Flower room ideas – 8 dreamy spaces that will inspire you to create a sanctuary for creativity to bloom

Flower rooms are the ultimate creative space for anyone who loves to have fresh flowers around the home. Increasingly popular in large country houses, particularly those with cutting gardens, flower rooms offer dedicated spaces to indulge in the art of floristry, offering all you need to transform freshly cut flowers from the garden into beautiful bouquets.

Of course, having a room devoted solely to the purpose of flower arranging is undoubtedly a luxury. However, if you are a budding florist but don't have much space, then flower arranging areas can easily be incorporated into other small rooms such as mudrooms, butler's pantries or utility rooms.

With summer just around the corner and gardens fast approaching their floriferous peak, we’ve gathered an array of beautiful flower room projects to get you inspired. Whether you’re a flower grower or simply fancy a daydream, these spaces are guaranteed to delight.

What is a flower room?

Flower rooms are spaces within the home dedicated to conditioning and arranging flowers. Just as you’d expect in a florist's workshop, key features of flower rooms include large deep sinks essential for filling buckets, practical workspace for arranging, as well as ample storage space for vases and hooks for wires, twine and tools. Similar to mudrooms and utility rooms, they are usually accessed from the garden, so practical hard flooring is a must.

‘A flower room can be a wonderful luxury but also, perhaps, an essential for a country property with a substantial garden where it could be described as a gardener's room. In any case, the requirements are a workspace to lay out flowers or seedlings, drawers and pegs for tools, wires and ribbons. A sink is essential, of course, and cupboards for jugs and vases,' says Merlin Wright, design director at Plain English.

'In this Suffolk flower room, we've added a rack for paperwork and seed catalogues, the floor is scrubbable flagstones and a glazed door gives inspiring (or daunting) views over the garden.'

With more of us discovering the wellness benefits of gardening and mindful activities like floristry, it's not a wonder we're seeing more and more flower rooms crop up, be they dedicated spaces or incorporated into multi-functional spaces.

'Craft is seeing a wonderful comeback. One of our current clients has allocated one of the largest rooms in the house to be a place to do pottery, woodwork, knitting, flower arranging and weaving,' says Emma Sims-Hilditch, creative director and founder at Sims Hilditch.

If you're thinking of creating a flower room, a gardener's room, or a mudroom-come-flower room, then these beautiful schemes and tips from designers will help inspire your project.

1. Make a flower room multi-functional

While dedicated flower rooms tend to be limited to grand country properties, increasingly many homeowners are factoring in space for flower arranging into their hardworking service areas, including mud rooms, butler’s pantries and utility rooms, as done here by Laura Butler Madden.

‘Our butler’s pantry, created as an overspill from the elegant kitchen, is functional in that it has a second oven, dishwasher, and sink as well as extra space for when entertaining and preparing food,' says Laura. However, she also mentions how it is 'beautiful in that it also doubled as my flower room, as I love nothing more than filling my home with seasonal flowers.’

This beautiful room in a Houston project by Katie Davis Design has also been designed as a multi-functional space.

'This dreamy mudroom used to be a workout room. It now acts as a landing place for boots and jackets, the laundry room, a craft room, a place for calendars and mementos, and a workspace for mom,' explains Katie. 'The palette of the space started with the Lulie Wallace fabric on the shade, which is where we pulled the blue paint color, and the blue on the check pinboard. We brought in natural grasses with the barstool and pendant shade, and a vintage patterned runner adds a bit of soul while disguising dirt and mess.'

2. Make it bright, practical and elegant

This beautiful space is in a home located on an orchard in New Canaan, Connecticut and was designed as a butler’s pantry that doubles as a potting room. Combining elegance and function, the room has traditional bespoke cabinetry which gives ample storage, while the classic marble countertops bring a bright, luxurious feel.

'We designed the space with plenty of counter space for cutting and arranging florals and storage for the client’s various supplies and vessels,' explain Lauren and Suzanne McGrath, founders of McGrath II.

As with any craft space, having plenty of daylight is important in a flower room so you can see clearly what you're working on. Here, the white cabinetry, marble countertops, and light flooring all help maximize light throughout the space.

A large double butler's sink offers plenty of space for filling buckets for conditioning freshly cut blooms as well as filling large vases. In addition to a countertop sink, it can be handy to have a sink at a lower level if you’re a serious flower grower, as this saves lifting heavy buckets.

3. Embrace botanical prints

Flower rooms need to be practical, but they’re also lovely spaces to experiment with whimsical nature-inspired prints and wallpapers. With architecture by Lichten Architects and interiors by Anne Chessin Designs, this flower-come-utility beautifully blends function with decorative flair.

‘Perhaps no other room in a large house relates as directly to the outdoors as does a flower room,' explains architect Kevin Lichten, founder of Lichten Architects. 'On the aesthetic level, we've reminded our clients of this strong relationship with the use of foliage on the wallpaper and green and white paint colors of leaves and flowers on the cabinets. A beautifully situated window looks out on the surrounding gardens.'

‘This home is situated on a hill in the Catskill mountains, surrounded by beautiful forests. It felt appropriate to bring the outdoors into this space by using Scalamandré’s Raphael wallpaper in Green, with views of the tree tops,' adds Anne Chessin, the interior designer behind the space. 'On a practical level, we added indestructible quartzite stone counters, a large sink, and lots of counter space for flower arranging,’ she adds. ‘The chiseled limestone floors have a lot of character, so you don't have to be afraid of making a mess!'

4. Make a feature of your vases

Anyone who loves flower arranging and decorating with flowers in their home will know that having a range of vases in different styles and sizes is a must. Whether it’s a large, romantic urn for an entryway table decor, or dainty bud vases for a spring tablescaping, it’s handy having a variety for all occasions.

Of course, with a big collection of vases, you’ll need space to store them, and if you have a particularly decorative collection, why not store them in a way they can be enjoyed? In this beautiful flower room at Timothy Carrigon’s home in France, the interior designer opted for open shelves to allow his ornate vases and cachepots to double as beautiful wall art.

‘I enjoy flower arranging, so I wanted to create a dedicated room for working with the blossoms that have been grown in the newly planted enclosed garden near the swimming pool. This narrow space between the kitchen and the small dining room originally served as the sacristy of the chapel, where all the vestments and accessories needed for mass were stored. There is a large window that opens directly to the garden which I retained,’ explains Timothy Carrigon of the space in his book, At Home in France: Inspiration and Style in Town and Country, published by Rizzoli.

‘Today, the cabinets hold table linens, and I installed a sink and shelves above it to hold many of the vases and cachepots in a variety of styles I have accumulated over the years. While I am not usually a fan of a lot of open shelves, I love the way the cachepots line up, awaiting their turn to do duty! I love flowers, and I love creating arrangements for particular places in the château, and here I can do so easily.’

5. Embrace color

As with utility rooms, mudrooms, and anywhere that splashes occur, flower rooms benefit from easy-to-clean surfaces and splashbacks, but there’s no reason why they need to be white and clinical like they are in so many practical spaces. In fact, as flower rooms are spaces we’re only in occasionally, they make great rooms to embrace daring use of color.

In this beautiful flower room, interior designer Laura Stephens created a pretty yet practical backdrop with pink zellige tiles. Boasting varied textural glazes, the tiles have been used as a splashback but also extend onto the shelves, which beautifully offsets the owner’s collection of green vases and terracotta pots.

'Our client is a keen gardener and wanted a space to arrange cut flowers from the garden. She had a lovely vase collection and wanted to ensure they were both accessible and on show,' says Laura. 'We wanted what could have been a utilitarian space to be pretty and lovely to work in. The client loved the Antoinette Poisson floral curtain fabric so that was the starting point for the scheme. I love glazed tile shelves which are both pretty and super practical and these pink ones (with an added diamond zellige border for further interest) were the natural choice to work with the fabric.'

6. Or decorate with soft nature-inspired hues

When it comes to flower room decor, where better to seek inspiration than the garden? Soft botanical greens and natural materials will stand the test of time and work beautifully in flower rooms where they set off natural blooms and blend seamlessly with verdant views outside. Here, the Connecticut-based interior designer Virginia Tupker created a calming yet practical country-style flower room that pays homage to its rural surroundings with soft sage green paneling and flagstone floors.

'This space is the perfect space for arranging flowers, just steps away from a fabulous cutting garden. I wanted to give the space a classic English Country house feel, so I painted the walls in Farrow & Ball's Blue Gray, which is actually a lovely country green, just muddy enough to cut the sweetness,' says Virginia Tupker, founder of Virginia Tupker Interiors.

'I sourced a large antique chestnut wood piece for the countertop which was beautifully aged and worn so that it felt like it had always been there, and the wood tied beautifully with the antique planks in the floor. A faded and drab check was the perfect sink skirt. The simple metal pendant lights add an air of utility.'

7. Choose practical surfaces

Countertops that are scratch resistant, low-maintenance, and wipeable are a must for flower rooms.

'Key considerations include a sink for cleaning and a sturdy work surface to withstand water,' advises Lauren Gilberthorpe. 'Silestone is a great budget option – it is very hard-wearing and durable, or, for a more luxurious option, Lava Stone is a preferred choice. Open shelving for storing vases, slippers, and tools.'

8. Make space to hang dried flowers

If you are a flower grower, then factoring in space to dry cut flowers into your flower room is a handy idea if you're looking to extend the flower arranging season into winter.

When the garden enters its winter slumber, there's always a shortage of fresh seasonal blooms to decorate the house, but this is where dried flowers can make a great alternative. Decorating with dried flowers is a wonderful way to bring the everlasting beauty of flowers into the home, plus, as they are everlasting, they are a great sustainable alternative to shop-bought flowers.

If you fancy decorating with dried flowers, try growing flowers like straw flowers, hydrangeas, statice and larkspur, which are all great varieties for drying. Simply tie up bunches of cut stems and hang them upside down from ceiling hooks to dry out. Ideally, they should be hung in a warm, dry area away from direct sunlight to prevent the blooms from fading.

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