What do Tulips, Keukenhof and Interior Design all have in Common?

Have you been to Keukenhof? I went with my dad back in 2015 which was something that had been on my wish list for a long time. My dad had been before with my mum previously and she had raved about it, so I knew it had to be good, and I knew I wanted to go. So we planned our trip and took the Channel Tunnel and drove (well my dad did) in his beautiful soft top car all the way to Lisse in the Netherlands.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of beautiful bulbs there was at Keukenhof. Its translation to English is 'Kitchen Garden', and is also known as the 'Garden of Europe', being given the title of the world's largest flower garden.

It is 32 hectares and has 7 million flower bulbs which are predominately tulips, but also include other bulbs such as daffodils. Keukenhof is only open to the public for 8 weeks of the year (other private festivals happen throughout the year) during Mid March to May. During 2019 1.5 million visitors went to Keukenhoff which is the equivalent of 26,000 visitors per day! I have to say it was busy back in 2015 when I visited, but as the gardens are so large, it didn't feel too crowded, except in certain hot spots. You can also walk to the tulip fields nearby where tulips are grown in very precise rows and colour group to be sold all over Europe (and probably the world too!)

The planting for this event every year takes place from October to December, and all fingers and toes are crossed for a stunning display come the spring. We also watched a street parade to celebrate the tulip festival, which included largely decorated vehicles and floats with flowers which was another amazing sight.

So when this memory popped up on my social media account recently it made me realise how inspired we can be by visiting these places and how one detail (such as tulips) can be transferred into our homes.

Here are some beautiful tulip inspired wallpaper designs I came across while researching this blog post. Which one is your favourite?

Some Wallpaper Inspired by Tulips

1. Milton and King

2. Liberty

3. Designers Guild

4. Galerie

5. Sanderson

6. Scion

So after being so inspired by tulips and their design, I've put together a hypothetical Inspiration Board starting with a tulip based wallpaper and working an interior design around it for a dining room.

Inspiration Board

The wallpaper is a geometric design from Scion called Padukka. I've added in some paint colour I feel compliment it (the beautiful air force blue to draw out the blue background from the wallpaper, which is from Little Greene, and Masquerade to compliment the peachy pink tulip heads)

The same petrol blue colour dining chairs and dining table with complimenting stand are from John Lewis, and the occasional chair is from MADE.com. I've added in a natural style rug from Ikea to go underneath the dining table, to balance this design as the wallpaper is quite a busy design. It also zones the dining area when the room might be used for multiple purposes like reading and relaxing too.

I've added in some lovely wall lights also from MADE.com which I loved the ribbed texture of, and they subtly fit in with another of the tulip head colours. Finally I've added in a large faux house plant from John Lewis to balance out the neutral colours of the room and add some texture.

The same Scion print comes in a rug, blinds and curtains, so if you love the print and want to add more then that is possible too. I would pick one of those three extra items to add so not to overwhelm the space with print, but there is definitely room for more to be added in if you wish.

I hope you love my ideas and inspiration from this blog post and they too have inspired you.

If you need a little more 1-1 help with designing, planning and styling a room scheme then I’d love to help. You can email me at hello@laurenmayinteriors.com or call/ text on 07712185467. You can find out more about my Services here on my website www.laurenmayinteriors.com and see some of my portfolio projects. There are also some lovely kind words from some of the people I've worked with so you start to get an idea of what it would be like to work with me.

I can’t wait to hear from you and learn about your project.

Have a great weekend.

Lauren X