A hanging door basket is a great alternative to a wreath and only takes a few minutes to put together. You can fill yours with annual plants, faux flowers, or real flowers as I've done for this arrangement.
Welcome to Monday Morning Blooms!
Pam, Mary and I are thrilled you're joining us on this warm summer Monday! I'll share their links at the bottom of this post so you can enjoy their door floral baskets too. I hope you are enjoying a cool lemonade or lemon water today while you are reading this.
Since I always like to change things up a little, this time instead of using a hanging basket I'm using one of our European Vintage Zinc Buckets. We have one hanging on the wall by the front door, filled with ivy, and I love how they look! They have a hole for hanging, and a stenciled number, each one is unique.
Our back garden is not blooming as beautifully as a few months ago, but there is still plenty green and gorgeous to see. My little button fern is such a survivor! It has been in front of my little garden house {my little "FrenchGardenHouse"} for over twelve years. Once in a while it dies back, but when we cut it all the way to the soil, it springs back up green in no time!
Our potted plants really like this area of the garden, it has dappled sun most of the day, due to our huge gingko tree that is just in front of the garden house.
The hanging bucket filled with flowers looks so pretty on the antique French doors of our garden house. The colors are muted for this time of year, soft pinks, purples, golden apricot yellows, the sage green of seeded eucalyptus, and then a few purple sage that I popped in for an accent.
FLOWERS IN THIS DOOR BASKET:
*Pink Pompom Mums
*Pink Alstroemeria
*Golden Apricot Alstromeria
*Mexican Purple Sage
*Seeded Eucalyptus
*Purple Hydrangea
I'll tell you a secret, the hydrangeas are faux. They are part of the new flowers for our fall Les Belles Fleurs Collection of long-lasting faux boutique blooms. I didn't find nice hydrangeas at the flower market and our own hydrangeas are a little droopy and not great, so I thought I'd just stick them in the arrangement. {see tip #5 : ) }
I love this area of our back garden, I like to fill it with displays of French and English garden antiques. This small garden trug is perfect to hold heirloom tomatoes to carry to the kitchen for dinner.
This rare to find huge garden trug with original paint holds the small trug, antique pots, seed dibbers and more!
Little French Country pottery pieces double up as vases outside on bright and beautiful summer days.
Extra large Antique French cheese molds are great to use in the garden when they are not serving things indoors. They can hold a few handfuls of berries, but I use them to dry out small flower bulbs, or hold seed packets.
Here are My Best Tips for How To Create a Door Basket for Summer.
1. CHOOSE A COLOR SCHEME.
It's really helpful to choose some kind of color scheme ahead of time. If you are anything like me, once I see the flowers, I love almost every single one so much that it takes a long time to choose. Knowing what color scheme you want ahead of time makes it much easier! {I'll be honest and often I just go with what I love, color scheme or not!} *Monochromatic – This color palette uses one color in a combination of tones and shades. {You can mix the color with white to add depth and contrast.} *Complementary– This color palette uses colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel. Blue and orange, yellow and purple, red and green are all examples. You can find a color wheel easily online. *Triad – This color palette consists of three different colors equally spaced from one another on the color wheel. There are two triad combos, red-yellow-blue or purple-orange-green.2. ADD A CONTAINER FOR FRESH FLOWERS.
For my arrangement, since I'm using a little container of flowers instead of plants, I used a vintage canning jar for the water. I first placed a piece of plastic in the bucket. While this is not strictly necessary, in case the water sloshes around while opening the door, it will be contained. If you are using a basket, this will be especially important.3. ADD CUT FLOWERS.
Use the thriller, filler, and spiller method to think about what flowers or combination of flowers and plants to put in your basket. A thriller is basically the strongest most statement making flower in your arrangement. Fillers are flowers "in the middle" that connect the thrillers to the spillers. And of course, the spillers are either greens or flowers that spill over the edge to soften the whole look of your floral design.4. TUCK IN A PLANT.
Since flowers don't always do well when they are "spilling" I like to tuck in a plant to be the trailing part of a door basket. Just remember to water it in the summer! The bonus of the plant is also that while your flowers will come and go, that plant will stay. {I had planned on this for the door flowers today, but I had so many flowers I skipped the plant. But plants are handy for filling in and if you only have a few flowers.}5. DON'T BE AFRAID TO CHEAT.
While there is nothing like fresh flowers, if your door is in the sun or you live somewhere where the summer heat is wicked, go for faux! There is nothing wrong with that...as you know I have been known to mix the real with the silk flowers often here at FrenchGardenHouse.
Do you think you will try creating a door basket {or bucket!} for a gate or door this summer?
Whether you use flowers, plants, real or faux, it's a beautiful way to greet sunny summer days with pure joy!
THANK YOU so much for your visit to our back garden! I hope that you have enjoyed this little floral treat on a Monday. Be sure to visit my dear friends Mary and Pam, by clicking on their links below.
and me, Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse.
A BIENTOT
Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com
19 comments
Lidy, your zinc bucket filled with blooms is gorgeous. You have me thinking of what I might fill and add to our terrace. I love your mix of flowers, and the tips are great. Thank you! Happy August
I love that – “ just enough messiness”! That seems to be my floral,style, slightly messy. Thank you Rita, wishing you a very happy August! Xo Lidy
That’s a beautiful arrangement – just enough messiness to make it uncontrived, very French, of course. Happy Monday and Happy August, Lidy!
Nancy, thank you so much! I hope you have a happy August too!
I love potato plants! Especially that bright, bright green colored one. I bet your basket on the garden gate looks wonderful!
I also agree with the thriller spiller filler way to have a beautiful basket. I have one on our garden gate. Potato plant spills out and as you say they must be watered more frequently. Yours temps me to get out when I get back home and make it more “Frenchy”
Oh Lidy… I love your door arrangement! How smart to add faux to real. I also enjoyed the whole area around your door hanging. I felt like I was in France!
I will always remember the Thriller, Spiller and Filler method!
Happy August!
Thank you Anja! It always surprises our European family that we have things standing in the front garden or hanging on our gate here in California, so far, no one has ever taken anything over all these years!! Stay cool, it looks like another hot week where you are!
Happy August dear Mary! I’m surprised you’ve never seen my little garden house before, she has peeked in here and there on the blog. She used to be quite charming, but after FrenchGardenHouse opened, she became a shipping house. {But sooner or later she’ll be an artist studio.} It’s always a joy to spend our Monday Morning Blooms together with you dear friend.xo
Happy August dearest Pam! In this hot summery month, I like to cheat mother nature a little for flowers that are outside. But not in the actual garden beds and pots, those do so well, just need a lot of watering and talking to. It’s always a joy to spend one of our Monday Morning Blooms days together with you!