Floral & Botanical Wall Art

Floral & Botanical Wall Art

Plants put curves into a room, and almost nothing else on a wall does. Furniture, doors, windows, shelves and most other subjects are built from straight lines and right angles; a stem, a leaf edge or an open bloom introduces an irregular shape that softens all of it. That is the real function of botanical imagery, and it explains why it works hardest in rooms that feel hard — kitchens, bathrooms, offices, anywhere with a lot of flat surfaces.

There are two quite different traditions here and they behave unlike each other. Botanical studies are precise, usually pale-ground, often laid out as if for a reference book; they are calm, orderly and suit a study or a hallway. Painted florals are looser and more colourful, they carry more of a room's mood, and they need more space around them. Mixing the two works only if you keep a palette common to both.

Colour restraint separates a piece you keep from one you tire of. A single dominant hue with green and neutrals behind it stays livable; a full bouquet of competing colours starts dictating everything else in the room and dates faster. If your soft furnishings are already patterned, take the quieter option.

Scale in this category is usually misjudged downward. A flower reproduced near life size looks like a greetings card; blown well past life size it becomes a form and a composition rather than a picture of a plant, which is far more interesting on a wall.

One placement note worth following: keep these off the wall directly behind real houseplants. The two read as clutter together, each making the other look like filler. Put the print on the opposite wall and the room gets the same greenery without the pile-up.