DECORATING WITH FRESH AND FAUX FLORALS

I’m excited to be joining another group of friends today, to talk about decorating with flowers. Do you like to decorate with flowers? If so, do you only use real ones? What about faux, or both? I know I’ve asked the question before, and I often talk about my love for faux flowers within many of my posts. That said, in recent months, I’ve also discovered my love for using fresh flowers too. Confession : fresh flowers have always intimidated me. That sounds a little crazy, I know. Truth be told (and I have told many of you this before), I’m not very good at arranging them. I don’t really know that much about the different varieties, and what goes best with what. I have discovered by going just outside of my comfort zone, it’s really not that hard. Today I’m sharing a round up of florals I’ve used, and talking about decorating with both fresh and faux florals in our home. If you’re visiting from my friend Sheila of Maison De Cinq welcome! I hope you’ll stay a while and if this is your first time visiting CitrineLiving, I’m so happy to have you here!Let’s start with my latest ‘arrangement’ of carnations and purple freesia. I picked these up last week from Costco, yes, a whole week ago, and they’re still gorgeous. I bought them to shoot for my Spring Home Tour (see it here), which I posted just the other day, but they never ended up making the cut. They’re too pretty not to share, so here they are, sitting beautifully with these gorgeous limes, next to the kitchen sink. By the way – did you notice the trees outside? That’s right, still no leaves all the way up here where we live!
It’s really amazing how much a fresh bouquet brightens our home. As I mentioned, it was not a regular occurrence for me to have fresh flowers around, but I’m definitely getting used to having them make an appearance more frequently.This is the arrangement that you may have seen in my Spring home tour. I decided I wanted clean and crisp, white and green, with these gigantic and fluffy hydrangeas and delicate white freesia. By the way – I’ve recently just discovered freesia, and I just love their little cascading buds. Aren’t they beautiful?

GET THE LOOK : 

You may remember my Spring dining room from last month as well (see it here). My go-to hydrangeas (well, I think they’re everyone’s go-to!) and white tulips are the perfect addition, and element of nature on my blue infused table.Taking a look back at my Valentine’s Day table (see it here), hydrangeas and purple flowers (I can’t remember the name!) provided a fresh, Spring-Like approach to a Valentine’s Day tablescape.If you look really closely, you can see some tulips peeking out in there too.I love energy that the lavender hues bring to our dining room, and this arrangement would always bring a smile to my face, especially with all of the snow right out that window!Let’s backtrack a few more months and talk about a couple of my Fall tables. Below, for a Thanksgiving tablescape (find it here), I created this arrangement with these beautiful coral and pink carnations surrounded by fresh fruit. I know I’m getting away from talking decor, and focusing on tables, but I wanted to share these to demonstrate the use of pairing unusual colors together. I love all of the warm colors of the florals and fruit against the cool tones of the ginger jar and dishware.In the arrangement below, I used oasis for the first time ever. I was so nervous to get it just right and because I really am a novice at this, it so it took me quite a while to figure out how to keep it from falling over! I used this for my Fall home tour (see it here), where the use of pops of rich colors throughout our home was the main focus for the season. These flowers spoke to that concept, and the deep reds against the vibrant greens were perfect for that.
Ok – let’s talk about mixing fresh and faux within the same space. You can even mix them in the same arrangement. There’s nothing to be afraid of here when it comes to using faux, and on my recent Easter tablescape (see more of it here), I’ve combined faux branches (in the background) and faux topiaries on the table, along with a fresh arrangement of hydrangeas and freesia.Looking a little closer at faux Spring branches, they provide the perfect addition to any room. Living in a cold, northern climate, we won’t have anything blooming for another month or so, which is a long time to wait! Here, I mixed a few different variations with some faux pussy willows. I love how they pop off of the black walls in our dining room.

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They look incredibly real, and they add height to any area, which is always a great way to break up visual space. I moved them to the living room (below) for my Spring tour for that very reason, and they’re still there.These ones below, are arranged on our buffet, and I love how they frame this lantern. Again, talking about adding height and visually breaking up space, these achieve that perfectly.

GET THE LOOK :

One of my recent posts about styling the same table four different ways, features both these faux hydrangeas and some pussy willow branches also. Read all about this informative post here. Below are two of the four ways I chose to style this console in our foyer.

GET THE LOOK :

About a month ago, before I decked our kitchen in blues and whites for Spring, the look in here was neutral subdued. I wanted a serene feeling as we were transitioning from Winter to Spring, with just a hint of the season coming. A clean, clear glass vessel and a few  faux blooms do the trick to keep the look fresh and clean.

Thank you for stopping by today to see how I use florals in our home. I’m working on my arranging skills and going even further outside of my comfort zone! It’s so nice to bring in flowers and branches as the weather warms up, but remember, you can use them any day of the year to brighten a corner, bring texture or color to a space, or layer them in to add height to a table or room.

Below you can find all of my friends who are showing off their florals today too, please stop in to say hello! Next on the tour is Amie of Meme Hill  – she uses color in her spaces so masterfully, you will love it!. Enjoy! xo

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