Garden Style Decorating

What is garden style? Garden style is making cozy and comfortable living spaces by bringing the outdoors in and the indoors out with plants, flowers, textured and garden-inspired accessories. Regardless of your taste in decor, garden style can be infused with any of them. And the best part is you do not have to be the best gardener to achieve the look.

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Think Cozy and Comfortable Living Spaces

To start, garden style is an approachable, easy-going style that fosters the feeling of kicking back and relaxing. If living spaces look good but are not comfortable, who wants to hang there? Not me!

To give an example, when we refreshed our deck two years ago, we created an outdoor dining space that literally feels like we are in a country club. We found a huge gazebo that covers a large part of our deck from Lowe’s. I found a large wood table from the Facebook Marketplace for $50 that I refinished with deck stain so it could weather the elements. For seating, we chose outdoor wicker from Pier1 and cozy cushions. To top off the area, I add lots of container gardens as well as my houseplants. The space is so relaxing, we spend so much time out there and call it the summer vortex!!! All we need is a pool – sadly we lack the impervious coverage to do it…but I digress.

Adding Houseplants and Fresh Cut Flowers

I love to add houseplants to my decor because they warm up spaces and do double duty both inside and outside when the temps are warm. Not to mention, there are so many benefits to having real houseplants that include:

• providing cleaner air
• lowering the risk for illnesses
• boosting our mood
• enhancing concentration and memory
• warming up living spaces

The great thing about houseplants is that they love to summer outdoors like we do! I bring my houseplants outside all the time and they lend a tropical feel to my deck every summer. I have a philodendrum that has grown like crazy outside. When I first purchased it two years ago, it was small with five leaves. I could carry it in the palm of my hand. But now, it is huge! The moment I bring it outside onto the deck, we feel like we are in the tropics. It is fantastic!

For houseplant care tips, see Easy Houseplant Care Tips.

I also love to pick up and incorporate fresh cut seasonal flowers from the market. Fresh flowers liven up any decor and boost the mood. During cold winter months, I rarely make it through the market without picking up at least one bunch of fresh cut flowers.

Adding Faux Plants and Flowers

While I am an avid gardener who loves plants and flowers, I also understand my limits, my time and how I live my life. As I’ve stated before, I gravitate to plants and flowers that look great and are low maintenance. But sometimes, I do not want to be bothered with the care and maintenance of any plant at all, so I go with faux!

When I tell my horticultural friends that I incorporated faux plants or flowers into an area, they tend to gasp with questions as to why I would do that when I can easily use the real deal. To some extent, they are right – I can! But, as much as I love real plants, sometimes live plants and flowers do not work in certain spaces for me. If you want the look of greens and florals but lack the experience, time or energy to care for the real stuff…by all means, incorporate faux.

The key to incorporating faux plants and flowers is to choose ones that look very real. The colors, textures and feel should resemble and mimic real plants and flowers. If the colors are off and don’t look authentic, it won’t work. Believe me – there are a lot of good faux’s out there – you just have to find them. I have found great ones at some local nurseries, but also Homegoods, Marshalls, TJMaxx, and Target. Before purchasing anything, seek inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram and try to mimic what you like.

I mix both real and faux with my decor and most people cannot tell the difference. Another benefit of mixing in some faux plants among my real houseplants, is when I do bring those houseplants outside, my inside is still pretty green.

Adding Faux Plants to Outside Spaces

Most people think faux can only be used indoors, but I use them equally outside. For example, outdoor window boxes…I have tried over and over to keep them watered. When we had our old ranch, I had window boxes on the south side of our home which gets a lot of sun, particularly in summer. They would look awesome in the spring, awesome in the fall but would fry out during the hot, humid New Jersey summers. Since I did not have time to water them 3x a day and I did not want to spend a ton of money on self-watering planters, I preferred to go with faux!

Just this year, I used faux flowers in the front window box at our Vermont house because I knew we would not get up there enough to water it but wanted flowers there and they looked great! And let me tell you…if you pick good faux flowers, even those with the best trained eye can’t tell the difference from a distance.

Another reason for using a faux arrangement outdoors is convenience. We created an outdoor oasis under a huge canopy with a wood table, comfortable wicker chairs and lots of real plants. The table needed a centerpiece. While I water all of my containers around this table daily, I did not want the hassle of watering a centerpiece on a wood table that I am protecting under a large canopy. Instead, I opted for very realistic looking succulents. The arrangement always looks good, NEVER needs to be watered and I get compliments on it all the time. And I think most, if not all were very surprised my centerpiece was faux.

If you want the garden style look outdoors but do not want to tend to tons of containers and gardens, I encourage you to mix some realistic faux plants to help you achieve the look.

Adding Faux Plants to Indoor Spaces

I love houseplants but I too am not the best at caring for them all the time. I choose easy care plants such as spider plant, snake plant, christmas cactus, peace lily, pothos, philodendrum, and succulents. There are lots of others, but this is my short list. In addition to my real plants, I tuck in faux plants throughout my house. Mixing good faux plants with real ones is a great way to achieve the garden style look.

For example, I wanted to soften my fireplace mantle with greens but we use our fireplace so much in the winter, plants dry out too easily there. I found some great faux’s that soften the lines of the mantle and tv above it. In addition, I also like to tuck greens on shelves or on top of cabinets and furniture but am terrible at watering anything there, so I go with faux!

Adding Garden Inspired Accessories

In addition to plants and flowers, add some plant urns, metal buckets and terra cotta pots together with other natural, textured accessories like baskets, totes, throw pillows and knit blankets. I also like to find plant stands that can double as end tables.

In addition to garden accessories, add garden art such as floral and green pictures, canvases, and prints like the two I picked up from the sweetest ladies at Cloth + Cabin.

Final Thoughts on Garden Style

We don’t have to be the best gardeners or interior decorators to warm up our spaces with garden style. Whether you incorporate real, faux or both, garden style is easily achievable and compliments any style of decor.

Thank you so much for following along! Feel free to reach out with any questions, ideas or comments here or find me, @bricksnblooms, on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram! Today is going to be a great day and I hope you enjoy it! xo