Budget Decorating-Tips for Picking Out Faux Floral
Today we're talking Spring decorating and how to get the look for less. When we think about Spring décor it usually involves a lot of color and flowers. Unfortunately, quality faux floral that actually looks like the real thing can be quite expensive and is hard to find, but you can often times achieve the same look with a much cheaper faux floral from mass retailers if you know what to look for. Here are my four tips on what to look for when shopping:
1. Shape & Size:
Faux flowers should be shaped in the same manner as the real flower.
Normally manufactures of the mass retail version have the petals too widely spaced and the stems and leaves are usually not shaped correctly either, and the worst is if size is not quite right. Often times bulkier flowers like hydrangeas or lilacs will not be as full as the real deal simply because they are cheaper and the manufacturer is trying to keep costs down, and when they do that.....boy does it show!
2. Color:
Faux flowers should be the same color as the actual flowers. I can't stand when I go shopping for faux flowers and see a flower in several different colors that is not natural to the real flower, or they use one color and there is no variation. In nature, real flowers have dimension and light or dark spaces on them. They are not one flat color so your faux version shouldn't be either!
3. Texture:
Faux flowers should have the same texture as the real thing. For instance, lets talk faux tulips. The stem and foliage on a real tulip is thick and kind of waxy or rubbery feeling. Faux tulips should be the same, but most of the times the cheaper versions feel nothing like the real thing. The cheaper retailers use a standard material for the foliage as they use on other flowers and it is nothing like the real thing. Often times it feels like fabric and is matte with no sheen. The foliage on a real tulip is thick and waxy thus reflects light, and so should the faux version.
4. Movement:
I bet this is one tip you weren't expecting. Movement! Real flowers droop a little, have irregular petal shapes and move with the wind. Many cheap faux flowers are stiff and do not lean or hold themselves like their real versions do. A qualify faux flower should react similarly as the real flower when put in a vase or laid on a table. The petals should droop or land accordingly and not look stiff or posed.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 3 comments
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Great tips! :)
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so where do you buy reasonably priced great fake ones? The Dollar Trees are awful...and Michaels are super expensive...
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