I don’t know about you but I need some magic right now. It’s that kind of magic that we can use as a reminder that the world may be chaotic, dark, aggressive, unsafe, but that there’s beauty too when we care to look closely enough. Enter flower power.
There are two reasons why I am writing this post. The first is this story about French artist Nathalie Lete.
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When French artist Nathalie Lete bought her country home—which is just an hour away from her apartment in Paris—two years ago, she decided to fill her studio with flowers. Specifically, ones that she painted on the walls. Each weekend, she would work slowly, adding in details to make the room feel truly special. She intended to keep her wall art to this one space—her husband, a fellow artist, didn’t exactly want to live in one of her paintings—but once their country entered a lockdown in March, all that changed.
Read the full story here in Domino.
The second reason why I am writing this is because I love flowers! Living in Amsterdam (the flower capital of the world) for 15 years was such a treat because I could have a home filled with freshly-cut flowers from the market every week. They didn’t cost much. Here in the Philippines, the cost of flowers are prohibitive, which is why I asked artist Aman Santos to paint me an imaginary forest scene full of flowers. In it are the Three Graces—Aglaea (personifying Radiance), Euphrosyne (Joy), and Thalia (Flowering). Everyone needs these Graces, and more, in our lives during this time of Covid.
The Power of Painted Flowers on Your Wall
If you produce nectar, the drink of the gods, you must be a powerful creature. And so they are. Flowers produce this sweet, liquid substance to attract the bees, birds and other animals.
Flowers and bees have one of the most “mutualistic relationship” in nature where they benefit from each other. Flowers provide the bees food for their colonies to survive. Bees give flowers the possibility to reproduce and propagate their species.
Take care of bees, people. Take care of flowers.
Having said that, here’s what I mean by flower power.
Wildflower Wonder
Say it soft and sweet with these wildflowers. How would you like to sleep in a serene calm meadow where a slight breeze is blowing and where now and then you hear the buzz of a bee flitting by?
Unless you are an artist like Nathalie Lete, this will be a difficult DIY project. If you’re a muralist and you want to flex your muscles, go for it. But if not and you want this effect, your best bet is to get a wallpaper in a similar pattern.
Surface preparation of your wall is very important before you install the wallpaper. What you have to watch out for is damp. Make sure that your wall is dry and will stay dry.
Here are the steps and the Boysen products that can help you with the wall prep:
- Prime bare surface first with Boysen Flat Latex then putty minor imperfections with Boysen Masonry Putty.
- Then apply a full coat of Boysen Acrylic Emulsion. This coating acts as a barrier against dampness on concrete walls.
Follow the instructions on the use of the products in the links.
Read Paint or Wallpaper? That is the Question.
Busy Beehive
Get a bold pattern for your home office. Now that working from home is the “new normal” for some of us in this time of Covid, get yourself organized and find a space for your go-getter, efficient persona to bloom.
This punchy yellow wall pattern can be achieved using a stencil. The graphic design, unlike the wildflower pattern previously, is much easier to do. Of course, there’s easy and there’s easy. This one is medium on a DIY scale. Although not too complex, the preparation of the stencils and positioning them on the wall may slow you down.
Leafy Minimalism
Not flowers, but I decided to put it here anyway. The neutral colors of the delicate illustration give this space a stillness. The repeating pattern of the leaves brings the kind of order that you find in nature.
Read Improve Your Well-Being with Biophilic Design.
If I had to assess the difficulty of doing this on my DIY-meter, I would say it is an R…for REALLY DIFFICULT. That degree of detail will drive you bonkers, especially if your claim to creativity is putting some crushed M&Ms on your vanilla ice cream.
My suggestion would be to get a print of a similar foliage, hopefully a huge one for more impact. Frame it and hang it on the wall. Then you can echo the colors in the print in your furnishings and furniture. Here’s something you can read for inspiration—Use the Neutral Shades of Nature as Inspiration for Your Home Colors. Move the sliders in the photos in that post so you will see the natural scenery and how the colors are used in interiors.
How do you combine colors in an interior? Borrow the 60-30-10 rule of interior designers to achieve a balanced look in your living space.
Kitchen Comfort
If you’ve got an eat-in kitchen, having this floral wall would be a wonderful way to greet the day. The flower patterns are done in a graphic way that makes this a more modern take on florals. The pretty peonies will make any meal in your kitchen enjoyable, fun, and cozy.
Note how the linear pattern in the flowers is repeated in the chairs. Patterns are repetitive designs that are composed of lines, forms and textures. When you use it with a light hand, patterns create interest and beauty.
Read The 7 Elements of Interior Design.
Hanging out here with family friends for pizza night on a weekend could be a blast. Although hanging out with family friends could be a blast anywhere. Oh, yeah that’s right. It’s Q for quarantine. Next year?
Flower Power
Florals was a trend that recurred in 2018. But who’s to say what style you should have in your home? That’s right…YOU.
Men may reject flower power altogether. They might think having a flower accent wall is an affront to their masculine aesthetics. In this case, you can always use abstract designs so that the blooms are not so blatant. A degree of subtlety can always push the floral agenda forward.
Or you can get away from having a literal or figurative representation of even a whiff of a blossom and just use the colors of your chosen flower in your interiors. Don’t forget the 60-30-10 rule (link above) to guide you.
Are you ready to give your place a new look with a powerful floral punch after the ECQ? Go to a Mix and Match Station near you and get the paint colors you want.
