A simple way to link your home and garden is to use fabrics with a botanical motif, be it butterflies, bees, ferns or flowers. It doesn’t mean you have to do a chintz overload on your curtains and chairs; a couple of cushions on a plain sofa will go a long way, and since you will only need a metre or two of fabric, you can splash out on something lovely.

 

Of course there are the traditional fabric and wallpaper ranges featuring flowers, such as “Laura Ashley”, the 50s retro “Cath Kidston”, “Sanderson” and so on.

“Laura Ashley” features several flowers in their current range – wisteria, hydrangeas, honeysuckle, poppies; and trees too, such as weeping willows and silver birch. I like their “Gosford” fabric with blowsy tulips. I do love tulips. Imagine a great vase of tulips in a room with this fabric.

 

Sanderson have a lovely range called “A Painter’s Garden”, a fresh mix of floral and botanical prints.

The Woodland Fern print would look lovely in a conservatory or garden room, in a modern or a traditional setting.

 

Angie Lewin is one of my favourite designers. Her bold graphic botanical prints suit all interiors, modern, retro or traditional, bringing meadow flowers, cow parsley and teasels to our windows and walls. Not dissimilar to Jardin’s logo!

 

Irish designer Orla Kiely‘s iconic multi-stem fabric is fun, retro and a sort of stylised botanical print.

Vanessa Arbuthnott is an English designer whose fabrics I admire. Her Swedish Collection features stylised foliage and whimsical birds in soft Gustavian colours but also this lovely zingy lime for a fresh summer look.

 

“Liberty”, the iconic London store, often have unusual fabrics with plenty of artistic or archival detail. “The Flower Show” Collection shows “nature at its simplest and most beautiful”. A little of these busy patterns will go a long way.

 

Curtains on these patio doors I felt would have been too bulky; instead there are neat conservatory blinds and a long strip of graphic botanical fabric has been draped along a pole, its colours picking up the courtyard walls and shed, linking both areas.

A similar striking print is Yellow Verde Botanical from Kathy Ireland. I love this colourway.

Even neutral decor can take a little botanical input.

Most department stores will carry some botanical fabric but I often try to hunt down remnants on market stalls or vintage shops for something a little different. And there is lots of choice on Etsy or eBay.

Of course two lone botanical cushions on a sofa won’t really do it. Try to find some framed botanical prints, add some plants or fresh flowers and tie in your colours.

I find it one of the most calming decorating trends, surrounding myself with nature.