Wild And Wonderful

Embrace botanicals, both printed and fresh, and use them to add the wow factor. Floral designer Heike Hayward demonstrates how to make it work beautifully.

Advances in digital printing have had a huge impact on fabrics and wallpapers, with overscaled flowers and leaves appearing in almost every collection. Floral designer Heike Hayward has embraced this trend wholeheartedly with a range of florals, which she’s translated onto wallpaper, fabrics, table linen and even rugs, all available at her new shop in Stellenbosch, Fleur le Cordeur. Combine these with lush indigenous foliage, she advises, to surround yourself with nature’s beauty.

1 GO FOR GREEN

If a whole wall in a floral is a bit daunting, then restrict it to a scatter cushion and concentrate on lush greenery instead. For maximum impact, Heike dressed a plain mantelpiece with a number of white vases, which she filled with rose bush branches, sprigs of salvia, creepers such as ivy and philodendron, and succulent spekboom. Heike’s advice is to choose containers and vases that can hold a lot of stems such as her head vases.

2 IN FULL BLOOM