Flower Market: Botanical Style at Home by Michelle Mason is all about styling with flowers. Particularly, it’s about using reclaimed or vintage objects to display your seasonal blooms.
Columbia Road flower market is on the doorstep of Michelle Mason’s vintage shop, Mason & Painter. Hence the lovely pairing of fresh flowers and reclaimed display props. As the title suggests, the book supports shopping locally, often direct from the grower, at the market.
“On my doorstep every Sunday I see customers experience the pleasure of buying flowers directly from the grower or trader to be carried, wrapped in paper, back home. The appeal is the story behind the encounter and the pleasure of decorating a corner of a room with fresh flowers.”
Michelle Mason
*This post contains an affiliate link. Roomy Home was given a copy of this book by the publishers, with no obligation to review.
Who is Michelle Mason?
Michelle Mason is a designer and shopkeeper. She’s the co-founder of London vintage store, Mason & Painter. This book is inspired by Mason’s proximity to Colombia Road flower market.
As a designer, Mason has created products for the British Library, Transport for London and House of Fraser.
You can find Michelle Mason on Instagram here.
What’s in Flower Market?
The book is usefully organised, cataloguing floral inspiration firstly by season (great for shopping local or growing your own), then by colour.
The second half of the book then offers styling tips for displaying plants and flowers at home, as well as a section on arranging your blooms.
The biggest inspiration for me in this book was how to create combinations of flowers and props that work together.
The section on styling by colour is also particularly useful. Mason shows how to layer up hues using objects that tone with your blooms.
For example, this page shows the pinks and sea-blues of vintage maps paired up with tonal glass bottles, sugar tins and hyacinths.
Petal power: the best takeaways from Flower Market?
The best takeaway for me from Flower Market is that the author reveals the skilled art of layering. Not just blooms alone, but vintage books, fabric and leaves, with props like ribbons and keys, to create a beautiful vignette.
And I’ve already drawn on Mason’s step-by-step visual guide to creating a statement floral display.
What can interior addicts learn from Flower Market?
If you fear you’re becoming immune to the charm of beautiful blooms from Instagram overdose, this is a great book to reawaken your appreciation. The photography is exquisite and the colour combinations a treat.
It’s also a great reminder that flowers demand display on a larger scale than a small screen can offer.
However if you also love styling up your blooms for photographs (yes even for social media), then this is also perfect eye-candy, because each intricately styled vignette in the book has some new idea to offer.
Peonies in a vintage tea-caddy? Dramatic and doable.
Anemones in a supersized teacup? Effortlessly whimsical.
Flower Market is a book I’m going to return to again and again when styling up flowers at home. In fact, I’ll be flicking the pages any time my mind needs a hit of glorious colour. You’ve probably heard how looking at nature, even through a window or via a photograph, can do all kinds of positive things to your mind? I suspect this book could serve the same purpose, as the photography is just so joyous.
Need a copy now?
Flower Market: Botanical Style at Home by Michelle Mason (£20, Pimpernel Press).
Click the cover image to find out more.
![Sneak peek part 2 👀 if you’re keen to step away from the content conveyor belt. Here’s the 2nd part of my weekly content creation process (less than 15 mins a day). Here’s exactly what I did from Thursday to Sunday last week. Including my lightbulb moment of what kind of content works on LinkedIn. [Mon-Wed in previous post] Thursday
Spot the spider story poll. Fun, got some friendly conversations going & totally non-salesy. Friday
Surprise content win of the week. Spotted a news story about a photo of swirling waves that looked like they had a face in them. Shared this with a link to my blog post about the psychology of faces in marketing. My most effective LinkedIn post yet. It’s still generating shares & reaction a week later (so far nearly 8000 views - way above average for me). I’ll now share more curated content with my opinion woven in. Saturday
Asked for advice on Stories about a fitness tracker. Always helps if your conversations revolve around something genuine. Thanks for your responses 🙌🏻 Sunday
Day off. Nothing, zero. I often get a spike in reach when I post again after a short break like this. Results
Total time spent creating & posting on social - 50 mins max.
IG - 2 Reel posts (total 30 mins) , 22 Stories (max 20 mins).
48 new IG followers Monday-Friday. Roughly 1 minute per follower! And lots of conversations. Welcome & thank you for that 😘 #solopreneurlife
#smallbusinessuk
#womeninbusinessuk
#smallandmightybusiness
#creativelysquared
#noticewonderconnect
#copywritingtips
#contentwritingtips
#creativecontent
#growyourbiz
#creativefreelancer
#calledtobecreatives
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#instagramwithintention
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#contentstrategist
#contentideas](https://scontent-lhr8-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/217583491_362475788914968_7956610067304190737_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=6cLgmm7ZSoQAX8Rrs83&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=e5a166638c9aeb47f47c010ca8690e02&oe=610D8D09)
![Sneak peek 👀 Ready to step away from the content conveyor belt? I’m sharing my process of creating content like clockwork for Instagram (with a side order of LinkedIn). In less than 15 mins a day. I’ll show you -
How you can save time.
What works well.
How to respond to insights from your followers. Here’s exactly what I did last week. [Part 1 Monday - Wednesday] Monday
Content planning. What’s your theme? What’s in your diary? My talking point was social media sprinting, or how to save time on easy content. I brainstorm words/phrases to use & repeat. That meant lots of mentions of time, clocks, quick, speed, minutes, hours, sprint. Also words that link time with money - spend, free, save, give back. I planned to tie this to my core message too - marketing psychology gives your content PURPOSE that makes the PROCESS easier. Monday’s a good day to trail what’s coming up this week. I did that with my first Story. Then I posted pre-recorded video. (By the way, a Hubspot survey showed that the most popular videos on IG are on Stories.) On my feed, I repurposed content as a Reel, using a carousel that got lots of Saves. Tuesday
On Stories, I shared a screenshot of a testimonial from MiniMind workshop. I posted a quick reel made of me reading/drinking coffee. The theme was spare time. Wednesday
My collab partner from the upcoming MiniMind workshop remixed my Reel & shared it on her feed. It was World Chocolate Day - I recycled some newsletter content about the psychology of chocolate. My After Eight polls had the best reach of the week. Takeaways
Tie content to your core message or theme.
If you need to rein in overthinking (guilty), set a timer.
Video/photograph moments in your day as they happen. What do you think? How does your content creation process compare? ***** 💡 Next post I’ll share Part 2 Thursday - Saturday, including my lightbulb moment about what kind of content works on LinkedIn.](https://scontent-lhr8-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/217750981_1233823500393317_2570945101832650978_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=77xMGwZT26AAX8Un9jf&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-2.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=8cb9f9f1a3fb3e723f0907669604ce45&oe=610DD712)
