Easy Summer Centerpiece
One of the pleasures of growing flowers is clipping a few to enjoy inside your home. Today I’m sharing how to create an Easy Summer Centerpiece that can be made using either flowers from your yard or flowers purchased from a grocery store, florist, or farmer’s market.
Fresh flowers bring life to a room and they are beautiful to enjoy, so why not clip a few flowers and make an Easy Summer Centerpiece to enjoy?
I’m sharing my Easy Summer Centerpiece along with a talented group of bloggers for a Summer Celebration Blog Hop. This tour is organized by my friend Amber from Follow the Yellow Brick Home. I love Amber’s gorgeous old home and how she decorates it so beautifully with vintage style.
Even though schools are starting, there’s still a lot of summer left to enjoy. Today’s blog hop is a celebration of summer. I’m looking forward to seeing the summer ideas that my friends are sharing today. You’ll find links to all of the participants at the end of this post.
If you are visiting from Celebrate and Decorate, welcome! Chloe’s summer decorating tips are sure to give everyone some ideas to use for the remaining weeks of summer.
Easy Summer Centerpiece
Having fresh flowers in my home makes me happy. I like to have a small vase of flowers near my kitchen sink to enjoy while I cook or wash dishes. When I take time to make a casual flower arrangement for my kitchen or dining room table, I enjoy it immensely.
I love having flowers in my home, but I’m not the greatest at arranging them in a vase. Today I’m sharing a tool that helps me to create a beautiful flower arrangement with little effort and it requires no floral design experience to use.
How to Make an Easy Summer Centerpiece
The tool that I use to help me make an easy summer centerpiece is a Floral Design Set from QVC. My aunt gave me this for a wedding shower present in 1994. QVC no longer carries this but I did find one place where it is available.
Steps to Create an Easy Summer Centerpiece
The first step to create an easy summer centerpiece is to clip flowers from your yard or to buy flowers to use for your arrangement. Grocery stores have nice flowers that aren’t expensive. If you have a Trader Joe’s, you are really in luck because they always have a nice selection of flowers for sale. My nearest Trader Joe’s in over 50 miles away, so I don’t often get a chance to shop there. I do find a nice selection of fresh flowers locally at Fresh Market.
The flowers in my yard are in between seasons and I didn’t anything currently in bloom that would be appropriate to use for my summer centerpiece. My good friend is on vacation and I knew from her Instagram stories that she has bunches of Zinnias in bloom in her yard. Since she’s not home to enjoy them, I asked her if I could clip a few for my summer centerpiece.
Cut Flowers to the Same Length
As I cut the Zinnias from my friend’s yard, I put them in a bucket with a few inches of cool water. After I got home, I let the flowers rest in the bucket for a few hours in our cool basement. This gave the flowers plenty of time to soak up the water through the xylem in their stems.
When I was ready to make my flower arrangement, I started by determining how long a Zinnia should be when used in the floral design set. Then I cut all of the Zinnias to that length. I also clipped some Licorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare) from one of my containers to use as a filler.
Arrange the Flowers
If you have one color of one type of flower, the flower design set it super easy to use. Simply put one or two flowers with a sprig of filler into each small vase and you are done.
Since my Zinnias varied in size, color, and species, I started my arrangement by evenly spacing four of the salmon colored Zinnias into the vases.
Next I added the larger pink/purple Zinnias.
Here you see the other side of the arrangement as the pink/purple Zinnias were added.
After the pink/purple Zinnias were in place, I added the orange Zinnias.
Some of the Zinnia stems were very short when I cut them from my friend’s yard. Those Zinnias ended up submerged in my bucket of water. That’s why some of the flowers look wet and why you see drops of water on my table.
I moved the salmon Zinnia that was on top of my arrangement to the side and replaced it with l large pink/purple Zinnia.
Add Filler
Fill in gaps and add interest to the arrangement with filler. The silver foliage of the Licorice clippings looked pretty with the bold colors of the Zinnias.
The Beauty of Zinnias
My mother grew Zinnias every summer and they are a flower that I love. Mama was in charge of flower arrangements for church for the month of July and she often used Zinnias. I haven’t grown Zinnias in years, mostly because it’s hard to keep the deer from eating them.
I love the bold colors of Zinnias and I also love that they last a long time when cut and used in a flower arrangement or vase.
How can one not feel happy when looking at an arrangement of colorful Zinnias?
Enjoy the Arrangement
My easy summer centerpiece is on our dining room table. We most often enter our home through our side porch (now a sunroom!!) which leads directly into our dining room. We never eat in this space but we pass through this room frequently, so this is a spot that is perfect for enjoying a floral centerpiece.
The crocheted or perhaps tatted piece that my centerpiece is displayed on was made by my husband’s grandmother. My mother-in-law gave it to me very early in our marriage and I really treasure it.
Like I said on my Summer Mantel with Mason Jars and Lemons post, I like to see a whole space when I’m reading a blog post, so here you can see most of our dining room.
This picture is also a good opportunity to share our new replacement windows. I hated to get rid of our original windows and I agonized over replacing them but now that the new windows are in place, I am 100% happy with them.
Fresh flowers are a great addition to any room in your home and they don’t have to be difficult to arrange. Now that I’ve made this easy summer arrangement, I’m going to enjoy it for as long as the Zinnias last and then I’ll make another easy arrangement with different flowers for this room.
Pin It
Please pin this post to remember for later. Pinning also helps others to find my projects on Pinterest.
Next on the tour is Coco from The Crowned Goat. Coco is sharing a lavender topiary and I can’t wait to read her post.
I hope you enjoy all of the summer ideas shared today on this Summer Celebration Blog Hop.
Your flowers are gorgeous, Paula! I love all the vibrant colors and how you arranged them in that awesome vase! I have never seen one of those before. Great hopping with you today…you always create something beautiful! Enjoy your day!
Shelley
Sunnies are one of my favorites as we!!. Thanks for sharing!
Now tell me the history of your dining room furniture, please.
Your valances? Are lovely in your dining room. Where can I buy them?
I agree–fresh flowers make me happy too. Zinnia’s are such cheerful flowers and your centerpiece is so lovely! Blessings, Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction
Paula I love your arrangement so much! All the colors are really pretty together and they just pop as the centerpiece in your sun room too. I’ve never seen a floral design set like yours either. It’s so cool! I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for one. I can’t believe how easy it makes to create beautiful arrangements. As always, I love how you include treasured family pieces into your decorating style. Hugs, CoCo
That vase is amazing and your flowers are too. Such a beautiful summer bouquet.
I love zinnias. Your windows look amazing. What sweet treasures for the center of your table.
Zinnias are such a classic flower, I even remember my grandmother growing them and cutting them and bringing them into the house in simple glass vases. There is nothing like having fresh flowers in your home and summertime garden blooms are one of the gifts of summer!
Well I’ve never seen one of those vases before! How cool is that? I totally need one because I suck at floral arrangements. Love how the colors you chose pop off from your green walls. So pretty! Love it!
Oh my goodness this reminds me of the arrangements my great aunt used to create when she was in the garden club. They made all kinds of ceramic flower frogs and holders for their pretty flowers. Love zinnias and all their splendid colors!
Paula this is one of the prettiest little zinnia arrangements I have seen! That vase is the absolute coolest thing. I love the bright colors and especially the addition of the silver trailing plant. Your whole dining room looks so beautiful, and I have to say I am a bit envious of the crocheted piece. What a treasure!
Thank you so much for joining our summer celebration!
Paula I am loving the arrangement. The zinna has such bright colors. A great centerpiece to place on a table. I love that vase. It is so different but a perfect vase to help with shaping.
I love zinnias too, Paula! And love having fresh arrangements around the house in the summer. Honestly, it’s what motivates me to clean the bathroom…making an arrangement when I’m done;) Think I’ve seen these vases at the state fair, and yes, it makes floral arranging very easy! Love the bright colored flowers in your pretty, aqua dining room.
Paula, I had no idea such a vase existed! You just blew my mind! Your arrangement looks so bold and beautiful. Zinnias are some of my favorite flowers. I love the bright colors you found, too. We had some giant purple ones in our back yard that grew to be as tall as I am!
I agree with you that having flowers nearby really does add some happiness to the home. Pinning!
What an amazing tool for flower arranging! And I love the colorful zinnias!
Your centerpiece is gorgeous! I love zinnia’s ,and their bright colors are always so cheerful! Your dining room is beautiful, and I love the tole tray. Enjoy these last weeks of summer!
Oh, Paula, what a gorgeous flower arrangement Those zinnias are stunning. I’ve haven’t grown zinnias in years either, but those vibrant colors may change my mind. I’ve seen those flower things at garage sales but passed them by. Not now. Great tips and tutorial sweet girl.
Paula, I adore your easy summer centerpiece! That Floral Design Set is the bomb and makes it so easy to arrange flowers! I grew zinnias this year so I may have to pick me up one of those and try it myself. So happy to be hopping with you!
Gorgeous bouquet! I’ve never seen a multi-stemmed vase like that. How awesome!
I luv how it all came out! Pinned. Have a great day🙌🏻
My mom loved Zinnias, too, but I always thought they were ‘lesser’ flower because they didn’t smell pretty. I have recently had a new appreciation for these vibrant flowers, and your post has helped that appreciation grow even more! Love that arrangement tool, too! Pinned!
Adorable centerpiece. I have seen smaller versions of your vases, but none as nice as yours. Great step-by-step demonstration!
I remember those multi vase vases from the 90’s , I think my mum had one! I think divide and conquer is always the way to go for non gifted flower arrangers (like myself) things like this make it easy to get a great looking arrangement. I love the zingy bright colours you used.
Thank you, Julie! This flower vase makes it so easy to make an arrangement in no time.
Paula
I love this bouquet
Thank you! I had fun making it and it lasted for several weeks.
Paula
Oh my gosh!! I want that vase something fierce!!! So pretty!!
Thank you so much, DeeDee!
Paula,
Love this arrangement. Next year I’m planting Zinnia if I can find ones 10″ tall. Love the colors
I love growing Zinnias. Mine are about 10″ tall but I actually prefer growing taller varieties.
I have seen so many lovely zinnias this summer, and yours are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
Thank you so much, Cecilia!