Bring a piece of the garden indoors

The sweet smell and bright colors of a flower garden add beauty to any lawn. Why not use that same beauty to brighten the inside of your home?” ask Jerri Farris and Tim Himsel, authors of “Flea Market Style” (Creative Publishing).

Their book offers these instructions on how you can fill your home with fragrance and color using buckets of flowers.

Materials: Buckets, cake tins, landscape fabric, gravel, lightweight potting soil, plants, ceiling hook (rated for at least 25 pounds), scrap of hardwood 1x2, rope, pulley and a brass chain.

1. Poke six or eight holes in a cake tin or aluminum pie pan using an awl or nail set. Set a pan (upside down) into the bottom of each bucket. Cover each pan with a piece of landscape fabric and a 2-inch layer of pea gravel. Add potting soil and plants.

2. Install a large hook in the ceiling — use hardware designed for the load and be sure you hit a joist. Drill a hold a half-inch in diameter few inches from each end of a 10-inch piece of a hardwood 1x2. Run a rope around the pulley and thread one end through each hole in the 1x2. Suspend the pulley from a chain attached to the ceiling hook, then tie one end of the rope to each bucket.

According to Farris and Himsel, “The idea and spirit behind flea market style is furnishing your home with found objects to create a new twist on an old staple.” Their book includes step-by-step directions for nearly two dozen of their favorite project ideas that encompass this fun and creative spirit.