The Interior Trend To Follow Now: Faux Floristry & Botanicals

Pay Attention To Colour

Faux stems have improved so much recently that often it is hard to tell the difference between real and artificial. Generally, it is uniformity in colour and shape that gives less-realistic fauxs away. Always look for natural colour variation and patterning - even within a petal, let alone a flower. Nature isn’t perfect and flowers with petals that have been hand-painted to mimic nature’s discolouration and fading or with slightly wilted petals will always look more realistic than those that are too perfect. 

Mix And Match

Anything goes when it comes to fauxs. The vital thing is that you like them as you will live with them for a while. Feel free to throw away all the traditional rules and choose what makes you happy. You may expect meadow and garden flowers in a country cottage but there is nothing to stop you having architectural plants and cacti or filling your industrial loft with meadow grasses and flowers if that is your pleasure.  

Consider The Room

Bathrooms do lend themselves to hanging stems and green plants. Living rooms, halls and bedrooms love flowers and foliage. Fill kitchens with botanicals and foliage - white blooms can quickly lose their freshness in the kitchen. 

Go Large

Big rooms need big arrangements and big arrangements look fab in smaller rooms. Don’t worry too much about matching colours perfectly to walls and furnishings and remember green foliage and botanicals work everywhere. Sometimes a mass of a single stem - flower or foliage - works wonderfully well too.

Gather Your Blooms

The best way to style your flowers is gathered rather than arranged. You want your bouquets to look effortless and uncontrived. Foliage is a good starting point. There are so many different options from the more traditional eucalyptus to wild grasses and tropical leaves.  Another good reason to have plenty of foliage is because they are usually not too seasonal, which means that you can change your display without spending too much money by taking out a few seasonal flower stems and replacing them while keeping the majority of the arrangement the same.
Don’t over-faff. Often the more you try to ‘perfect’ your arrangement, the less natural it will look. A natural looking arrangement will have flower heads at different heights and balance without symmetry.

Make A Simple Statement

An arrangement doesn't need to be about a variety of blooms. Sometimes just a single stem in a statement vase or a vase with a mass of the same stem can be just as effective.

Don’t Be Too Gentle

Putting together an arrangement with fauxs couldn't be easier. Most stems are wired which makes them really easy to shape to fill in gaps and create a sense of movement. And don't worry, they are tougher than they look.

Think About The Vase

Think about your vessel as this will affect the stems you choose. The size of the neck of the vessel and its height are important when choosing stems. A vase with a wide neck will need lots of stems or stems with big heads sitting low in the vase. As to height, just bend the stems to the required height but if you are using a clear glass vase the stems will need to be cut and you will need wire cutters for this as the wire will defeat scissors.

Cheat On Fragrance

The upsetting thing about faux flowers is they don’t bring scent to a home. Cheat by lighting a candle or diffuser behind the arrangement.

Take Care Of Your Flowers

Most good quality faux flowers will last a long time - years rather than months - when kept dry and out of direct sunlight. Keep them clean by blowing off dust with a hairdryer on a cold and gentle setting or wiping with a damp cloth.
 Ready to adopt the faux flower trend? Go plastic with these artificial picks below...