Beautiful Butterflies in and Out of Your Home

By Scarlett Lovitt

Do you have a passion for butterflies? If so, would you like to indulge in it and make your home into your own butterfly palace? This does not sound impossible, and as butterflies are so varied and colorful, your home can look absolutely amazing.

Let's find some good ways to add them to your décor.

In your living room, you can decorate the walls with butterfly paintings or posters. It is also relatively easy to find sofa covers that include butterflies in the design. Add to this some cute accessories in the shape of butterflies, and you are clearly indulging in your passion. Complete the look by finding a cute area rug with a butterfly design.

In the bedroom, you can get away with even more. You can find butterfly wallpaper, and even matching sets, with curtains, bedding, and a sweet oval rug, all with a butterfly design. If you would prefer, you could use butterfly furnishings but keep the wall plain, as this might offset the look and make it slightly more subtle. If you want butterflies on the walls, but you either can't afford or don't have time to put up butterfly wallpaper, think of buying adhesive stickers that can be put up on plain walls.

Similarly, butterfly waterproof adhesive stickers can be put on tiles in the kitchen and the bathroom.

But all of this is only a small part of enjoying the beauty of butterflies. If you have a garden, you may wish to attract them to the outside of your home, where you can help them grow and also enjoy watching them.

Butterflies, like so many other creatures, are best lured by food. And one food that butterflies really like is overripe fruit. So don't throw out your soft, squishy bananas, nectarines, peaches, and apples. Arrange them in a ceramic or glass pie plate and decorate it with colorful plastic flowers. The bright colors will help to attract the butterflies. Suspend the plate on the bough of a shady tree, and then sit back and watch. This will be sure to draw the butterflies to your garden, and you can fill your butterfly album with gorgeous photographs. Obviously replace the fruit when it goes moldy or dries out.

If the idea of putting overripe fruit in your garden does not appeal to you, there is another way to attract butterflies, and that is by planting the shrubs and flowers that they like.

Start off by planting wildflowers in a range of colors. Different colors will attract different breeds. Among the varieties of flowers that butterflies really like are: phlox, rosemary, thyme, lavender, verbena, and white and purple alyssum. Shrubs and trees include lilac, honeysuckle, pussy willow, rose of Sharon, and hawthorn.

These plants will not only make your garden look beautiful, but they will draw the butterflies, which will in turn pollinate from them and cause the garden to grow even more. This will benefit both you and the butterflies that you love, turning your garden into a veritable butterfly delight! •

© 2010 Scarlett Lovitt. All rights reserved.

11/6/10