The price of groceries is up — no doubt about it. But compared with the cost of decorative accessories or professional floral arrangements, the things you can find at a supermarket are a relative bargain.
And that’s just one of the reasons you should try decorating with them, say Miles Redd and David Kaihoi.
The pair, who are partners at the New York-based interior design firm Redd Kaihoi, believe that fruit, herbs, nuts and cellophane-wrapped flowers can be just as compelling as rarefied objects when handled in the right way.
“We actually do this for every client, on every installation,” said Mr. Kaihoi, 46. “You’ve got these rooms that have been thought about for years, but then we do a sweep through the grocery store on that final day.”
“You put something in the right cup or five-dollar straw basket,” added Mr. Redd, 55, “and it transforms it.”
He invited us into his Manhattan townhouse to demonstrate how he and Mr. Kaihoi do it.
Go Shopping
First and foremost, look for freshness in your grocery-store finds, Mr. Redd said.
When he and Mr. Kaihoi recently visited Whole Foods on Houston Street, Mr. Redd snapped up prepackaged spider mums just inside the front door. “People look at mums as a second-rate flower,” he said. “But, no — they can look amazing.”
They added a plastic-wrapped bunch of cut lilies, as well as a jasmine plant and an orchid in plastic pots.
In the produce section, Mr. Redd grabbed two fistfuls of fresh mint. “It’s kind of a go-to,” he said. “I mean, see how fresh that looks?”
Then they spied juicy-looking nectarines and loaded about a dozen of them into the cart, along with lemons and limes.
Hoping to find walnuts in shells, they proceeded to the snack aisle, only to be disappointed by nuts that had already been shelled, which they deemed unit for decoration.
“The nuts,” Mr. Redd said, “are a bust.”
The total bill: $78.70.
Eliminate the Packaging
Back at Mr. Redd’s townhouse, the designers got to work in the kitchen.
First, they removed every trace of grocery-store packaging. They released the cut flowers from their plastic wrappers, cut away the elastic bands holding the mint together, removed the plastic clips keeping orchid stems upright and unpeeled every last sticker from the fruit.
“Packaging and stickers are the bane of my existence,” Mr. Redd said with a laugh.
Choose Some Containers
Mr. Redd had a variety of containers at home to choose from, and he and Mr. Kaihoi followed a few simple rules when deciding which ones to use.
The container must be the right size: large enough to fully conceal any internal plastic pot, but not so big that it dwarfs the contents.
The material and color of the container must look good where you plan to install it, so study it in place before you fill it.
Finally, the monetary value of the container is irrelevant. Lavish cut-crystal vases can be combined with recycled water bottles made of colored glass — and the designers did just that in their displays.
“If you look at condiment bottles and liquor bottles” through a different lens, Mr. Redd said, “there is good design everywhere.”
Arrange Your Finds Creatively
To give grocery-store flowers an upgrade, you’ll need to change the way they’re displayed.
Grabbing the spider mums, Mr. Redd lopped off the long stems, peeled away the remaining leaves and stuffed bunches of the flowers into silver cups, creating a colorful display that resembled fireworks.
“It suddenly becomes not a chrysanthemum but an architectural piece,” Mr. Redd said. “And a lot less grocery store.”
The mint sprigs were doused in water and shaken over the sink to give them more volume. Then Mr. Kaihoi placed them in another silver cup, stowing the arrangement in the refrigerator to freshen it up.
After that, he heaped the nectarines in a large cobalt-blue glass vessel, loosely arranging them in a pyramid form. He placed the lemons and limes in a straw basket with an open weave and sliced a couple open, placing them on the living room bar.
Place and Enjoy
As they finished arranging their finds in each container, the designers moved them from the kitchen to the living or dining room. By the time they were done, they had placed one piece on nearly every tabletop and three pieces on the dining table.
“It’s those little details that make you feel so good,” Mr. Redd said, surveying the result.
And don’t forget to eat some of your grocery-store décor.
He makes smoothies every morning, he noted, and “I’ll use every bit of that mint.”
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