Swoon Interiors

interiors that make your heart skip a beat.

Spring Inspiration

Who out there isn’t super excited to see things start blooming outside?  Even the grocery stores and flower shops are filled with new and luscious varieties of flowers that just make my heart sing. Having cheerful blooms around the house is my favorite springtime accessory … what about you?

I recently discovered the website of Amy Merrick, a florist and stylist in Brooklyn, New York. Let me just say, I would have LOVED to have this woman do the flowers at my wedding! Even now, I would kill for her floral styling for some upcoming client photo shoots.

 Her work is gorgeous, but in an unfussy, just plucked from the countryside kind of way …

I love the idea of fresh blooms in a teapot … perfect for a kitchen island or windowsill.

Don’t you just LOVE the saturated color in this arrangement? It would be amazing in an otherwise neutral room.

This one is just perfect in a yummy kind of way …
 
 
 
Even an assembly of wild greens makes a statement.

I know succulents are kind of trendy right now … but they really are so pretty gathered together like this in a shallow dish.

Wouldn’t you love to have her style your next dinner party?

 

 
 In my living-in-New-York-City fantasy, I would have definitely visited her here … 
You know …. I would have just walked there from my Tribeca loft … after having lunch with Nate Berkus, of course.
 
I would love to see how she puts together these sweet little creations.
 
 
In the meantime, I’m just waiting for things to bloom in my own yard so I can experiment with some haphazard bouquets.  The flowers on my Viburnum bush are getting close … they first bloom in a vivid lime green color and then quickly turn into to fluffy white snowballs. They only bloom for a few weeks but when they do, I try to bring some inside and enjoy their heavenly scent.
 

 
both photos via Centsational Girl.
What flowers do you like to fill your home with?
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How will you set your Christmas table?

Are you hosting a meal for the holidays? I love setting the table for Christmas. It just seems like the perfect occasion to go all out. I love the deep rich traditional holiday colors, and it’s the perfect time to bring in pretty metallics like silver and/or gold.

I pulled out a few pictures of my table from Christmas Eve last year to share.  Because we do a multi-course traditional Czech Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve with my husband’s side of the the family, I usually set the table in our kitchen, along with another kid’s table because it is our biggest open space where everyone can sit together and there is a lot of going back and forth with different kinds of soups and traditional foods for each course.

My centerpieces were surprisingly easy to pull together … just some fresh pine boughs, a red rose, an amaryllis and a little gold ornament cluster tied together and placed in those square glass vases we all tend have several of. Then I added a few pomegranates and artichokes I bought at the grocery story and a few dried berries and nuts I had purchased at Crate and Barrel.
Add in some sparkly, votives, some berry napkin rings, some placards I printed out with a fun font and a favorite tablecloth … and there you have it.

Regardless of how you set your holiday table, I hope it is filled with people you love and foods that make you smile. Enjoy!

An easy idea with high impact …

If you read a lot of shelter magazines like I do, maybe you’ve noticed what seems to be a staple in many beautifully styled homes …

Ellen Pompeo’s house via Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

via Style at Home

via Katie Denham Interiors

via Chicago Home + Garden

Branches … and bottles, or even just a simple glass vase.  The larger the better.  I love this idea because it can be so dramatic, yet so easy and inexpensive. (Those three words don’t often go together, right?)
In the warmer months, you can just snip something from your garden, but for now I turn to my local florist. For the past couple weeks she has carried beautiful golden forsythia and white cherry blossom branches … a sure sign of spring! I couldn’t resist the cherry blossom.
It’s a great idea for a place where you need something BIG: a fireplace hearth, a dining room buffet, a corner that feels empty …
Of course, you need a large bottle or vase too.  I found the large bottle above at Hobby Lobby for only $20. And the vase above and the green bottle below came from HomeGoods. $10 each!
I love the imperfect, hand-blow look of this green one.  And by adding just a few simple branches of almost anything, I’ve got an instant arrangement.
Once you invest in the bottles or vases, you can create these dramatic centerpieces for only a few dollars, and they last for weeks … if not longer.

Ironically, as I was writing this post, I got an email from Horchow with this picture in it:

Their bottles cost a little more than I spent for mine, but still, not too bad.
Definitely something to keep an eye out for as you shop. And at this time of year, when the branches are still bare outside, it’s nice to have some that are full of color and life inside, don’t you think?