How to make a floral centerpiece

Stylish homeowners will love these pretty table centres - they also make the ideal table decoration for socially distant garden gatherings!

Try our magazines – get 6 issues from just £9.99!

Holly Spanner

Published: July 5, 2024 at 12:34 pm

Gorgeous table centres can make a huge impact at a special dinner, or just set a warm, friendly tone for a casual lunch with the girls.

This simple yet stylish centrepiece is easy to make, but it has a professional look that’ll bring the orders flooding in.

You can buy a ready-made vase cover, or create your own with strips of bark you gather yourself and dry or buy online. We used three types of flower along with some seed heads in our arrangement and opted for a white-hot colour scheme.

But if you fancy something different you can dramatically change the effect by choosing different colours, flowers and textures to create something totally unique!

If you want a longer- lasting table centre, use silk flowers instead of real ones

This project, how to make a floral centerpiece, was designed by Pembrokeshire florist Marie Parie, of By The Sea. Bookmark her page, By The Sea Flowers, if you’re after beautiful wedding flowers, sympathy flowers or floral gifts – she runs floristry workshops, too!

And if you like this project, have a look at our other floristry articles by Marie Parry - we love this DIY terrarium - or how about this gorgeous planter box made from an upcycled toolbox!

We love seeing your projects, so don’t forget to share your floristry projects with us on Facebook and Twitter, too!

To make a floral centerpiece you will need:

Small square glass vase
Bark strips or bark vase cover
Flowers (we used scabious, poppy seed heads, phytolacca and eupatorium)
Sellotape

How to make a floral centerpiece

Size

25 x 25cm (10 x 10in)

Step 1

First, condition the flowers you’ve bought by removing any leaves that will sit below the waterline of the vase, then trim the ends at an angle.

Leave them in water for a few hours.

Step 2

Either use a pre-made bark cover, or to make your own, lay a square of 15cm (6in) bark or cork onto a flat surface. Layer 15 x 2cm (6 x 1⁄2in) bark strips around the edges in a square shape, sticking or stapling the corners as you go.

Keep going until you reach the height of the vase.

Step 3

Take a glass vase and add water so it is roughly half full. Add flower food. Use four strips of sellotape to create a grid across the top of the vase; stick two strips one way and two the other, so you have nine squares.

Put the vase back inside the cover.

Step 4

Arrange your flowers by poking the stems into the empty spaces in the sellotape grid you’ve made. Add the tallest stems in the centre first, then use the outside squares to create your shape. Add the largest flowers, then fill in with the second largest and so on.

We created the shape using eupatorium, then added the seed heads and phytolacca. We added the scabious last, then filled any gaps with eupatorium.

How to make a floral centerpiece

Staff Writer, BBC Science Focus

Holly is the Staff Writer for BBC Science Focus and looks after the popular Q&A section. She holds an MSc (distinction) in Geoscience (Space and Climate Physics) from UCL, and specialises in astronomy and earth sciences. Before joining Our Media, she worked as a geoenvironmental consultant and engineer, informing on ground risk and remediation in the north of England, while hunting for exoplanets in her spare time. Alongside this, she was regional editor of a popular theatre website for nine years, and has a solid background in curating and developing content for the digital space. Holly is also an artist and illustrator, and regular contributor to the craft website, Gathered. She has previously worked with the RSPB, English Heritage, Disney, Pilot and Brother, as well as on BBC Good Food magazine, Home Style magazine, and Papercraft inspirations magazine. She enjoys photography and has a sustained interest in antiques.