When a bouquet is not just a flower arrangement

I just heard from reader Casey, who wrote to give me the heads-up about a fabulous floral artist, David Stark, who created an amazing display for the Macy's Flower Show "Bouquet of the Day".
I'm told that most event designers participating in the event chose traditional interpretations of floral decor. David took it in a different direction with a birch paintbrush and 6-foot tower of red carnations and paint cans.

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It's a pretty bold use of color in a space dominated by spring pastels. I want to know how on earth he got the paint brush to "hover" like that. Must be attached with strings to the ceiling, wouldn't you imagine?

Have you ever heard of the Macy's Flower Show? Evidently, it's a pretty big deal, with cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Minneapolis participating. It took place over the last two weeks (Sunday, March 16th – Sunday, March 30th).

Here are some pictures from this year's event:
Such edible colors, I love the bright oranges and yellows paired with the more subdued green.

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Pink and green-you just can't go wrong with this pairing. I'm sure it was quite amazing in person.

I get a great deal of inspiration from natural elements like flowers. The vibrant brights, delicate pastels, deep green foliage, soft rich browns... mother nature really knows how to create some spectacular color palettes. It's simple to take colors from a bouquet, for instance, and apply them to an interior.

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This example is a little bold for most people's taste, but it works for this large room, to help break up an otherwise overwhelming space, and add a sense of intimacy. Certainly took guts and vision, that's for sure!

Entertainment rooms

This question just in from reader Karen:

Just wondering if you have an opinion on this please:
Is it better to have a dark color on the wall that a TV is on?
Is a flat paint preferable? -Karen

Absolutely correct on both counts. Think about movie theaters, and how dark and unobtrusive the walls appear . The objective with entertainment rooms is to keep the focus on the screen. So, by painting the wall behind the television a dark, muted tone, the wall does not compete with the tv. Any time you have a high level of contrast, such as white (walls) and black (electronics), your eye is immediately drawn to where the two extreme values meet. This is some random image I pulled off the web and then doctored to give you an example of what I mean. I wanted to show my neighbor's really great set-up in his basement, with chocolate brown walls behind his flat screen, and cappuccino-colored walls everywhere else. But I couldn't catch him in time for this article. Ah well, next time.

And as for sheen: matte or flat paint, always. Any shine to the wall might produce a reflection from light sources in the room, and distract from the tv. Not to say that I believe a room should be dominated by the television set, but from a visual ergonomics perspective, low contrast is the way to go in this situation.