How I Styled Peonies on My Kitchen Windowsill

Celebrate peony season with a charming kitchen window display using garden blooms, small pitchers, creamers, and collected vessels. This simple floral idea is easy to recreate with peonies, roses, or whatever flowers are blooming in your yard, and it’s perfect for enjoying the beauty of the season at home.

A couple of weeks ago, I celebrated peony season at my house. “Celebrating peony season” means my peonies were blooming, and I was enjoying every minute of it, which included taking way too many pictures.

During this time, I created a few peony arrangements. In the process, I had several buds and short stems that needed to be cut. I hated the thought of tossing them, so I tucked them into a little pitcher and placed them on the window ledge in my kitchen. Then I said to myself, “Well, that looks cute,” which led me down a rabbit hole of creating a whole display on my window ledge and having a little photo shoot.

I haven’t done something like this in a while, and I actually had the best time. It wasn’t all in vain, though, because I also used this as an opportunity to take reference photos for future paintings. In fact, I’ve already made paintings from a couple of the photos.

All of that to say, I didn’t want to take all these pretty photos and keep them to myself, so I decided to create a blog post so you could see them too. I’m hoping all of this will inspire you to do something similar. I know peony season may already be over in many areas, but you could do this with any garden flowers. Stick to one variety or gather a little collection of whatever is blooming in your yard. I have a few rose bushes, and I’m hoping to do the same thing with them, though I’m not sure I’ll have enough blooms. We’ll see!

While this post is a bit more show than tell, I’ll still share a few things along the way. Let’s get into the details. 

The Vessels

For vessels, I used what I had on hand. Little pitchers and creamers were the first things I grabbed, and they worked beautifully for the smaller stems.

I also recently received some adorable little cups from Heinen Delfts Blauw. They have a beautiful new collection and were kind enough to share a few pieces with me. This insn’t sponsored. They were just really kind. You can use the code inspiredbycharm10 to save 10% in their entire shop. (Valid through 9/1/26)

Because I really enjoy painting white vessels with blue details, I knew these would be fun to include. Not only are they adorable to look at, but they are something I can look forward to painting. 

Then, of course, there are my favorite little cups by Emily Fox King. She was making these last year, and I couldn’t add them to my cart quickly enough. You might remember that I decorated this same area with bottle brush trees for Christmas, and these little cups were part of that display, too. While I certainly bought enough, I sure hope she makes more. Emily, if you’re reading this. Wink. Wink.

They are a bit too small for flowers, but I love the shape and color they add to the display. I think having some empty items helps for a little variety. 

The Peonies

I have a variety of peonies in my yard among my 20 or so plants. And I just bought another one yesterday. I wish I could tell you all of their names, but I really don’t know them. Most are classic garden peonies with a few Itoh varieties mixed in.

A couple of these plants are older than I am (or at least parts of them are). They started from pieces of my mom’s plants, and she got them from her grandmother. Isn’t that so cool?

This year, I tried to take a few notes about what I have and what I would like to add. There are only a few more varieties I’d love to bring in, but I’m running out of space, so I may need to gift some of my repeats to friends to make room. 

There was no rhyme or reason to where I put the peonies in my arrangement. I just kept tucking them in until the whole thing looked good to me. I made sure to include some unopened buds, so I could watch them open over the next few days.

By the way, if you want to get the longest life out of your peonies as cut flowers, cut them when they are at the marshmallow stage. This means the bud should feel soft like a marshmallow when you gently squeeze it. If it feels hard, you risk the bud not opening. 

Upkeep

All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased with how this arrangement turned out. Since the vessels are small, you need to add a little water every day. I kept this display going for well over a week. I did have to remove some spent peonies and tuck in new ones along the way, but that was all part of the enjoyment. It was fun to watch things change as new buds opened and flowers got bigger.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy was my allergies. Over the years, they seem to have gotten worse and worse, and having all of these peonies inside was starting to get a little unbearable. I suffered through, but I will admit it’s nice to breathe again and not have a constant headache. Oh, the things we do for love.

Anyway, thanks for hanging out in my kitchen for a bit. I hope you enjoyed this little display as much as I delighted in sharing it with you. May it inspire you to try something similar, whether it’s with peonies, roses, zinnias, herbs, or whatever happens to be blooming around you. I’m already thinking of a few more ideas of my own.

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