Let’s talk flower clouds… or maybe I should say flower installations, as last year was the year for this new trend and they certainly had us swooning. From hanging balls of floral gorgeousness to overhead foliage garlands and pampas grass clouds, it was easy to see why these creations are so popular: they’re super stylish and add the wow factor to any room – who wouldn’t want one?
Flower clouds are given their name as essentially they are flowers that are strung overhead in a cloud formation. Here are a few examples for you:
Stunning aren’t they? Anyway, I was asked to do an ad for Dobbies Garden Centres just before Christmas, and as I was going to be styling up my dining table I thought what better time to try making one myself. How hard could it really be? Well, it turns out, for a basic foliage cloud, not that hard at all. In fact, it was soooo much easier than I thought it would be. Here’s the one that I made in my dining room…
I’ve put together a step-by-step guide for you, incase you want to give it a try. My key tips are, firstly, to make sure you have enough foliage – you need a LOT to make it look really full, but it’s so worth it as it looks and smells amazing. I used a mix of different varieties of eucalyptus, and other greenery – plus some stems that were a red-pink colour for a bit of variety and to add some depth to it. You could even try spray-painting some if you wanted, or adding in some colourful flowers.
Secondly, try and space out your foliage around the cloud, so you don’t have all the same type in one place.
If you have a pendant light, like I have, hanging over your table, you can always shape your chicken wire around them (making sure not to touch) and use other lights while the cloud is up.
Lastly, I didn’t use an oasis to keep the foliage alive, but if you want to, you could wrap one in chicken wire and string it into the centre of your cloud. That way all your stems will go into it and keep watered.
Right, here we go – good luck and let me know how you get on in the comments below!
What you’ll need:
Length of chicken wire (I got a whole roll off of eBay). If you’re hanging bushy foliage, get one that’s got large holes to make sure there’s room to pull it through.
Invisible thread/fishing wire
Cable ties
Hooks x 2 (to hook it to the ceiling)
Wire cutters
Foliage
