Spring has sprung. Bring in the florals

The days are getting longer and the trees are in blossom. Spring is the point in the year when people start thinking about the house again, because the light coming into it has changed.

Bringing the outside in is one of the things interior and garden designers use to make a small home feel larger. Florals are the easiest version of it.

This sense of nature entering the home can be used, and is being used a lot, with floral prints and patterns being a big interior trend. Gone are the days when florals read as dated. Instead they are brightening up spaces and making rooms statement areas in the home.

Floral patterns can be used in many different ways, but one of the main and most popular at the moment, is through wallpaper. If you are going to use florals, commit to them. If you use it just a little and very sparingly in a room, especially if the printed florals are very small, it can look quite dated and as if not much thought was put into it.

Florals act very well as an accent, and the print should be showcased. Use the colours in the printed wallpaper in other areas of the room. That creates flow and makes the room read as one space. Think of a room as a painting. You want the eye to move around the canvas without snagging on something that does not belong.

Almost any tone works. Dark floral prints are striking in entertaining rooms and bedrooms, and under warm lighting they read as rich rather than heavy. Lighter florals do the opposite and freshen a room. A traditional yellow ground is the easy version. A traditional dark ground, done well, is the livelier one.

If you are going for a floral piece of art, whether abstract or realistic, I believe it looks better when the size of it is very big and oversized. Having a small print on the wall can look as if it was just placed there. If you have several small prints, hang them together as a gallery wall.

Floral prints also look beautiful on cushions and decorative items, but what I would say is carry on incorporating the colours in the cushions, in other things around the room creating that cohesive feeling.

If you want help with an interior, tell us about the rooms and one of our in-house interior designers will come back to you.

Call 020 7731 6841.