Floral Decorating Ideas

On these silk pillows, the hazy images and washed azure color lend an antique feeling and visual and tactile softness to any setting.

Families grow like flower gardens -- with lots of time, care, and love. This family tree wall hanging represents that basic biological truth with a variety of subtly colored clip-art blossoms. 

This lovely botanical design gives you a bouquet of creative choices. Don't hesitate to have some fun with the arrangement, moving the flowers around, to make this wall bouquet lovely to look at.

Put a little spring into your solid-toned tablecloths by embellishing them with a bunch of magnet-fitted flowers. Unlike sewn-on accents, the blooms can be changed for each season. And you don't need to limit yourself to table settings: This "arrangement" -- including roses, ranunculus, and mums -- would blossom just as brightly on a cafe curtain in the kitchen or even on a living room lampshade.

These botanical motifs, cut like paper snowflakes, pay tribute to Hawaiian quilts. You can frame a single cutout or an arrangement of them, in one color or in several.

Covering a plain dresser with Victorian botanical prints makes a ho-hum piece the focus of the room.

Bold in stature but subtle in style, easy to make but impressive to look at, this drum-shaped lamp is a study in contrasts.

Flowing jasmine vines, with chartreuse gradations and crisp silhouettes, recall richly painted textiles in this folding screen.

Store-bought cushions spring to life when adorned with pretty, handmade Ultrasuede florets. (Ultrasuede doesn't fray, which means the petals won't need to be hemmed.) Scatter them all over one side, or "flower arrange" just a few in one corner.

A border of pale-green appliques dresses up sheer linen curtains without blocking the sunshine. The botanical motif evokes the foliage inside and out, and the cutouts' positioning can be adjusted to suit any panel size.

Adorned with the graphic silhouettes of thistles, this headboard is part furniture, part work of art.

Two disparate pieces -- a cabinet and a desk -- become one, thanks to the clever use of wallpaper. The sophisticated floral pattern makes a beautiful backdrop for a collection of glasses.

To get this look, adhere a wallpaper panel above the desk and mount the cabinet. Remove the cabinet shelves so you can line the back of the cabinet with wallpaper; be sure to line up the center of the cabinet panel with the center of the wall panel below.

A sweet night-light shade is a beautiful addition to a nursery. It's easy to make by photocopying a design onto flexible vellum, then wrapping the vellum around a shade frame. Make one to match your baby's curtains, bedding, or wallpaper.

We used two handmade floral stencils to decorate the inner edges of the curtains and frame the window. Designing a border, rather than covering the entire panel, achieves a more customized look (and saves time). An accompanying pillow features the same primitive blossoms in a related palette and echoes the still life on the wall.

Swap the utilitarian look of magazine organizers for something more artful. Trace the tall back panel of a magazine holder onto cardboard, and cut out. Using that template as a guide, trace 1 panel for each holder onto a width of decorative wallpaper (floral and geometric prints work best).

These bright and cheerful pillows will add a touch of spring wherever you decide to place them.

Start with a throw pillow that has a removable cover and any variety of silk flowers you like. With a disappearing-ink embroidery pen, mark on the removed cover where you want to position the fabric blooms. Pull silk flower head off the stem, and discard plastic center and any separators. Align the center of a flower head with one of the pen marks. Place a button over the flower head's center; secure the button and bloom to the fabric, stitching through all the layers.

Vintage wallpaper is ideal for enhancing household nooks that are frequently overlooked, such as closets, alcoves, and shelves. The lively patterns are usually available in a limited number of rolls, but you need only a modest amount to make a big statement.

Bring sprightly designs to inexpensive chairs by covering the backs with paper, in either a single bold pattern or several coordinating ones.

A set of chic, colorful place mats will brighten up any dining table. Here's how to make them.

With a nod to chinoiserie furniture, passionflower vines, pressed and sprayed gold, top a Shaker tray table painted a high-gloss royal blue.

Dusty miller, known for its velvety foliage, is small enough to be pressed in a telephone book. When dried, the leaf fronts turn silvery white, while the backs go gray. Both are on view in figure-eight garlands, which flank a doorway in the style of architectural moldings.