When purchasing silk flowers or silk plants from Floral & Hearty, you may also order a decorative planter, pot or vase to keep them in. We offer a wide variety of plant holders, so there’s something to suit everyone’s taste. And when we customize bouquets and arrangements that are personalized to fit your home, office or occasion, we’re happy to help you select the perfect item to frame your new purchase. You can send us photos of the space where you plan to show it off, and we can even make local site visits so that our designers can get a feel for the space and make suggestions.
However, sometimes you might simply order flowers by themselves, perhaps to create your own exquisite silk floral arrangements. In that case, you could consider buying a special container to show off your flowers – or you could even buy a very plain plant holder and decorate it yourself.
First you need to make a decision about the material you’re going to decorate. The base of the plant holder may be made from ceramic, wood, metal or glass. This can affect what kinds of paints and fabrics you should choose for your decorations. With a ceramic or clay pot, you may want to use specialized paints and then bring the finished product to a local art studio with a kiln so that you can re-fire the object. This permanently seals the paints onto the piece and helps preserve the vibrancy of the colors. And not all types of glue work on every kind of surface; specifically purchasing wood glue will help you affix rhinestones and other heavy embellishments to wooden surface.
You also don’t have to go with a classic shape. You can show some personality by straying from the conventional plant box or rounded pot shape. Why not visit your local art or thrift store to find unique items that can really show off your arrangement? You may look at houseware and kitchenware that you already own in a new light. Some of the more creative options might require some work to reconfigure them appropriately, but this will make your handmade planter even more one-of-a-kind.
As always, don’t hesitate to ask us for additional ideas and tips for your creative planter.
Posted in Design Tips | No Comments »
Despite a mild winter so far throughout the United States, it’s a long, long way to spring. Some people might consider April and May the ideal time to order new, custom silk flower arrangements for their homes. That way, it mirrors the season of rebirth and plants coming into bloom. But we humbly suggest an alternative: Ordering a bouquet of silk flowers or a flourishing plant to celebrate the birth of a new year!
The start of January is always full of optimism and opportunity. So why not bring that attitude into your home? This purchase is not only a live-in attitude adjustment. Because silk flora never dies or fades, it will continue to remind you of your fresh outlook – and those dedicated resolutions! – that you captured at the start of January all through the year, giving you that extra boost of motivation you need for 12 months straight.
If redecorating your home is a goal of 2012, you can get started without spending too much or breaking into those big restorative projects by making little adjustments like adding flowers, candles, throw pillows and other accessories to a room. They may be small changes, but they’ll make a big impact on the way you perceive the rooms in which you spend the most time. Getting started on your project right away will also help you stay motivated to keep working on your home, rather than just putting it off until you can work on it all at once.
Plus, it’s a way to bring warmth and life into your home at a time when the flowers are hibernating for many more months. In some places they’re currently even cowering under snow! But no one should be denied the chance to look at lovely flowers even in the deepest recesses of the coldest months.
And it’s not just your home that may need a bit of a lift in the darker, shorter days. You can bring silk flowers into the office for an added pop of color that will help you tolerate the fact that the sun has gone down long before you clock out at 5 p.m. You might find yourself happier and more productive in those later hours with a cheery pick-me-up on your desk or bookshelf.
Contact a friendly Floral & Hearty representative to help you get started with your custom silk floral arrangement to start enjoying it right away for the new year!
Posted in Holiday Gifts | No Comments »
It’s that time of year when your home is filled with house guests – family, friends and co-workers – who share and celebrate the holiday season with you. You prepare for weeks in advance, making sure every dust bunny is removed and every hors d’oeuvre is delicious. But then comes the challenge of accepting comments, even well meaning ones, about the look and feel of your home. One trait of the perfect host or hostess is having a carefully thought, informative reply for every opinion.
One of those challenging moments in home ownership occurs when someone begins discussing or questioning your interior décor decisions and you’re not sure how to respond. This may be the case with first-time silk plant or flower owners, especially when they’ve chosen to display the extremely life-like arrangements from Floral & Hearty.
So what do you do when a guest nicely asks: “Are those beautiful flowers real?”
If you think that your guests are expecting to see fresh flowers in your home, or critiquing your choice, you may experience a kneejerk reaction about your choice to use silk flowers. But there’s no need to assume that your guest is expecting living plants – they may also be looking for lifelike options to use in their own home or genuinely applauding your design choice. The first thing to do is avoid adopting a defensive attitude or assuming the commentator’s intentions. Take a deep breath and look at the comment as a compliment, and then you have an open invitation to talk about how your flowers add color and freshness to the room, including what type of flower or plant you used and why you chose them.
Here are a few additional talking points your guest may be interested to know:
- You can point out that silk flowers last much, much longer than their living counterparts.
- Therefore, it’s more affordable to keep them, as opposed to frequently purchasing new living flowers.
- They also require much less maintenance and care, as they don’t need to be trimmed or watered.
- No guests will feel uncomfortable in your home due to allergies or simply disliking a certain floral scent.
- You can have arrangements customized to your preferences, no matter how exotic – even if two types of flowers you love aren’t traditionally available at the same time of year or in the same region.
Looking to add that finishing touch to your guest-ready home? Want a holiday arrangement that visitors will be talking about for months? Contact Floral & Hearty to get started. We can recommend, personalize and install or ship your perfect item.
Tags: beautiful flowers, interior decor, life-like arrangements, Silk Flowers, silk plant
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Although Floral & Hearty is based in South Florida, with two locations in Coral Springs and Boca Ration, we ship silk flowers and plants nationwide. So if you’re thinking of sending someone one of our items as a holiday gift, we’ve got you covered anywhere in the U.S. Of course, we use utmost precaution when it comes to carefully packaging and shipping your order. And if there’s ever unexpected damage, you can always just let us know and we can repair or replace your mishandled item as soon as possible.
But what if you’re moving and want to know the best way to preserve and pack your silk arrangement. Or perhaps you’re sending it off to a friend because you’re redecorating the house and ready to trade out your previous silk plant display for something new from Floral & Hearty.
Whatever your reason may be for shipping silk flowers on your own, you’ll want to know the best way to do it without damaging the delicate stems and petals or ruining the carrying vessel (planter, vase, etc.). Here’s how:
- The first thing you’ll want to do is be sure your box is close to the size of the item itself. You don’t want a lot of wiggle room for your item to bump around!
- Next, you’ll want to anchor the base very tightly. You can pack it in on all sides with stiff Styrofoam that can be found at any craft store. You want this to be set in the very center of the box rather than one side or a corner.
- Packing peanuts are going to be your friend when it comes to the flower or leaves portion of your item. These can fill in all the extra spaces between individual branches and stems to pad each one and keep them upright. Don’t hesitate to put these in every crevice and pack them in tightly (with just a bit of breathing room so nothing gets cramped).
- You can also stabilize broad leaves and long stems with pipe cleaners or wire – just don’t adhere these too tightly so that they’re hard to remove or actually cause the silk to strain beneath or against them. Since these aren’t supposed to be part of the arrangement, you can tuck a little note into the package to explain how to carefully unload and display it upon its arrival. You can also include helpful tips about how to dust off flowers in case the packing materials have left any residue.
- Don’t forget to mark the box with “Fragile” and “This End Up”!
Looking for extra tips or wondering how you can order silk flowers for a friend to arrive in time for the holidays? Just contact us; we’re happy to offer suggestions and help.
Tags: order silk flowers, pack your silk arrangement, ship silk flowers and plants, shipping silk flowers, silk plant display
Posted in Holiday Gifts | No Comments »
Last week we introduced the concept of applying seasonal color schemes – typically brought up in conversations about buying clothes and wearing makeup – to your home. For example, if you use autumnal colors in your décor and your house is often described as “warm” and “comforting,” you might already be using a fall color scheme. By figuring out how to categorize your home – or just a room you’re trying to decorate – it will help you buy the perfect pieces. It can also help you select the appropriate silk flowers and plants to add the finishing touches that go perfectly with your setting.
This week, we’ll look at spring and summer. These seasons may seem far away from you now, but you can keep the ambiance alive in your home year-round with these tips:
Spring
Spring colors are bright and fresh. Strawberry blondes and those with richer, rather than paler, straw tones fall into this ensemble. Many blues and yellows complement this coloring. There are also shades that only spring schemes can pull off adequately – like peach, salmon and lime. This means your room can be anything but boring! Take advantage by looking for creative silk flowers like coral peonies, lilies and orchids. These should be little pops of flavor around the room, but probably isn’t the main color scheme – for example, you won’t want a salmon-colored couch, but perhaps a graham-cracker type of honey that would look great against the bolder expressions in your silk plants.
Summer
Surprisingly, summer tones are usually described as “icy” or “frosty.” People who have pale skin and blue eyes and blonde hair fall into this category. Rather than yellow or olive undertones to their coloration, these individuals have more pink in the undertones of their natural skin. If your room seems like it matches this description, it means that any kind of pinks will bring the hidden tones out and make a lovely complement – which offers you a wide realm of silk flowers to choose from! Neutrals and beiges often work well, as do any colors that won’t overpower or outshine the pale, delicate surroundings. For example, nurseries may have a pale yellow coloring scheme with blue and pink touches. You’d want silk flowers like lilac, dogwood, baby’s breath and periwinkle.
Ask a Floral & Hearty representative how to pick the right silk plants and flowers to go with your room’s mood. Did you know we also have consultants who can make home visits to help you decide what will go best with your existing décor? Well, we do! Not located near us in South Florida? You can always mail or e-mail us pictures to get started. Contact us today to make an appointment or to learn more.
Tags: autumnal decor colors, creative silk flowers, fall color scheme, Silk Flowers, silk flowers and plants, silk plants, silk plants and flowers, wide realm of silk flowers
Posted in Design Tips, Silk Flowers | No Comments »
You may have heard phrases associated with women’s fashion and makeup about being a “spring” or “summer.” These phrases don’t refer to birthdays or anything to do with the time of year. The four seasons are actually used to describe color families. And it’s not just a woman’s skin tone and hair coloring that can have seasonal coloring – so does your home. You may gravitate toward certain complementary hues that all work within a seasonal color scheme without even knowing it. But learning more about these choices and how they work together – and characterizing the seasonal mood of your home – will help you make faster, smarter choices down the line. And you may even find some new inspiration when you take these factors into consideration.
So with the changing of the seasons, you may be wondering what it means to have “winter” coloring. You may want to select “winterized” home décor if you’re choosing an overall design scheme within a certain palette. But if you do want to choose winter-colored silk flowers just because it’s actually winter – don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone!
Here’s the breakdown, starting with our current seasonal transition:
Autumn
Autumn coloration on a person has to do with warm tones, like golden-hued skin and brunette hair. Much like the season, this person is often associated with colors like glowing and earthy reds, oranges and browns. Warm pinks and subdued yellows may also work. Autumns also commonly look great in metallics and bold, “spicy” alternatives; in the home, this means playing with fun items like picture frames, beads and mirrors. Options for silk flowers and plants include mosses or long-stemmed items, as well as hydrangeas, peonies and tiger lilies – just to name a few.
Winter
Winter coloring is typically associated with dark hair colors and pale skin – but other contrasts, like light hair and olive skin, also create the pop that works with the winter coloration. Winters look good in dark, elegant colors like black, gray and navy. In flowers, this translates to dark, rich purples or burgundies – like the shades of red wine. But this also includes some greens, like the very deep emeralds. You can add items like deep red roses, hyacinths and sweet peas. Remember to stay lush, not bright. These elements will all go together in a room with the same contrast a person would have in their looks – like a room with white walls but rich, dark window dressings, for example.
Check back next week for info about spring and summer color palette selections!
Tags: autumn coloration, home decor, hyacinths, hydrangeas, peonies, red roses, silk flowers and plants, spring and summer color palette, sweet peas, tiger lilies, winter coloring, winter-colored silk flowers
Posted in Silk Flowers | No Comments »
If it’s your first time buying silk plants, you may feel a little overwhelmed. There are a lot of great choices out there, and you want to be sure and make the purchase that’s best for you. Thankfully, Floral & Hearty has plenty of helpful staff – from sellers to designers – that can help you with the more difficult decisions, such as what works with your décor or how to showcase a plant in your home. For example, we might be able to suggest putting your piece up on a shelf as opposed to the floor or adding lighting that can showcase an item’s depth and detail. You may also want to shop on a budget.
Here are a few things to think about when choosing silk plants:
- Size. If you’re buying a pre-made, pre-planted item rather than one of the personalized, custom pieces that Floral & Hearty provides, you should take into account that heights given on a website or in a catalog are typically taken from the base of the pot or vase, rather than the bottom of the plant. This is especially important to know if you’re ordering an item from outside of Boca Raton and Coral Springs, Florida (where our two shops are located). For shipping purposes, feel free to also ask about weight in addition to size. And let is know if there’s anything else you may need to know about receiving your silk plant and situating it inside of your home.
- Appropriateness. Some plants are specific to a certain region due to weather or climate. If you’re looking for a plant that would grow naturally in your area, you may need to do a little research or ask for outside help. This is especially true if you’re looking for an outdoor plant that you’d like to look realistic. It can also make sense if you’re decorating to comply with a theme, such as Southwestern or Asian. Floral & Hearty can help you find the plant that’s appropriate for a specific season, theme or locale.
- Cleaning. Some plants are leafier than others. They may have broad, wide leaves or several tiny spikes. Obviously, a silk plant with fewer pieces to it is going to be easier to clean. Cleaning silk plants is easy to do; usually just a paper towel with warm water or will do the trick whenever dust tries to settle. You can add a drop of gentle hand soap or cleaning spray if it helps to remove buildup. However, if you know that you’re the type of housekeeper who likes to be more hands-off about the upkeep of your décor, than you may prefer to choose silk plants with fewer leaves and parts that are easier to maintain.
Tags: buying silk plants, choose silk plants, choosing silk plants, cleaning silk plants, silk plant
Posted in Money Saving Tips | No Comments »
Last week we discussed using silk flowers for your centerpiece at Thanksgiving. Clearly, you won’t need much additional incentives to stuff yourself on delicious family recipes on Thursday, November 24! But what about the rest of the time? Did you know that restaurant planners actually choose their décor based on what makes people hungry? And they’re not the only ones. When graphic designers come up with logos for food product labels and even grocery store advertisements, they take into account the colors that can actually make consumers crave food. You can use some of these professional tips and tricks in your own home – whether it’s a holiday or not.
One thing that’s interesting to note is that many of the top colors chosen by restaurateurs and chefs are the same ones that are popular right now for celebrating the fall season: reds, yellows, oranges. The top color among these three is red – which is also the color used to inspire love and passion. That makes sense when you think about it! But all three of these appetizing hues can actually elicit hunger thanks to signals in the brain that tie visual cues to your stomach and taste buds.
Other colors that tend to attract eaters’ attention are those that are commonly found in nature and associated with food; for example, green would be preferable over blue when you’re choosing highlights for the floral bouquet in your kitchen window or the silk plant arrangement for your dining room table. Now that we’ve pointed that out, we’re sure you’ll start to pick up on the color choices you see trending at your favorite restaurants!
Another reason that silk flowers are preferred in a food setting is that they don’t come with any natural scent. Floral scents can disrupt the palette and distract eaters from the scent and taste of food on the table. Of course, you can always add a spritz of perfume to silk flowers around the house if you’d like for them to carry a natural scent. But for the kitchen and dining room, it’s best if they’re there to be seen and not smelled.
Tags: Silk Flowers, silk flowers for centerpiece, silk plant arrangement
Posted in Design Tips, Holiday Gifts | No Comments »
Want to really be the hostess with the “most-ess” this Thanksgiving? One of the pivotal ways to stand out to your dinner guests is to have an amazing centerpiece. Maybe you can distract your hungry visitors by providing a lovely piece of art on the table to look at until the turkey gets there. But to truly make an impact, you can’t just run out to Wal-Mart to pick up the same holiday decorations that everyone else will be showing off come November. You need a one-of-a-kind centerpiece that’s customized to reflect your home’s décor (so you can leave it out past the holiday) as well as your family’s personality (like whimsical plants that capture your fun, creative nature).
One way to be unique is to create a centerpiece made entirely of silk flowers. The cornucopia of gourds and nuts and corn is traditional. But flowers can be a livelier, fresher way to decorate your tabletop than using a stagnant collection of fake, inedible food items. You can set up just one large centerpiece with several layers and details. But many people set up several tables when the whole family comes to visit, such as an adult’s table and a kid’s table. You choose to use several smaller bouquets to add bursts of art throughout the room. Your guests can also take these home with them if you’re feeling generous!
You can also incorporate fall leaves into these tabletop artworks, and drape the leaves along the top of the table for extra visual interest. Or you can wind silk flowers and silk leaves together to make a chain or vine that’s hung along the ceiling or in the archways of doors. This will help your overall decorative scheme by bringing the eye from the table’s surface to the height of the room, providing harmony and balance for the entire space.
Floral & Hearty is known for creating custom, hand-made bouquets and arrangements that always make an impression. It’s not too late to order yours in time for the big holiday, so contact us soon to start brainstorming some ideas and get started on your original table centerpiece for Thanksgiving.
Tags: home decor, silk flower centerpiece, silk leaves, Thanksgiving centerpiece
Posted in Holiday Gifts | No Comments »
Naturally, we like to think about flowers as lovely design elements that are beautiful and colorful and vibrant. But what about when you need some interior décor that’s a little less, well, lively? Halloween is your chance to decorate your yard, patio, porch, front door and inner hallways with all kinds of spooky witching-hour elements. And when you’re going for the real spine-tingling, heart-racing fright fest so that you can outdo the neighbors and make those trick-or-treaters think twice when they draw up to your curb, a jack-o-lantern alone isn’t going to cut it. You need the perfect silk flower and plants to tie it all together.
Here are some ideas for the macabre mood you might want for your home this fall:
- Some loose dirt and fresh flowers on your fake graveyard adds that extra ominous just-buried appeal.
- Every corpse bride needs her bouquet and every zombie prom queen needs her corsage; ask us how we can put together the perfectly spooky accessories to set the mood!
- Some flowers are simply just more frightening than others; for example, think about the tone that can be set with venus flytraps, prickly cacti and thorny blood-colored roses.
- Floating flowers bring to mind Ophelia in her pond or Odysseus on his ill-fated voyage; unmoored, the wafting flowers suggest romance but also foreboding.
Color also goes a long way during October’s autumnal festivities. You can do the classic combination of warm, fiery hues of red-orange-yellow like sunset or the fading leaves on the trees. White lilies and carnations are also reminiscent of funerals and will really pop against any standard black-and-orange design elements. Then again, brown “dead” plants and flowers fit in perfectly with the wary what-might-happen vibe of some events. And unnatural black variations always seem a little “off” but can also add a kind of elegance to your evening affairs.
The best thing about silk flowers and plants for your haunted house is that they can be easily stored away each year with the rest of your holiday decorations and then used again and again while upholding their integrity and impact. Floral & Hearty also offers candles, mirrors and plenty of other accoutrement that can set the tone for your happy (but maybe just a little harrowing) Halloween.
Tags: perfect silk flowers, Silk Flowers, silk flowers and plants, silk flowers for Halloween
Posted in Design Tips | No Comments »
|
|
Floral & Hearty Designs, 954.510.9900 • 7601 W. Sample Road, Coral Springs, Florida 33065
Floral & Hearty Designs, 561-367-3284 • 101 Plaza Real South, Ste. B, Boca Raton, FL 33432
©2009 Floral & Hearty Designs, Inc. All Rights Reserved • 954.510.9900 | Designed By Cummings Design Group • 954.202.7342
|
|
