All Things Green & Vibrant: Bringing Home the Botanical Style
The most loved interior decoration trend this spring is bringing the garden into the house. This delightful interior design trend borrows its name from the book Botanical Style, which was published three years ago. However, the author of the book – famed stylist Selina Lake – has been championing the cause of this lush design movement for a very long time, even before her book hit the stands. While any beautifully planned home has always had a noticeable degree of greenery indoors, the botanical style takes our natural affiliation towards plants a giant step forward. We are talking entire walls covered with florals and greens, converting inner spaces into miniature gardens. How gorgeous does that sound! So grab your cuppa and read on about how you can incorporate this joyful trend into your existing décor. While the options are many, we’ve picked four of our favorites to create the botanical style in your home.
The Dramatic Botanist
The amount of fun you can have creating this botanical style is evident from its name. What you want to do is pick up any one element of nature that you like, for e.g. your favorite flower or plant, and turn up its intensity as far as you can. Imagine a wallpaper with large peonies or roses in reds and oranges set against a dark background of navy or black. Now that is an intense image which is further magnified by matching cushions on a sofa upholstered in slightly lighter shades of green, blue, or red.
Once you’ve selected the wallpaper, put up hanging baskets of ivy or flowering drooper plants in a well-lit corner of the room. Get hold of charcoal or watercolor studies of flowers or leaves and have them framed in warm brown. We need this artwork to be simple and clear; a single subject to a sketch. Add a modern arc lamp with a mixed metallic finish and a dark rug. And there you go! A room with so many naturally occurring shapes comes to life when merged with modern lighting and real plants. Enjoy your dramatic garden room at its vibrant best.
The Industrial Botanist
The last few decades have witnessed the rise of the industrial-theme of interiors defined by exposed brickwork, crude pipes, and raw wooden furniture. This is a great canvas to build a factory style botanical space. But, how do you pull off this beauty and the beast routine, you ask? Read on.
First, bring in a lot of potted plants in all sizes. We need flowering plants, succulents, green leafy tall ones like palms and dracaenas, bamboos and also a large tree, if possible. Make heterogenous clusters around your space and let them sit in silent contemplation against the rugged walls and worn out looking furniture. Bring in an old bench type seating into this space and do it up in lush shades of green and orange velvets with a few navy cushions thrown in for relief. Finally, put down a rough rug in earthy browns and beiges. After all this effort, what you get is a rather peaceful color palette of warm rusts and browns from the old walls and furniture and cool variegated greens from the plants. Vintage and luxurious, your very own den comes straight out of the secret garden and into your home!
The Tropical Botanist
If holding back is not really our style, we suggest you go all out and let all things botanical rain down on you. As the name suggests, your aim here is to recreate a tropical forest under your roof. Don’t worry, it isn’t real and it definitely doesn’t require rain. All you need to do is go out and collect all the possible floral and leafy prints you can get your hands on. Wallpapers with large leafy prints like the Swiss cheese plant or the banana plant have the ability to instantly transform a space because of the sheer size of the motif. Now, add to this smaller prints of just leaves or flowers on cushions tossed onto a green sofa, along with a potted plant or two holding different varieties of bamboo. And should you have deep brown or grey wood flooring, all the better! The final result will be an instant tropical garden paradise with all the comforts that your soul could wish for, along with seven stars for the perfect jungle glamour.
The Minimalist Botanist
On our path to going botanical crazy, we thought it best to begin with the easiest style. As you already understand, minimalism is about celebrating the true nature of a central theme without distractions of unrelated elements. In the botanical style, the aim is to recreate naturally occurring exteriors indoors and you would typically start by identifying a space where you can have an earthy color palette, like dusky pinks, browns, beiges, and taupes. These colors lend themselves beautifully to the design style. Now bring in a couple of botanical inspired elements to complete the look. Let’s say you have a beautiful room with large bay windows. Get the seating done in pastels shades of brown or pink. Now add a lush carpet which has a larger-than-life print of tropical leaves or flowers it. Conversely, you could also do up your sofa in bright leafy or floral motifs and throw in a couple of cushions in neutrals, while the walls and floors retain simple textures in neutral solids. Complete the look with a tall Dragon Tree in a simple pot and that’s it, you are done! Stand back and enjoy minimalistic bliss!
So you see dear readers, the botanical style is rich and intoxicating. Think verdant, look around in nature for inspiration, and you will have an idea-packed adventure as you go botanical style. May your heart and purse strings aid you in your design decisions. Cheerio!
Picture Credits: Klikk.no, Interior Remodel, Chairishco, Deardesigner