What’s the easiest way to improve the look of a room? Fill a vase with fresh flowers.
It is also one of the cheapest options if you have access to a container garden in your yard, backyard or balcony.
You don’t have to spend a fortune at a fancy florist to create the floral arrangements you see in magazines and on social media — a simple combination of flowers, branches, leaves, and vegetables can look just as appealing.
“You don’t need to grow 5,000 peonies,” says lamp and ceramic designer Christopher Spitzmiller, 52. “Just one in a vase will do.”
Coincidentally, Spitzmiller has an enviably beautiful garden at Clove Brook Farm in Millbrook, N.Y., where she shares with her husband, Anthony Bellomo, owner of the garden center The Orangery. But they both agree that sometimes simpler is better.
“I often include kale, chard or edible leafy greens in my arrangements,” says Bellomo, 45.
If you want to impress your friends, here’s how you can decorate your dining room with flowers and greenery.
Decide on a color palette
Before cutting any branches or flowers, Spitzmiller and Bellomo set the table and establish a color palette.
“The tablecloth, glasses, and other items you plan to use will dictate your flower selection,” Bellomo says. “If you’re using pink plates, your flowers might be pale pink, mauve, or purple.”
On this day, the tables were covered with wood-grain tablecloths and decorated with green-and-white marble-patterned plates, green napkins, and purple-and-white glasses designed by Spitzmiller.
For a playful touch, she added a red ladybug ornament from John Derian and a gold frog-shaped salt shaker from Manhattan furniture store KRB.
Select a container
After setting the table, the couple chose vases and containers for their flowers.
They chose antique potted frogs as centerpieces and two small square faux boa planters to hold floral and foliage arrangements.
Finally, I added some vintage glass beakers and some individual glass vases to sprinkle around the table.
Cutting flowers
Armed with pruning shears and a galvanized bucket of water, the couple headed out into the garden, trimming anything attractive.
Mr. Spitzmiller cut a towering peach-colored lily, trimming off the excess leaves and stamens. (“The stamens stain everything they touch,” he explained.) Ms. Bellomo picked lime-green mantles and several varieties of hydrangeas.
They also collected some things they hadn’t planned on: the cheerful yellow blossoms of a seed-bearing edible leafy vegetable, the globe flowers of a shallot, slender clematis vines, and thick hosta leaves.
Building an arrangement
Back in the kitchen, they began filling the containers with flowers, placing one or two chocolate cosmos and a stem of lavender in each vase.
“It’s very simple,” Bellomo says, “and while these flowers might not be very eye-catching in a large arrangement, you can really appreciate their beauty in a small vase.”
Lilies underwent a similar treatment: one stem was placed in each glass beaker.
Frog tureens and faux bois planters are layered with flowers, and Spitzmiller explains: “An arrangement needs three elements: a thriller, a filler and a spiller.”
I stuffed the coated chicken wire deep into the tureen to hold the stems in place, then started stuffing in hydrangea, mantle and hosta leaves (I crisscrossed the stems to provide support for the thriller I want to show you above).
On top of that, I added some traditional and unexpected flowers, including pink and white roses, early-flowering dahlias, and vegetable flowers.
Towards the end we had a clematis vine growing out of the container and spilling out onto the table.
Create the final configuration
When all the containers were full, the couple carried them to the dining table.
Arranging flowers on a table is always a process of trial and error, even for the most experienced designers and gardeners.
The frog was placed in the middle. Spitzmiller and Bellomo then experimented with fake flower pots and glass cylinders, leaving enough space between the larger containers so as not to obstruct the view around the table. The vases were scattered around the perimeter.
Spitzmiller stopped when he spotted something on a hosta leaf.
“There are some holes here made by insects, you can tell they’re real, they didn’t come from a wholesaler, they came from this yard,” he said.
He added: “And that’s the point: It doesn’t have to be perfect.”
For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here.
