Flowers have been used for centuries to decorate and perfume houses. Bringing fresh cut flowers into your home adds colour and scent it is true, but the flowers add an extra dimension that cannot be created with soft furnishings and accessories - they bring with them a sense of life and growth, making a room come alive. Think how welcoming Flowers are when you find an elegant arrangement in a hotel lobby or a simple posy on a restaurant table. Having fresh flowers in your home, even if only at weekends or during holidays, will instantly cheer you, your family and friends and make your home much more welcoming.

Each season brings a fresh range of flowers and foliage to used around the house, and weather you wish to create a formal arrangement for a celebration or simply add some fresh flowers to a room, there is always something new to try. You can make the most of special features in any room with a carefully chosen and arranged selection of flowers, empty fireplaces, table tops bedside cabinets, vanity shelves in bathroom and kitchen tables are all ideal places to feature an arrangement of coloreful flowers.

There is a lot of mystique surrounding the skill of flower arranging, but with practice, you will find that your eye soon develops so that you create increasingly effective arrangements. Once you have chosen a group of flowers and foliage that you think will go well together, consider where the arrangement will be place and which container you plan to use.

It is then a matter of creating a shape that suits all three and that shows off the flowers and foliage to their best advantage. Some people find this a very simple process; others have to take their time and make what they believe to be mistakes along the way.

Keep a record of arrangements that catch your eye and try to think why they attract you, is it the choice of colours? The container? Or the particular flowers that have been used? Dramatic arrangements in hotel lobbies, for example are great inspiration for smaller scale arrangements in your own home.

Used books, magazines, fabrics, and gardens to give you ideas of colours and shapes, too, but don't be afraid to experiment, you will soon get to know what works and what does not.