NY Post Interviews Jill Brooke On 10 Flower Home Tips
Sotheby’s International Realty broker Diana Rice is saying it — and selling it — with flowers.
For a three-bedroom, prewar co-op in Carnegie Hill, that meant bringing in Jill Brooke, founder of Flower Power Daily, to “create visual harmony and vibrancy,” Rice explains.
“Buyers want to feel safe and serene, so we are bringing the garden inside,” Brooke adds, noting that orchids are no longer part of a modern design because “they have become cliché and ubiquitous.”
Instead, Brooke says, jungle themes are in, along with draping vines and English garden flowers. For the listing at 4 E. 95th St. — on the second floor of a nine-story building — Brooke wrapped paintings with ivy and took inspiration from the home’s location near Fifth Avenue and Central Park. She gathered dogwood branches and other outdoor foliage, including delphiniums, statice, Queen Anne’s lace and filled vases with blooms to match its blue interiors, such as dahlias and thistle.
“I’m also a big fan of what I call ‘flowers-faux-real,’ where I mix real flowers with faux additions,” Brooke says. “I added orange faux flowers to a big green globe for a pop of color. In the little girl’s room, I added flowers to a wooden structure to make it come alive.”
Bud vases also line shelves along with books: “Flowers enhance any environment and if they are used well, they enhance the personality of any room,” Brooke says.
The two-bedroom abode is asking $2.52 million (a price shave from its original ask). It boasts 10-foot-high beamed ceilings, a wood-burning fireplace, custom bookshelves and large windows overlooking treetops as well as the Carhart and Fabbri mansions.
10 Tips for Using Flowers in Home Decor
1) Orchids are wonderful blooms for lasting weeks in a vase. However, limit orchids in your house since they are a bit overdone.
2) English ivy is a great way to drape paintings and mantles. They immediately add a garden vibe in the home. Buy the faux vines and have fun.
3) Bud vases are the best investment. You can buy a box on Amazon for $48. Line them on shelves or a dining room table for a lovely effect.
4) Start collecting a variety of vases. Big and small. For the coffee table, have a large arrangement but then add a surprise with a smaller one nearby. You can use vases as well as teacups or cylinder glasses as options too.
5) Faux flowers come in such a variety of colors and shapes. Mix and match with fresh flowers. This is not only economical – since fresh flowers are expensive – but gives you so many options all year long.
6) Look for the very special flower to be your star in the show. The eye will immediately be drawn to the unique bloom. Then the supporting flowers complement the star flowers. Here had dahlias and thistles in the living room.
7) Since jungle themes are trending, use branches and monstera leaves. Having lilies inserted in front of a monstera leaf creates a tropical fun vibe.
8) Greenery is your friend. Ferns are especially useful since their fan like structures complement any flower. Plus it lasts a long time.
9) When lining walls with bud vases, use faux flowers for the top shelves since the eye rarely notices the faux on top. Keep fresh flowers on the bottom shelves.
10) Moss balls are modern additions that not only add structure but can have flowers inserted for pops of colors.
Remember that flowers are fun and add style and serenity to any home.