Home is …. where we can kick off our shoes and relax. It’s the private nest we love coming back to, where we can close the door after a busy day. It’s where we share meals and moments and where memories are created - on our terms.
We all have different tastes, dreams and goals when it comes to how we want to live, where we want to live, and who we want to share our lives with. And that’s a good thing!
What makes you ‘you’ is unique and what makes you feel at home is equally unique. Your place should reflect that. It should be in harmony with who you are, your lifestyle and your needs.
“Decorating is like music. Harmony is what we consistently strive for.
At home, we want a peaceful atmosphere, where the objects are the notes and nothing is off-key.”
- Charlotte Moss, Interior Designer
So how do we create a place that can lift our spirits, that wraps itself around us like a soft blanket? What is it that turns a place with four walls into a home?
As with so many things in life, it’s the little things and the thoughtful extra touches that can make all the difference. And that includes bringing nature in. That’s why we’ve gathered some of the loveliest home decor ideas with dried florals and grasses for you here.
Read on if you want to find out how to use dried flowers in home decor to create your private oasis to retreat to.
Photo by Fig & Rosewood on Unsplash
Where is your happy place?
Every year in March, we celebrate the International Day of Happiness. The United Nations declared the pursuit of happiness a human right and a fundamental human goal.
You might say, this seems hardly worth a celebration, that there are more worrying issues confronting us than happiness or a lack of it. Of course, there are; and contentment and opportunities for the quest for joy come in different sizes and shapes for everyone.
But being content can have a huge impact on our mental and physical well-being. In fact, being happy is contagious! Smiles that reach the eyes most often get returned. There are many small things we can do to brighten up not just our but also someone else’s day.
Creating a welcoming and relaxing home with the help of dried flowers and grasses is definitely an achievable rung on your happiness ladder. Better even, a dried floral arrangement will not only look stunning, but it’s also completely fuss-free and will give you good vibes for several years.
Where is your happy place? Where do you feel at home and safe? Where can you relax and unwind? Which space feeds your soul?
Or, what room needs a bit of work to make it your private island and feel harmonious? Here’s some inspiration for your ‘to-do’ list.
“Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, medicine and food for the soul.”
Luther Burbank, American Botanist
Interior trends
We thought understanding the latest interior design trends would make for a good starting point for our floral inspiration. This is not intended to prescribe what your home should look like, but an excellent way to get a feel for what products are readily available to create the look that you want
Here’s what we found: Each interior designer seems to have a slightly different take on trendy colours, textures and forms. This is even more evident when exploring the home decor trends in various Western countries. We are talking about monochromatic purple as the new black, the minimalistic look, neutral and natural tones, or “Sweden meets Jamaica”. It’s all there, and anything goes.
However, the good news is that the natural hues of dried and preserved florals remain a hot trend globally.
The team at Flowers across Australia has created a stunning range of dried floral arrangements in more neutral tones that will add just the right finishing touch to your room. Sprigs of cotton or Red Sticks, Ming Fern, and Emu Feather Fern will complement a neutral ambience with grace, and add warmth and interest.
Another common thread we found is a greater desire to bring the outdoors and nature inside, a focus on natural and sustainable fabrics and materials, the need for intimate spaces, and an increased emphasis on recyclable materials.
Our dried floral arrangements tick all those boxes!
Dried bouquets - DIY or made to order?
Decisions, decisions, decisions! Whilst Flowers Across Australia already has a wonderful range of hand-made, beautifully crafted bouquets ready to wow you, getting creative with dried blooms is also super easy.
Made to order
Readily available and made to order bouquets is the fuss-free way to add instant boho-chic to your space or complement your existing colour scheme. Our team has created timeless arrangements with Australian native grasses and flowers for the ultimate natural look.
Inspiration: Are you looking for a housewarming present with personality? Why not gift a dried flower bouquet or present an FAA gift card? A potted plant can easily be forgotten in the chaos of shifting, and fresh flowers are typically destined for the rubbish bin within a week or two.
A professionally dried flower bouquet will create happy vibes for two years with a little bit of TLC!
DIY
Do you just need a couple of sprigs to add the finishing touches to your interior or an existing floral arrangement? Then the dried flower bar is where it’s happening.
This is the place where you’ll find all the ingredients to let your creativity run wild. So whether it’s a bold statement with one or two lotus pods or whether you’re looking for a pop of colour to your bouquet, choose your favourite dried blooms and grasses and start concocting!
Inspiration: If you want to get creative, but you’re not quite sure what flowers and grasses will work well and are worried about the final look, the FAA DIY Kits are the perfect solution for you. Choose and pick your favourite arrangement - you know it’ll be a stunner.
Photo by Jasmin Ne on Unsplash
Mix and match
One of the latest trends in event design and home decor is to combine real plants and flowers with dried blooms and grasses.
Floral arrangements
Mixing it up kind of gives you the best of both worlds and lets you achieve a distinctive look.
There is nothing quite like the colour burst of fresh flowers. But of course, they just don’t last that long. And they are seasonal!
Simplicity, keeping it easy, and a natural look remains recurring themes for weddings and events. Using dried flowers in bouquets, flower clouds, or hanging hoops gives you the advantage to prepare and setting them up well in advance. Dried blooms will also add unique subtle hues and an incredible daintiness to arrangements.
Inspiration: Pinterest and Instagram. ‘Nough said!
Mixing it up with houseplants
Mixing dried flowers and houseplants is another trend that has emerged over the last couple of years. Many of us shifted into home office mode, and all indications point towards remote work remaining an option. If this is the case for you, is your home office a fit for purpose and comfortable space? Do you need privacy? A clear border between work and private life?
Mingling dried grasses with a couple of houseplants can make for a fuss-free privacy screen or create a stunning wilderness corner. We are thinking dried palm spears, billy buttons, dried bunny tails and lotus, alongside a small orchid and a couple of larger Fiddle Leaf Fig trees.
Whatever you choose, your green oasis doesn’t have to cost the earth. Adding professionally dried blooms will add interest and is cost-effective. Opting for a variety of pots, plants and blooms will let you change the look of your special corner quite easily, add privacy and volume where it’s needed and a different look when you feel like it.
Inspiration: To be honest, this is more of a practical tip than an inspiration. We recommend keeping very dainty and fluffy dried flowers off the ground. Use them somewhere on dressers, shelves or even hanging baskets, away from curious hands and furry friends! They also won’t do that well in a tight spot where they are more likely to be brushed against or bumped into.
How to style your dried blooms
You can use your dried foliage and florals as a stylish part of your home decor in any room. They can hold their own and create a point of interest just about anywhere! They will be equally eye-catching when complementing a more stylised arrangement.
Think about their size, what vessel you can use to display and what other fave objects you’d like to group them with.
The fact that your dried foliage will not need water - ever - leaves you with a lot of nifty options for vases, pots and other vessels! Think woven baskets, a vintage jug, hessian, tins, or even just arranged with a beautiful ribbon. Containers in concrete, brass and copper, with geometric patterns and strict shapes, are hot right now.
Inspiration: Why not pair dried sprigs with a stack of books underneath or in front of black and white travel photos, art prints or a luxurious mirror to create a focal point or recreate a moment in time?
Photo by Jasmin Ne on Unsplash
Top places and spots for your dried florals
There’s no right or wrong, but let’s look at some of our favourite ways to style dried floral arrangements.
Whether we live in a large place or a small apartment, most of us will have a sideboard or small side table somewhere in our home. Make it an interesting spot rather than use that space as the dumping ground for keys, the mail, or a stack of folded cloth. Play with height and scale, add texture and a pop of colour with a dried floral arrangement, an assortment of elegant glasses and vases, a candle, perhaps. Why not try an asymmetrical look with different shapes and an odd number of objects.
Styling your bedroom dresser or side table with dried flowers has the added benefit that you won’t have to worry about the sometimes overpowering scent or any allergic reactions from fresh blooms. Talking about scent, dried lavender is very popular - not just for its looks but for its many therapeutic benefits. For example, lavender can help with relaxation and finding a good night’s sleep!
Tables and dressers are perhaps the obvious choice to add a floral arrangement to, but don’t forget your walls and shelving in particular! Shelves are not just space savers to make your book collection look tidy. Use them to display your favourite objects and mementos. Soften the look with dainty dried petals in calming hues, or draw the eye to them with a display of bold and sculptural dried proteas or banksias!
There’s also nothing to stop you from adding dried floral earthiness to your bathroom or laundry even. Just remember that dried blooms and humidity are not the best of friends! We recommend using sturdy dried grasses and foliage, rather than dainty petals or dried cotton flowers, for example. Or even a simple vessel filled with a couple of billy buttons can bring a pop of happiness to the space.
Inspiration: We’ve concentrated on creating floral displays on shelves, tables and dressers. But how about weaving sprigs of foliage around your dining table lamp? How about weaving through dried leucadendron, adding Waltzing Matilda vibes with gumtree twigs or going frou-frou with dried leather fern or ostrich feathers? Just make sure you are not creating a fire hazard!
DIY floral decor ideas
The internet is such an ingenious resource! It just about answers any question you ask. It is a massive treasure trove of creative - and sometimes really not so clever - ideas, videos and images to get your creative juices flowing.
So for this article, we’ve not only consulted with the professionals at Flowers Across Australia, but we also had a good rummage around the web. As a result, we’ve selected the following few DIY home decor ideas for their beauty, but also for their simplicity. Ideas to get you started with that you might not have thought of or that maybe is exactly what you were looking for to put the icing on the cake.
We fell in love with this website here for its many useful tips. And who would have thought a flower cloche or dried orange slices could ever look that good!
Remember we talked about adding foliage to a dining room light? Well here is another idea for you. Check this out. They had us at Shabbyfufu!
For an ‘out of vase’ experience, have a look at these beautiful floral arrangements. Although some of them are showcasing fresh flowers, nothing stops you from stealing the idea and creating the look with dried blooms.
And finally, have a look at #driedflowerevents. It’s small but packs a punch. It’s got a bit of everything from wedding flowers and centrepieces to home decor to taking a cake to next level stunning with dried foliage!
Photo by Angela Bailey on Unsplash
The dos and don’ts
There are just a couple of things to be aware and mindful of when styling your dried florals:
- Keep them out of a draft as much as possible. Especially if you have a bouquet with dried petals and more fragile fronds. Try to avoid a spot near the front door, in front of an open window or in a place where you have to move them a lot.
- Dried floral arrangements will keep better in an elevated, out of reach spot. Try and keep them away from little hands, but also from little paws. Make sure they are somewhere where you don’t have to squeeze past them.
- This is especially true for floor displays.
- Try and keep them out of humidity as much as possible.
- They don’t need a lot of TLC, but a bit of light dusting will keep them looking their absolute best!
- Try and keep them out of sunlight to avoid fading.
- If in doubt, you’ll find all the information on how to care for your dried blooms and foliage here.
Final thoughts
Interior design, home decor and dried florals have found each other - aesthetics have become more practical!
We hope we’ve given you a fresh take on dried flowers. What’s your top idea? We would love to see your home decor creations. Share with us your own take on this trend. No idea is too big or too small. Stay in touch!
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