, we might do light tones of pinks, mauves and purples” in the flowers.
On this particular day, they covered the table with a wood-grain-patterned tablecloth before putting down green-and-white marbleized plates that Mr. Spitzmiller designed, along with green napkins and purple-and-white glasses.
For a playful touch, they added red ladybug ornaments from John Derian and gold frog-shaped salt cellars from KRB, a home furnishings store in Manhattan.
