For most of my twenties, I dreamed of opening a flower shop. I found myself in my first house, throwing parties, enthralled with my garden and honing my arrangement skills. That lead to catering and floral work for other people's parties and half baked plans to open my own storefront. I kicked around names, knew just what I'd offer my patrons and drew up plans for what the shop would look like inside. As years dragged on, I got into more serious floral design projects- weddings and events with 30-60 individual arrangements and elements per pop... almost exclusively created by myself.
Life took unexpected turns and my path lead me further away from my floral shop dreams. The heavy project work eventually lead to burn-out and ultimately I decided if that dream were ever to become a reality, the types of arrangements I'd offer would not be event-facing creations, but would aim to merge my love of gardening with my affection for freshly cut blooms. In the end, I'd focus on making the everyday more beautiful, not necessarily a 5 hour party.
Many of the types of floral studios that draw me to their doors these days look like these: rife with potted offerings, flush with multi-hued foliage and gift-ready herbs. I'm particularly fond of those urban storefronts and the way the lush offerings out front seem to contradict the concrete and metal facades that flank them.
First impressions and front of the house displays are so important for setting the tone. The walk up to Mant in Copenhagen is my ideal version of a floral meets garden haven.
I surprised myself by how much I love these basket arrangements out in front of this Paris shop. Perhaps because there is uniformity in the type of basket and not a hodge-podge collection, this otherwise rustic set up still appeals to my more modern design tendencies.
Blomsterkuret in Copenhagen presents a welcoming array of baskets by the door as well- again, all uniform in color and style. The stained black building with white awning is right up my alley.
Perhaps this dream will eventually come to fruition through one of the twists and turns on my current path. I still do some floral work on the side and these days funnily enough, much of that has turned back to wedding work. It's funny how life plays out. Mortgage, career, finances and eventual family planning will all play into if, when and how I might make it happen. For now, I like to think I still have one foot in this little dream of mine. It will be interesting to see how experiences between now and then will continue to shape it.
