NATURAL WONDERS

            Greetings deco friends. As spring has sprung it's time to spruce up your space by bringing the outdoors in. Even year round you can do this by buying or cutting your own flowers and leaves to add color, texture, and energy to enhance your personal look.  I'm fortunate to spend time in an enviroment where I can walk out of the door, cut some leaves or flowers and livin up any room. I often find treasures at the beach like sea vegetation as seen in my blog header photo boardering the shelf, and even interesting rocks to add a decorative and natural touch.  As a sentiment, I tend to collect interesting rocks in my travels and have brought colorful keep-sakes from as far as the Mediterranean and the rivers of Corsica to the shore of the East River. For those who don't venture outdoors often, many furniture stores have added natural accessories to their stock for you to bring dimension to your home in a natural way such as the spider branches in photo one.  I couldn't resist the sculptural effect of these branches and had to have them. In any case, I appreciate the eye of the proprietor and find them brilliant and artististic, but whatever you do, don't use anything articial.  I knew a person who lived in Miami where these tropical leaves and plants were at her finger tips and are made to thrive in that kind of enviroment thus little attention needed, who "embellished" her terrace with a slew of fake plants.Yes, in Miami, faux foliage. Please, LOL.
          Also brilliant are the elephant ears displayed in photo two.  I used to buy these and many other tropical leaves in New York at Caribbean Cuts on 28th St., between 6th and 7th.  Now, a drive to the mountain side of the island and I find these babies for free, in abundance, and twice the size.  The two in the photo are about 4 -4.5 feet long and last up to 8 weeks if not longer. However you get them, cut an inch off of the bottom to assure longevity.  Also look for tares, holes, and yellowing; these are signs of a shorter life span.
           Another thing not shown, but can be seen on my website at wix.com/ktroy3/1-three, is the use of wood and branches.  I just find them naturally sculptural and architectural.  I've used 24" long logs as night stands and found oak branches about 12 feet long on the streets of Brooklyn to put in a corner to again add a natural decorative flare.  I've also found an intersting array of branches that I've used to stand alone in a beautiful vase and even to canopy a veranda cieling for a client in the Caribbean. Crafted wood logs are found in many high end furntiure stores and can cost a pretty penny.  Although I can appreciate the craftsmenship, there are many pieces on the streets that nature has crafted for you.  They might need a little sanding and or stripping, but that's totally an individual choice.
            Besides the streets and other natural enviroments, I find the use of nature and therefore inspiration in cool lounges, restaurants, funky boutiques and strolling past chic hair salons in New York. For me, they provide great ideas to bring home to make a space warm, sexy, and interesting.  So the next time you're out and about, beware, there are many natural and practical ways to bring life to your space.