The Designer-Approved Tip To Modernize Tired Florals Around Your Home

When you think of all the options that are out there for patterns to use in your home decorating, it's likely that florals are near the top of the list, even if you aren't a huge fan of them. While decorating with floral prints might be considered outdated or tired at times, these patterns never really fall completely out of style. After all, who could strongly dislike flowers? Humans have been intentionally growing them for over 10,000 years.

Embracing floral patterns in your home, however, doesn't have to evoke childhood memories of your grandma's house. This is where tips from modern designers come in. Phoenix Orion Grey — of TikTok fame — recently took to Instagram to advise those who are willing to give florals a chance to combine them with geometric patterns to give them structure and bring them into the current era. Consider this your guide to creating a modern aesthetic featuring botanical patterns that is not your grandmother's floral décor. 

According to Pheonix Orion Grey's Instagram tip, combining a floral print with a geometric print in the same color family serves to give the floral some cohesive structure and to buffer a bit of its signature softness. This is what replaces the feeling of grandma's old floral wallpaper with a bolder, more modern impression. Other designers share similar sentiments when it comes to relying on geometric patterns to modernize florals, rather than leaving floral patterns in the dust.

The designers at Nell Hill's recommend combining your chosen floral patterns with one large geometric pattern and one small one, all from the same color family. This ensures that there is sustained visual interest and that the floral doesn't take over the design and result in a dated or tired aesthetic. For example, a floral print that features green foliage could be combined with a wide-striped chair and a small-polka-dotted throw pillow that each feature a similar shade of green.

Which patterns you combine within your home's design is largely up to you and your specific preferences. However, using designer tips as general guidelines is a great way to make sure you end up with an overall aesthetic that feels comfortable and cohesive while representing you and your personal interior style. If featuring florals in a way that doesn't feel tired is your goal, start by picking out your favorite floral print for the room you're decorating.

Once you've chosen your floral focal piece — whether it's wallpaper or furniture — choose a color from the pattern to accentuate. Perhaps it's the green of the leaves, the yellow of sunflowers petals, or the black of the pattern's background. Now, select a large and a small geometric pattern in the color family of the shade you chose to accentuate. If you chose a pink peony floral pattern, for instance, you may end up with a floral accent wall, a rug that features a large, deep fuchsia square pattern, and baby-pink pinstriped wallpaper on the other three walls. The possibilities are endless once you know how to feature a floral in a modern manner.