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How to Decorate

Ep. 338: Floral Designs for the Table with Cathy B. Graham

How to Decorate

Caroline McDonald

Arts, Business, Design

4.4838 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s all about flower power this week as we welcome award-winning artist and fashion illustrator, Cathy B. Graham. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, and more. Cathy has been a contributing editor to House Beautiful and Elle Decor. In our conversation with Cathy, we talk about the inspiration behind her recently released second book, Full Bloom: Joyful Designs for the Table. She gives us her expert tips on everything, from finding the perfect flowers for your event, to picking unexpected trinkets and additions that delight you, expanding your color palette, and creative table setting ideas.  What You’ll Hear On This Episode: How Cathy got into floral design from a background in fashion illustration. A few of the many things Cathy learned from working with the late floral designer and event planner, Robert Isabell. Yes, even those who aren’t super artistic can learn about floral design and arrangements and surprise themselves! More about Cathy’s beautiful arrangements on plates and tablescapes. Simple ways to use florals to create the mood in your home or event. Flower arranging techniques and vase selection. How soon before an event should you buy flowers? Pairing flowers within a color family for beautiful arrangements. Adding unique elements like fruits and vegetables to create textured arrangements. Let your imagination run wild! If you like a bit of shine and sparkle, don’t be afraid to add things like glitter, garland, and trinkets that make you happy. Some of Cathy’s favorite house plants. Mentioned:  Ballard Designs Cathy B. Graham @cathygraham Full Bloom Second Bloom   Please send in your questions and decorating dilemmas to podcast@ballarddesigns.net so we can answer them on our next episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.

0:08.9

Each week will help you unleash your inner decorator.

0:11.6

I'm Caroline, and I'm on the marketing team.

0:14.0

And I'm Taryn and I'm a product designer.

0:16.0

And I'm Liz.

0:16.8

I head up the Ballard creative team.

0:18.4

We're your host.

0:19.9

Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world.

0:26.1

Plus, we'll answer our listener question at the end of each show.

0:29.0

So don't forget to send them to podcast of Ballarddesigns.net.

0:32.1

Yes, we love answering them.

0:33.8

Now on with the show.

0:36.3

Our guest today is an award-witting artist and fashion illustrator, Kathy B. Graham.

0:40.8

Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, and more.

0:45.8

And she's been a contributing editor to House Beautiful and El Decor.

0:49.2

She's also a flower designer, or I'm sorry, a floral designer and a passionate gardener.

0:53.8

And in 2017, she released her

0:55.3

first book, Second Bloom, with Bondon Press. And today we'll be talking about her second book

1:00.0

with VanDen Press, Full Bloom. Kathy, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be

1:05.7

doing this. I did not know what to expect when I picked your book up. I obviously knew it was about floral arrangements, but I wasn't familiar with your work before opening it.

1:16.6

And I was just completely blown away by the creativity, the whimsy, and just the artistry of the book.

1:23.6

You know, you don't just showcase flower arrangements, but you create like still

...

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