Sprucing Up Your Space

After the excitement of celebrating the holidays and ringing in a new year has passed, it begins to seem like the short, cold, gray winter days will never end. 

But by the first morning of March, spring slowly begins to bud, offering a few minutes more of daylight each day and a glimpse at the color ahead, promising to find the right moment to blossom. Springtime is nature’s awakening, its vibrant color nature’s gift. 

The warmer days and the array of colors of spring invigorate the spirit and inspire us to begin a new chapter. Sprucing up your space by introducing new design elements will certainly pull you out of the winter doldrums and maybe even inspire a little spring-cleaning!

When it comes to making your house feel like a home, co-owners Tom Bynum, Monroe Cranford and their dream-team at Flowers & Home in Benton and Hot Springs have you covered. Flowers & Home offers a wide variety of services catering to any budget. Whether you are looking for fresh flowers to brighten up your dining room weekly or hoping to customize a piece of furniture to fit your unique style, Flowers & Home offers interior design and floral services that cover the spectrum. 

Since 2012, Flowers & Home have provided beauty and joy to their customers. From baby showers and weddings, to anniversaries and Christmas, Flowers & Home has celebrated with their clients at every stage of life. “I worked in the architectural business for 28 years,” said Tom. “As a child, I would cut out furniture from catalogs and put together a design—I always loved doing this.”

Throughout the years, friends would ask Tom to provide interior design advice for their homes. After nearly 30 years, he changed careers to focus on interior design full-time with his partner and co-owner of Flowers & Home, Monroe Cranford. Monroe has obtained the highest certification awarded to a professional floral designer from the American Institute of Floral Designers, and was a freelancer before establishing Flowers & Home.

Now with two locations, one in Benton and a second in Hot Springs, Flowers & Home is a full service floral and home décor store. Each location offers floral design using fresh floral arrangements—or for those of us who lack a green thumb, permanent botanicals.

From October to December, Flowers & Home is in particularly high demand with their holiday decorating services. Both families and businesses have sought design help from Tom and Monroe. The last four years, they’ve decorated the Arkansas State Capitol building for the holiday season. 

Both locations also offer a wide variety of home décor items including furniture, artwork, lamps, accent pieces, pillows, bedding and much more. If you find yourself overwhelmed with the thought of updating or decorating a room, seek the support of Flowers & Home. 

Tom and his team will provide an onsite consultation and create a plan to meet your design needs. “We walk through the client’s home and listen to what they would like to accomplish,” said Tom. “We ask them to show us one of their favorite pieces in their home. We focus on what they really love and we build off of this. We then offer suggestions to add or edit and make an overall plan for that client.” Whether you want to change the paint color in a room, or need help designing an entire house, Tom and his team provide their clients a road map for how they can achieve their design goals. 

“Depending on the scope of the work, some projects take a couple of weeks and some take a couple of months,” says Tom. “Many clients will ask us to design a room at a time. A year later, the road map we have created for them gives clients an idea of which room they could design next. My team and I are here to offer a fresh eye for projects. We steer them in a direction that is cohesive.” 

Tom’s Tips:

• Eliminate clutter; less is more when it comes to decorating a space

• Invest in statement pieces

You also can’t go wrong by investing in your linens. Towels and bedding are items you use every day. You want to invest in pieces that are durable and comfortable, and that showcase your style. 

“We love making joy happen for our clients,” said Tom. “The love of this job is a personal drive—I get up every morning and go. Each year our team visits the Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles markets to keep on top of the latest trends in design.

When asked what he anticipates most this spring, he says, “I’m most looking forward to the life of spring, and the color.”