How to make a beautiful floral arrangement or centerpiece for home, parties, or weddings. Easy DIY flower arrangement using grocery store flowers.
I have always loved having fresh flowers in the entrance of our home or in the kitchen. They add such fresh, beautiful life to any space, and just make me happy. I've always just grabbed a bunch of flowers from Trader Joe's, taken them out of the plastic sleeve, chopped them to the same length, and plopped them into a vase. Ta daaaaa!!! The flowers would immediately fall to the outer edges of the vase and look a little sparse and naked.
Until last Christmas when I made a "real" arrangement. It was so much fun to create and I loved how it turned out. I used Oasis floral foam to anchor the stems. But then I went back to my old "plop and go" method. Until last week when I attended a benefit flower arranging class hosted by one of my favorite stores, Coast 2 Coast Collection and lovely local florist, Rachael. I suddenly remembered how easy and fun it is to play with flowers. Instead of using Oasis, we used an even easier method, that most people probably have the supplies for at home already.
I gave my floral centerpiece to my mom for Mother's Day, but had so much fun, that I made another yesterday. This time I used sunflowers, white peonies, and a Eden rose from my garden. There's no need to spend a fortune at the florist, you can easily make beautiful arrangements with flowers picked up at the grocery store. All of the flowers you see in this post were from Trader Joe's and greenery from my yard. There are just a few tips to keep in mind, and then you can let your creativity loose.
As you can see I had my mini me assistant helping me. And I realized that flower arranging is a fantastic craft project for little ones to help with. From the foraging for greenery to flower placement, creating our flower arrangement was a fun project for both of us.
Flower Arranging Tips
ADD GREENERY-
Look through your backyard and snip any branches and vines you like. Those unruly vines look perfectly romantic with floral centerpieces. My favorites are olive and eucalyptus branches, which are abundant where we live.
LOOK AT YOUR ARRANGEMENT LIKE ART
In drawing, painting, and photography, you want the eye to move through the piece of artwork. I like to create that same movement in a flower centerpiece.
PICK A COLOR SCHEME
Group two or three colors together, rather than going wild with every color you can find.
THERE'S NO RIGHT OR WRONG WAY
If you make enough flower arrangements, you'll find you have a unique style. "Perfect" arrangements are boring - let your's get a little and organic. And most importantly, have fun!
Floral Centerpiece
Published 05/13/2016
How to make a flower arrangement centerpiece
Ingredients
- 1 vase (I like a large compote dish/pedestal bowl)
- tape
- Vines or branches from your yard, walking path, etc.
- 2 or 3 bunches of grocery store flowers (1 type of flower each, not an arrangement)
Instructions
- Fill vase 2/3 of the way with room temperature water. Create a tic-tac-toe pattern over the top of the vase with tape. This will hold your stems in place.
- Cutting and placing one stem at a time, create the overall shape of your arrangement with the greenery.
- Place your larger, bulkier flowers into the vase. Then arrange the thinner flowers to give dimension and hight. Use the flowers to fill in any gaps. You want your arrangement to look nice and full. Enjoy your masterpiece!