Two things: Flowers bring life to a room, and big projects involve many little projects. 

I’ve been away from this space (for too long) while working on a large project. This mini-tutorial is an off-shoot of that project. For the Inn at Mary’s Land Farm, which we have been decorating, we created some bedside bouquets.  Because I really enjoyed the process and was delighted by how much these little arrangements brightened the rooms, I thought I’d share them with you. 

I’ve included some tips that I have learned over the years, but don’t think of them as rules.  Think of them as tools.  It’s amazing how relaxing and rewarding and even therapeutic making these little arrangements can be.  And it’s amazing what they do for a room—tiny magical moments.  But also, as my daughter-in-law reminded me, it takes time and can be a bit messy.  However, she also agreed that it is totally worth it (and her arrangements were so pretty). 

I started with farm grown flowers from the farmer’s market (which is a great source for locally grown stems).  It’s worthwhile to establish a relationship with the growers so that you can learn more about the flowers. (These are from a mother/daughter team at Hillcrest Flower Farm, one of our favorite sources).

When selecting your stems, it is important to decide on a color palette, and to think about how many different kinds of flowers and types of foliage you want in your design. 

For the five bedside bouquets I chose vases of different sizes and shapes, but stayed with clear simple containers for cohesiveness.  Look around at what containers you already have and see if you can find a common thread.

Start with foliage to create a base and shape for the design.

Cutting stems at an angle as you go (this allows them to drink up more water and last longer) and removing any lower leaves that might be in the water, add flowers at varying height and angles.

I wanted the bedside arrangements to be light and airy and a little bit wild!

To transport them to the site, we packed them in a vintage wine basket (which also looked pretty as an arrangement, and made us think how grouping them together would create a whole different effect and be another alternative design with more impact). 

I hope you enjoyed this mini-tutorial, and that you are inspired to create your own bedside bouquets.

I’d love to hear your comments or answer any specific questions you might have…

Cheers,

Holly

Photographs by Michael Sneeringer

Logo by Jane Black