At Afloral, we believe it's possible to change an entire space with the right arrangement, and everyone deserves the chance to learn the art of flowers. We love talking about and sharing our knowledge on arranging our stems and other florals, but we also get a lot of questions about vases.
Have you ever wondered how to choose a vase? Curious about what vases pair well with what florals? Did you know there are a few guidelines for selecting a vase?
If you've ever wondered about any of those questions or didn't know—we're so excited! Today, our experts will share their second favorite part of floral design, everything about choosing the perfect vases for your centerpieces!
The Basic Guidelines for Choosing a Vase
Before you fall in love with a vase, here are a few things to know which will help you choose a perfect pairing:
1. For traditional floral arrangements, the length of your flower stems should be either one to ½ or two times the height of the vase itself. For example, our Real Touch Roses in Cream Peach have 20-inch stems. The optimal vase for 20-inch stems should be 10 to 15 inches in height maximum.
2. Color – Choose a vase that matches your arrangement or is a contrasting color—for example, an all-white vase for all-white roses. A vase in yellow or a soft cream-yellow compliments and contrasts with an arrangement with mostly lavender and purple blooms. If you're unsure what colors contrast or compliment your flowers, many excellent online color tools can help you color pick.
3. Too broad of an opening on the vase, and you'll need many flowers to make your arrangement look fuller. In general, look for vases wide at the bottom, narrower toward the middle, and with a slight flare at the top. These are perfectly shaped to support your arrangement without worrying about a 'floppy' look.
Floor Vases and Florals
A floor vase is a large, generously sized vase that can vary in color and materials. Most commonly, floor vases range from 12 inches to more than 20 inches in height. While the name does imply these are for the floor, the great thing about vases and floral arrangements is that these rules can be broken! It's all about your creativity and placing a vase where it feels right to you.
What florals do we love pairing with floor vases?
• Bundles of Fresh Cut Curly Willow branches for organic and elegant shapes.
• Pampas Grass or other tall dried stems
• Tall, long-stemmed dried or artificial plants
• Soft, creamy Sandblasted Manzanita Branches
Shop Afloral floor vases here.
Large Table Top Vases
A magnificent oversized vase is a remarkable piece that will draw the eye to any composition. Perfect for a statement piece or a large, graceful drape of sizeable branches such as the Artificial Snowball Flowers seen below.
Whether you seek an easy means to elevate your kitchen table, dining, living room table, or any surface—these table vases are a simple yet effortless means of home design.
Table vases can create striking, modern, or traditional displays in your home by grouping different vases together. Pair a glass vase with a tall ceramic vase in white or a White Concrete Konos Vase. Mix and match White Ceramic Urns or Terra Cotta Urn vases with handles for exciting shapes and arrangements.
What florals pair well with large tabletop vases?
Urn vases with handles Florals suggestion
• Roses, ranunculus, and peonies are beautiful and traditional flowers with long histories that fit perfectly with these classical urns with handles.
Large Tabletop Vase Florals Suggestions
• Big, dramatic, vivacious blooms like Snowballs and Hydrangeas, Queen Anne's Lace, Cherry Blossom Branches, or preserved and dried florals with texture and length.
Compote Bowls
Compote bowls are wide, making them easier to work with and an ideal base for loose, abundant, garden-inspired floral arrangements. Compote bowls are the go-to for wedding centerpieces, but they're also a fantastic choice for any room in your home.
A Distressed Gold Metal Compote Bowl or a Whitewashed Compote bowl is ideal for homes with traditional and vintage décor elements, capturing eras gone by.
We think the Gold and Whitewashed bowl pair well with the:
• Large, dusky peonies like white, beige, pink, blush, cream, vanilla, and mauve.
• Roses like the English Cabbage rose in White
• Real Touch Anemones
• Dusty Mauve Pink Real Touch Dahlias
For greenery, consider the following:
• Artificial Juniper and Winter Berries
• Artificial Nandina Leaf
• Preserved Weeping Willow Eucalyptus
Do you have something more sleek and modern in mind? A large or small White Ceramic Compote bowl might be exactly what you're looking for. Simple but always elegant, the nature of white means nearly every floral can match the color of the bowl, and your creativity can really shine.
Bud Vases
Bud vases are small and streamlined, meant to hold either a singular stem or a smaller arrangement. To make creating visually stunning décor in your home even easier, we have two beautiful sets of white and black ceramic bud vases in organic shapes. These are ideal for surfaces like tabletops, shelves, and mantlepieces. You, of course, can style them in any way that suits you and the ambiance of the room they may be in, but if you are unsure where to start, we have some suggestions from our experts.
• If you love the florals in the above image, we used: Blue Dried Echinops Globe Thistles, Dried Natural Yarrow Flowers, Natural Fragrant Dried Lavender Bundle, and Cream Dried Larkspur Wildflowers.
• For an effortless arrangement, consider our already Mixed Flower Bouquets or bundles with carefully hand-picked florals by our experts, such as our Dried Mixed Bouquet in Neutral.
• For a natural, elegant look, you can arrange one or two stems, such as a single bloom and greenery, or a focal flower, foliage, and a fill flower. For example, a single blue Hydrangea paired with a fern leaf or a beautiful single Lavender Real Touch Dutchess rose with Seeded Eucalyptus can look and feel as elegant as a complete arrangement.
Decorative Vases
When you want bold, daring, or whimsical, decorative vases will be your go-to for floral arrangements. Ornamental as the florals you choose to place in them, you can be experimental when selecting a decorative vase that fits you.
Perhaps you adore the hand-made details in a Tuscan Farmhouse Distressed Ceramic Pitcher or the elegance of a Creamy White Round Ceramic vase. For a more organic, natural look, you might instead opt for the Earthy Ceramic Planter Pot, Distressed Rustic Concrete Vase, or the Terra Cotta Urn Vase with Handles.
What do our experts love arranging in decorative vases?
• Cherry Blossoms and Cherry Blossoms Branches have been a source of inspiration and interior design for many years. These delicate blooms remind the viewer of early spring and bring a bright, graceful silhouette to any room.
• The lushness and bright green of Preserved Fragrant Juniper Berries aren't just ideal for the holidays and any time of year. The clean, sharp scent and the bursting green bring a spotlight of growth and color to a room.
• White Preserved Rodanthe Flowers merge down-home charm with a touch of old-world beauty and would fit wonderfully into traditional, vintage, cottage-core, bohemian, and similar decors.
• We adore peonies and cannot get enough of this classic, endlessly versatile floral. An arrangement of Dusty Peach Mauve, Pastel Lavender, or any color you love always makes for a fascinating statement piece.
Can you tell we love everything about florals from top to bottom? We hope we've been able to answer any questions you may have about choosing the perfect vases for your centerpieces and give you plenty of ideas for an artificial flower that pairs impeccably with each. Were we able to inspire you to create a centerpiece? We would love to see it! Tag us on social media and share your Afloral creations or follow us to get more creative ideas and floral designs to elevate your home.
