At Luscious we simply love flowers. There’s nothing that quite compares to receiving a beautiful bunch of roses from the person you love or coming home to your house smelling incredible from a fresh arrangement…
While it is a wonderful feeling to receive such gifts, sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and test your creative flare. Here are some tips to become your own florist at home.
Create luscious flower arrangements at home
Preparing your own floral arrangements can be a completely calming as well as satisfying experience. Who doesn’t love a compliment on something they have created? Now when your friends come round and witness a beautiful bunch of fresh flowers as your table centrepiece, you can proudly take the credit!
The first steps you need to become your own florist are a good clean working area and a substantial set of industry tools. An artist needs their creative space, so make sure you have plenty of bench and colour inspiration around you.
Flower arranging equipment
We recommend a good pair of floral scissors as your number one tool. These look a great deal like ordinary scissors but are amazing at cutting the base of stems so as not to crush or damage them. Also, a good sharp knife is a great asset to have too for thicker stems and shaping branches.
Say goodbye to prickly thorns and bloody fingers, the one tool we absolutely cannot live without is a thorn stripper. These little tools strip rose thorns and leaves off a stem in one slide! Whoever invented this little tool deserves a medal!
Ever wonder why the flowers look so clean and beautiful in the stores? Well a little trade secret is a product called ‘Floral Leaf Shine’. You can buy it in a spray and it cleans and freshens the look of your flowers. An amazing tool to have if you buy your flowers from a market where they may look a little too rustic…
Make sure that once you have your flowers prepped and cleaned, you have the ideal equipment to put it all together. Green shaping wire and tapes are fantastic (and less obvious) tools to make stems do what you envision.
You should also have a good set of foam floral bases to place in vases and hold the posy in place. These foam bases can be bought in large chunks, are extremely lightweight, adjustable and absorb a huge amount of water– perfect for subtly keeping your stems in perfect position!
Presenting your florist-worthy flower arrangement
Now where to actually put your bouquet? Think laterally. Anything that you can fill with water and has a good shape can be your chic vase. Large urns, old kettles, chic little tea cups…if you can fill it with water, think how different and eye-catching it will be filled with your flowers.
Now you have all the tools, you have to look the part. Time to channel the perfectly primed housewives of the 1950s. We adore the cute apron creations from Jessie Steele.
Remember Charlotte’s gorgeous cupcake apron from SATC? Well there are far more to choose from and all just as deliciously adorable! Our pick? The Dotted Parlor Floral Courtney Apron, rose, corsage, cute little frill. So deliciously luscious.
We adore floral photos (perhaps you have seen a photo album or two on our Facebook page?), so we believe that some of the best inspiration for creating floral masterpieces is a book of inspiring photos. Whether it be photos of gorgeous country gardens, or wedding bouquets, these images help to give you ideas about colour combinations and complimentary flowers.
For excellent tips on arranging flowers and determining your bouquet style, we love ‘Simply Elegant Flowers With Michael George’, and for easy inspiration? Our own Luscious photo galleries of course!
Here are some floral-related galleries to get you started:
- Flowers: Romance and whimsy
- Flowers: Mixing it up
- Pink and purple flowers
- Luscious flowers
- Flower shops
- Elegant white flowers
- Orange flower lusciousness
- Flowers in tin cans and glass jars
- Yellow flowers
- Peonies and roses
- Flowers from our Mt Martha garden
- Red roses
- Magnolias
- Blossom
- Vibrant flowers
- Floral fancy
- Vases
Let these images inspire you and take you to another place. Take you time with your creations, enjoy the experience of flexing your creative muscle and allow yourself to think laterally. A beautiful creation is literally at your fingertips.
More floral lusciousness on our LUSCIOUS FLOWERS board on Pinterest, or simply follow all our Luscious boards.
Cheers, Natasha
www.myLusciousLife.com
