Description:
Nothing adds warmth and vitality to a room as simply as a bouquet of fresh flowers or a floral fabric wall hanging. Quite simply, flowers, in any form, bring a room to life. Floral House, a collection of designs by stylist Julia Bird, presents numerous ways to use floral motifs--whether cut-flower bouquets, floral fabrics, or floral china patterns--as simple decorative accents that can add freshness and spark to any room. The book is cleverly arranged according to five different palettes so that readers can easily find ideas that complement their homes and sense of style. "Fresh and Light," for instance, focuses on pale creams, leaf greens, and sunny yellows--the bright, clear colors of spring--while "Deep and Exotic" presents the bold contrasts of black and white punctuated with inky purples, lively bright pinks, rich deep reds, and dusky violets. Bird has designed lovely rooms--from bedrooms and living rooms to kitchens and home offices--that are at once spare and inviting. She offers practical advice throughout the book with directives to "play with the differences in scale, texture, period and style, and shade when mixing prints of the same color," and to include a few "just for fun" accessories in each room to add humor and personality. Clever touches, such as decorating a dangling light cord by wrapping an artificial orchid around it or clipping a bunch of antique violets from an old hat brim to a plain lamp shade, are sprinkled throughout the book. More than anything else, Floral House shows that simple accents that take precious little time to create can have dramatic impact on the feel of a room. Readers are sure to find many ideas for freshening up their homes in the book's lovely photographs and engaging text. --Robin Donovan
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