Faux Plants for Indoors

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I love using plants in my decor.

They’re natural, organic, they clean the air we breathe,

and they bring so much life to a space.

But if you’ve been around here for more than a few minutes,

then you know that I struggle with keeping real plants alive.

(You can read about that HERE)

So lately I’ve been using just a few faux plants here and there in my decor.

And to be honest,

sometimes you can’t tell the difference between real and faux.

But not all fake plants are created equal,

so here are my best tips about

using faux plans for indoors:

CHOOSE REALISTIC LOOKING PLANTS

Let’s face it — there are just some bad looking fakes out there.

BUT — there are also some really good ones out there too!

So, to begin with, get the best looking artificial plant you can find.

Look for foliage with some variation in color, size and shape.

It also helps if there are some leaves that look more mature and some that look ‘just sprouted’.

This is just an inexpensive stem I found at Hobby Lobby but it looks surprisingly real.

‘PLANT’ YOUR STEM

Stick your stem into an old pot of dried dirt (you know I have lots of those around from some of my less fortunate house plants!)

Make sure to push it all the way down to where the branches come out of the stem.

If the stem is too long, you can cut some off of the bottom with wire cutters.

PUT THE POT INTO A DECORATIVE CONTAINER

I’m using my vintage soup tureen

but you could use any type of planter or pot.

COVER THE PLASTIC POT WITH SPANISH MOSS

Stuff Spanish moss around the edges of the plastic pot to hide it

I like to leave a little of the dirt showing to add to the realistic effect.

FLUFF THE FOLIAGE

Gently pull the branches apart and arrange them so they look the way a live plant would grow.

Darker, more mature leaves are going to be at the center and the base of the plant while the smaller, lighter ‘new’ leaves will be more out on the ends of the branches.

MIX FAUX WITH REAL PLANTS

I think faux plants look more believable when they’re placed next to live indoor plants.

Mix your artificial plant in with different varieties of real plants. (You don’t want to place them next to a real version of the same variety as the faux plant — it’ll just make it obvious that the fake is a fake.)

KEEP ‘EM CLEAN

Faux plants definitely look their worst when they’re dusty. So clean them regularly.