JUN 2015

The Good Reason This Abandoned Home Was Filled With Flowers

When we first heard about florist Lisa Waud's plan to turn an abandoned house in Hamtrack, Michigan into beautiful flower-covered oasis as part of an exhibit planned for October, we were definitely intrigued. Now, thanks to a recent preview event to raise money for the project, we're getting a sneak peak at what the "Flower House" will look like.

A few months ago, Lisa purchased two side-by-side abandoned houses for only $500, with a vision of filling the walls and ceilings with with living plants and American-grown flowers for a four-day exhibit that will be open to the public during the third weekend of October 2015. Once the exhibit is complete, it will be broken down, and the buildings will be turned into a flower farm and design center.

"When you live in Detroit, it's hard to not notice an abundance of abandoned houses, and one day, I began looking at them as a resource, and it wasn't too much longer before I was at a city auction with my hand up," Lisa told Bored Panda.

Since then, this project has evolved to include an emphasis on sustainability. Lisa wants to inspire others to see abandoned structures as platforms that can be used in an environmentally responsible way.

This preview weekend, for which florists covered the first floor of one of the homes in thousands of blooms over 48 hours, was intended to show the story of the Flower House in three parts: a house filled with flowers, a deconstruction project partnering with Reclaim Detroit to reuse up to 75 percent of the materials in the structures, and the launch of an urban flower farm for Lisa's floral design company, pot & box.

The complete Flower House exhibit will take place from October 16-18. According to the Huffington Post, while the preview event only covered a former storefront on the first floor of one of the abandoned homes, the main event will completely transform 15 rooms of the other house.

In addition to raising money for the exhibit and deconstruction project, the preview gave florists the chance to test out ideas for October.