Swoon Interiors

interiors that make your heart skip a beat.

Sometimes it’s the little things …

When you look at the beautiful homes or rooms in design magazines, there is one thing that almost all of them have in common … whether it’s a kitchen or a bedroom, modern or traditional … do you know what I’m talking about?
Elegant Homes

Elle Decor
It’s that perfectly placed vase of flowers.
 

More often than not, it’s a big, puffy ball of a single variety of blooms. 

While, obviously, the rooms themselves are wonderful eye-candy … there’s a reason why stylists always add the flowers.  They just bring life (literally and figuratively) to the room. 
I’m a big believer that flowers should not just be for special occasions or when company is coming over.  Anyone can get that “magazine-styled” look so easily. If you notice, none of the flowers I’ve featured here are perfectly “arranged” or look like they came from a florist.  A vase and a big bunch of the same kind of flower and voila …. anyone can make any of these arrangements.
Pick up flowers at the grocery store, Trader Joe’s, your backyard.  It’s like jewelry for your room …. or a great pair of shoes, or a spritz of perfume.  It’s those little things we add on to an outfit or a room that just pulls everything together and makes you feel good.
House Beautiful

I have a few favorite go-to vases that are perfect for that big-puffy-ball-of-flowers look.  The one below I bought recently on Hautelook for $15.  I love the smokey blue-gray color, the texture and it’s worn rustic look.  Unfortunately when it arrived, one of the handles was broken off.  I called to see if they could replace it but there were all sold out.  So they refunded my $15 AND gave me a $15 credit. So somehow I actually made money on this vase!?! I got out my super-glue and was able to put the handle back on. Since the vase has some imperfections anyway, it looks fine. Hydrangeas from Trader Joe’s complete the look. 

Just a little something that makes me swoon ….

So that’s what they’re called …

As I was writing my post earlier this week, An Easy Idea with High Impact, I couldn’t find the word I was looking for to describe the large bottles.
Then today I saw this article on Houzz: Flea Market Finds: Demijohns Around the Home . Demijohns! That’s it!
The subtitle goes on to read “Once Purely Functional, Now Decorative, These Bottles are Worth the Hunt.” I agree, don’t you?
Old World Custom Home contemporary dining room
It’s an interesting history of the bottles along with more pretty ideas on how to use them and group them. They date back hundreds of years and were originally used to transport everything from wine to molasses.
In addition the inexpensive ones I found, I still love the one I mentioned in my post on vintage finds.
And then, as fate would have it … yesterday I found these lamps.  I guess you could call kinda call them demijohn lamps …

I love that they are two different sizes. It’s a departure from the symmetrical look of buffet lamps … and I always like the unexpected! Plus I love to display actual serving pieces on a buffet .. and while you obviously wouldn’t put anything in these bottles, I like that they are an ode to the historic demijohns that might have graced an elegant buffet table long ago.

Have you found any demijohns for your spring branches yet?

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?