an unexpected Valentine's Day cloche centerpiece | DIY

A lot of planning goes into creating these centerpieces and, often, it’s a conversation that starts with a wishlist of pieces Joanna wants to incorporate. For example, for this Valentine’s Day, she’s planned an unexpected tablescape that feels rich, elegant, and moody — almost like a baroque still life oil painting (editor’s note: specifically Jan Davidsz de Heem!). Not gonna lie… when she sent me her color palette ideas, I was interested, but definitely skeptical of the yellow she wanted to add in… but I trusted her always on-point vision and went for it. I found these Dark Landini lilies and immediately knew we had to use them (and they were ready for harvest just in time for us to use). The rich burgundy hue provide the perfect balance for the pop of yellow, especially when enclosed a classic glass cloche. I assembled two of them to serve as the backdrop for the dinner for two and they ended up being so stunning and rich.

An Unexpected Valentine’s Day Cloche Centerpiece DIY

Materials:

Dark Landini lilies
yellow ranunculus
pussy willow branches
dried poppy pods
jasmine vine
a set of glass cloches
assorted marble bases
flower pin frogs — 1 small, 1 large
floral sheers

Each cloche is filled with only a handful of stems, but each one needed to be cut and placed precisely to create the perfect silhouette. I left the cloche sitting next to the flower frog while I worked so that I could see how tall to cut each stem. To start, place the floral frog on your marble base. Using the cloche means everything needs to fit inside it, which means cutting flowers waaay shorter than you normally would, especially for the small cloche. For the larger arrangement, I placed the lily first, followed by the ranunculus so that I could space the pops of yellow. Then, I filled in with pussy willow and poppy pods. The smaller cloche wouldn’t hold a lily, so I started with the ranunculus and was able to add an unopened lily bloom to accent it. Then I added pussy willow and poppy pods. Putting the cloche over the flowers requires some finesse because you want to avoid knocking the flowers out of place, bending them or having any pressed up against the glass.

Also, keep in mind that the floral silhouette created without a marble base isn’t able to be kept in water. These flowers will survive a few hours out of water, but if you choose to go this route, don’t create your design more than an hour or so before you plan to use it.

Ranunculus are so perfect and, while I am not usually a big fan of the yellow, they somehow looked so perfect with the other tones in this floral display. Pussy-willow was a fun addition to this shoot because not only does it add an awesome textural element, but who can resist a name like pussy-willow for Valentine’s Day (don’t judge me). I couldn’t find dried poppy pods to use, so I picked up fresh ones about a week and a half before our shoot and began drying them myself. They weren’t dry in time, but I ended up loving their appearance partially dried, so we used them anyways.

Finally jasmine vine is so beautiful and was the obvious choice for draping across the table and around the cloches. The unopened jasmine flowers tied in perfectly with the color of the lilies.

We had planned to use these marble dishes for both cloches, but everything doesn’t aways go according to plan… It turns out that one of our flower pin frogs was just too large to fit inside the larger marble dish! So we nixed the dish and decided to embrace the variety of using one frog directly on the table and one inside the marble dish. Then, because things in threes always look better, I placed a single lily in a marble bowl. It ended up looking perfect.