Flowers Chic and Cheap: Arrangements with Flowers from the Market or Backyard

FLOWERS ARE LIKE WATER: YOU NEED THEM EVERY DAY

 
Forget about fussy bouquets and ornate vases. All you need are a few blooms from your grocery store or farmers’ market, a simple container—perhaps one found at a garage sale or in your recycling bin or kitchen cabinet—and a touch of whimsy to pull it all together. 

 
In Flowers Chic and Cheap, Elle Decor editor at large Carlos Mota shows how unexpected elements can make a style statement. For example, fill a vintage teapot with pink peonies and set it next to your bed; gather some ferns and an orange poppy in a colorful gift bag and call it a centerpiece; dress any entryway by loading a soup tureen with lemons and a few dusted-off leaves (picked from the backyard, of course).

 
Inside, Carlos reveals his trademark secrets for teasing the most out of flowers’ color, height, and texture, such as:

 Unusual combinations make the most interesting arrangements (think posh English garden roses paired with inexpensive pom-poms). Two dozen cheap roses are perfect for a graceful bouquet when the stems are cut short, arranged tightly, and peppered with mint stems. Short- and long-stemmed flowers placed in bud vases on a cake stand are always easy and elegant. 
 
Carlos also shares his tips for treasure hunting for vessels found in the most ordinary places. To him, a salsa jar is a vase for a dinner of Mexican take-out. Reused paint cans stuffed with any bouquet are one of the best wide-mouth vases around.

 
With short lists of what you’ll need and clear instructions for what to do, plus more than two hundred gorgeous color photographs by celebrated photographer William Waldron, Flowers Chic and Cheap gives you all the practical information—and inspiration—for sprucing up your place without making a fuss.

 

 

 

CARLOS MOTA is editor at large at Elle Decor and has styled and produced feature stories for Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, New York magazine, Travel+Leisure, and O, The Oprah Magazine.
 
WILLIAM WALDRON photographs portraits and interiors for Elle Decor, InStyle, Harpers Bazaar, British Vogue, and other magazines, as well as for commercial clients.
 
RITA KONIG, a style writer and interior designer, has been a columnist at Domino, British Vogue, and the Telegraph. The author of Domestic Bliss and Rita’s Culinary Trickery, she lives in New York and writes for “The Moment” on nytimes.com.