Botanicals get a new look

As design director for HGTV HOME, Nancy Fire explores the hottest product designs to curate collections of stylish furniture, flooring, furnishings and more. Though her style savvy is mostly focused on interior décor, she’s suddenly seeing more outdoor elements making their way onto indoor products.

Fire, who is also founder and creative director of Design Works International in New York City, recently returned from Maison&Objet Paris, the interior design trade fair during Paris Design Week — where she saw floral patterns on nearly everything. We spoke with Fire, who was also a keynote speaker at Cultivate’15, about this flower-focused décor trend, and how garden centers can leverage it.
 

Q. How do flowers inspire current indoor décor trends?

A. We’re seeing artisan techniques used to bring flowers into indoor décor. So we’re seeing a lot of batiks, tie-dyes and florals done in shibori — which is a Japanese cloth-dyeing technique from the 8th century. You get very different patterns with shibori, so your flowers will look imperfect. Anything that looks handmade, anything that has an artisan technique to it, anything that has textures and layers is something we’re seeing a lot.

We’re also seeing a resurgence of very graphic florals coming back, along with large-scaled flowers that are big, bold and over-scaled. It’s a contemporary take on a new type of botanical.

There’s a floral for almost any taste right now because there are so many different styles happening in botanicals. If you like things that are more contemporary and abstract, then you’re into these artisan techniques. People who want something more traditional might go for a retro vintage vibe; it might look like an old chintz flower with updated colors.
 

Q. Besides flowers, how do other plants play into this trend?

A. We’re definitely seeing leaves. Leaves might be repeated to form geometric patterns, or you might have a huge, bold palm leaf done in a bright neon. Just coming back from Europe, I saw a really nice mix of beautiful warm tones being used together — browns, ochres, rusts and corals. It was new and fresh because it wasn’t the expected tones of green leaves.

Also, we’re seeing a lot of succulents on fabrics right now because they have been such a huge trend, both indoors and out. They’re very cool-looking plants that do blossom, so they have beautiful magenta blooms — and a lot of the leaves are outlined in a rosy-red, so they can be very colorful. What’s fun about the succulent is that it’s a new way to look at plants becoming florals.
 

Q. What types of products are these patterns popular on?

A. Oh, it’s on everything — from tissue boxes to handbags to ceramics, to deck pillows and wall hangings, on interior linings of coats and in bedding. It’s very big right now. It’s something you’re definitely going to see in every type of product possible.
 

Q. How can garden centers apply this trend to their products?

A. In garden centers today, I’m seeing florals on garden gloves, garden boots, kneeling pads, garden carts and gazing balls. I’m seeing florals on everything, honestly. There are flower pots with flower prints. There are so many ways to incorporate that motif, whether it’s a placement print or an all-over print.

Also, in garden centers, there are so many tools attracting women with more feminine colors, which is interesting. I see drills now in hot pink. I’m seeing power tools, whether it’s a power washer or a reciprocating saw — just like we’re doing camouflage for the guys, we’re doing feminine patterns for the girls.

Many garden centers today [are] gift stores, too. I went into one in Long Island and found a set of coasters. The packaging on the outside was a floral and when you opened it up, all six coasters had beautiful botanicals. I’m seeing florals in so many ways in garden centers; it’s really endless. There’s stationery, placemats, table runners. Just because you’re a garden center doesn’t mean you can’t bring the indoor home into the garden center.
 

Q. How have recent gardening trends influenced current design trends?

A. Vertical gardening has really opened up the doors to looking at florals in a different way. When you have a vertical garden, you start to look at it as a wall hanging, so for a lot of people, florals are becoming more like wall art. That’s a great trend for garden centers to capture.

A good correlation to that is what you see with rugs today: half of them are being used as wall hangings. Not only is a rug a rug; it’s now also a wall hanging, which is pretty cool. There are beautiful rugs now, both woven and printed with florals.
 

Q. Why are floral and botanical patterns so trendy right now?

A. I think the reason is that everyone is seeking beauty and going back to what’s important. What’s important to people today is the great outdoors. You think of peace and tranquility when you think of the great outdoors, and then you think of different ways to extend that peace and tranquility to your home.

If you live in a region where it’s cold in the wintertime, you’re not going to sit outdoors all year. How do you bring that lightness into your house? The only way to have the feeling of being outdoors is to bring those elements in. You turn around and see a beautiful deck pillow with a colorful flower on it, and it makes you happy. It’s a fantastic way to bring the outdoors indoors, but 24/7.

Brooke is a freelance writer living in Cleveland and a frequent contributor to Garden Center.