Meet Lara, the stylist and DIYer behind @liv.and.bloom. Here you'll find tips and inspiration to help you elevate your home and make your place a sanctuary that reflects your unique personality.
She's really good at pulling together all the details of a room and making it feel warm, cozy and cohesive, with a belief that a beautiful home should always be accessible even if you are on a budget.
Let's go one level deeper and get to know Lara more (and how awesome she is).
1. How did you get into creating home-styling content?
I've always loved decorating, renovating my home and making it a place that I enjoy. However, about two years or so ago, I was kind of at a crossroad with a previous business I owned and I started doing some DIYs as a way to relax and enjoy some time for myself. I started sharing them on Instagram without any further thoughts and found myself being contacted by different brands to create content for them. That's how I transitioned organically into content creation. A blog followed because I love writing and sharing my learnings.
Shortly afterwards, people through Instagram started reaching out for help in designing their spaces and I also started doing home styling and design as a business.
2. What spot in your home do you feel most comfortable in, and why?
Right now, I love my living room, for many reasons. It's a space we renovated and added many structural and other elements we love such as arches. It's airy, comfortable, cozy and has a lot of natural light. I've of course decorated it as well to my liking and added many different size plants. It's a space where we spend time as a family, gather with friends and make memories.
3. What advice would you give to a first-time home styler?
There are many things I'd share.
The first is to find what brings you joy instead of following trends. I believe that a home should reflect one's personality and memories, so it is important that the space makes them feel good. The other thing is to take their time, and not rush into doing everything at once because our needs and taste evolve, and oftentimes we can create a space with many things we already have. I'd also tell them to include lots of greenery. Plants are one of my favorite way to decorate. They help bring nature in, add a touch of colour and brightness to any space.
4. How did you first develop your love of plants?
I've always loved nature, and when I graduated from university, I worked in my family business at the time which specialized in tropical plants and flowers. I learnt a lot about plants and have always seen my parents' house full of plants. So, I guess I'm naturally drawn to them. What evolved is finding my taste in plants, which ones I liked more and which fit my style, and learning about what works in different spaces.
5. What is your favourite plant and why?
This is such a hard question because I love way too many of them :) But, if I try categorizing, I'd say I love Ficus Lyrata and olive trees in the bigger size plants. And I love delicate plants in the smaller ones such as Pileas and String of pearls. I find them cute, and they add a lot of interest. Finally, I have to add that gardenias have been my favourite flowering plants since I was a kid!
6. What is your best plant-care tip?
Although each plant has its own needs, I think it's important to see how a plant adapts to its environment and go from there. Sometimes I see myself changing where I place a plant even if all the requirements have been checked off simply because it may not be thriving as much as I think it could. The same goes for watering, even if a plant needs watering once a week, sometimes it may be different in the environment it's in and so it's about watching and adapting. Of course, there are some basics to follow like light and temperature and so on for most of them.
Let's take a look at how Lara styles some of her plants: