Plants breathe life into your home – but not all of us have green thumbs. Today I’m sharing where I’ve had some success with faux greenery and I’ll show you how I’ve incorporated them into my decor.
Through blogging, I’ve had to learn a lot about photography and staging.
I’m still not particularly good at it, but over the years I have improved.
One tip that an interior design blogger told me was that “the best photos are the ones that have greenery in them. Plants breath life and warmth into a room.”
It’s true! If you look on Instagram at any interior design blogger’s page, you’ll see plants in almost every shot.
That’s all well and good if you have a green thumb – and mine certainly is not. (I have literally made succulents explode – and I didn’t even know they could do that!)
I have a few live plants around the house, because I do like real plants and the benefits they provide in air quality and aesthetics – but I’ve really increased the amount of faux greenery in my home too.
I used to think that the only place you could buy ‘decent’ faux flowers was Michael’s. Grab your 40% off coupon and buy a stem at a time until you had 5 or 7 – because their plants come with pretty hefty price tags and full price was too much of a splurge for me.
But I’ve recently had some great luck finding faux greenery that look beautiful, will add life to your decor and won’t cost you your first-born child.
* Following are Amazon affiliate links to the items I purchased. For full affiliate disclosure, please see sidebar or bottom of the page.
My first, and favourite find, were these faux eucalyptus stems I bought from Ikea.
Yes! Ikea! These are called Smycka eucalyptus, and at $6.99 CDN per stem (and each stem has about 5 branches off of it) they are an AMAZING deal!!
As per any fake flowers or stems you buy – the wire is covered with a plastic branch-moulded covering. In this case, it really wasn’t hideous or glaringly obvious at all.
I did find these faux silver dollar eucalyptus branches on Amazon, and they came in a close second. My only problem with these faux greens is that they arrived pretty wrinkled from shipping. Nothing you can’t steam out – so really not that big a deal – and they are a pretty convincing fake:
Currently available for $29.99 CDN for a set of 6 faux eucalyptus stems – with approximately three branches per stem – these are slightly less expensive. I actually mixed the Ikea stems and the silver dollar stems in the same vase and you can’t tell which is which.
My daughter doesn’t like these next faux greenery stems that I bought – but I kind of like them.
The shorter plant at the top is real – but it’s been 2 years and that sucker has barely grown enough to hang out of the planter. I decided to try these String of Pearls faux greens to bring in a little overflow to the pot (until it actually fills in itself – if ever).
Miss Maddie thinks they are too green – and they are certainly more vibrant than an actual string of pearls plant – but I don’t find them too bad?
Does anyone really get this close to inspect plants?
I’ll leave it up to you. At $20.99 CDN for 8 stems – with about 5 branches per stem – it’s a pretty good deal? I wonder if you could spray paint them in a less vibrant green?
Forget it – I like them! I’m leaving them (for now).
I’ve noticed a lot of olive branches in arrangements lately, and while I’m not keen on olives, I did find these faux branches that are quite pretty.
They are 28″ long and come in a set of 6 stems for $39.88 CDN. (each stem has 3 branches). The vase above has 5 stems in it and I thought adding the 6th made it look too much like a bush – so they are quite full.
My last faux greenery success were these artificial cherry blossom flowers.
They bring a little Spring into your decor and are actually very real looking!
They come in white or pink and are 41″ tall, so you can really make a statement, or fold the stems in half for something less dramatic.
They are slightly more expensive at $39.99 CDN for 4 stems, but each stem as 4 branches. Beautiful, full and still much less than Michael’s.
In fact, I purchased faux forsythia stems from Pier 1 imports a few years ago and I’m pretty sure they were about $20 per stem (this size) on sale!
I read the reviews online before choosing which to buy and I believe there were one or two complaints about the flowers coming off in shipping. In my case, only 2 flowers came off total (on 6 stems), and none of the flowers were crushed or wrinkled. They went right from packaging into this vase. I have no complaints whatsoever.
I have them in the landing on my staircase right now, but as we get closer to Spring I’ll move them to a larger vase on my coffee table.
That’s another FANTASTIC perk of faux greenery! No matter the room or the lighting, you can put them anywhere and they won’t die! I have a few bunches of different stems and branches and I pull them out and put them away as the season’s change.
Speaking of… maybe it’s time to start looking for fake pussywillowss?
I just wanted to share a few successes I’ve had because I know how disappointing it is when you get a crappy purchase and have to start the search again. The only one I don’t give a full 5-stars to is the string of pearls… but again, from a distance they work well and I won’t be returning them.
If I come across others that are different or better, I’ll update this post – so bookmark or pin it now and refer back as needed.
Have a great one!