Shed Style

In an extract from her new book Shed Style: Decorating Cabins, Huts, Pods, Sheds & Other Garden Rooms, Selina Lake discusses her award winning ‘floral-party’ inspired greenhouse design at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

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Being commissioned to style the Alitex stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, the most prestigious horticultural show in the world was a dream job as well as a personal career highlight for me. Alitex specialises in greenhouses and conservatories, designing and building unique spaces where plants thrive and people flourish. It’s a family business and has been exhibiting at RHS Chelsea for more than 50 years. I wanted the Alitex stand to be a talking point at the fair, so I devised a vibrant ‘floral party’ theme to showcase their bespoke greenhouse. The theme celebrated all things floral – very fitting for the famous flower show – and gave visitors a treat for all the senses. The generous size of the structure provided an opportunity to demonstrate a multitude of different uses for a greenhouse. The main feature was a dining table surrounded by mismatched chairs. With the assistance of Sarah Prall, I dressed it with seasonal cut flowers in glass vases. By the door, I arranged a bamboo bench from IKEA layered with vintage eiderdowns and a mattress from Danish homeware brand bungalow.dk. When it came to styling the greenhouse, I deliberately opted for items not typically associated with the outdoors, such as neon lighting by Love Inc., cushions, mirrors, framed artwor