Florals in my livingroom, sofa table off the foyer. Click to enlarge all pics.
I’m glad you all enjoyed my yardsale finds for this week! It’s always fun to share them with you…and ya’ll really appreciate a good bargain, I can just tell! LOL
Over the years, I’ve been involved in many decorating boards & have seen many discussions on real vs. faux plants & there seems to be a lot of differing opinions on this subject, so I thought that would be a great thing for us to talk about. I have both real & fake plants in my house & have been completely content with that for many years, but recently have begun to wonder if I have “too” many fake ones. Maybe it’s time to rethink this. I made all of my arrangements & some of them are over 10 years old & while I still like them very much, perhaps it’s time to change some of them.
I really need to get my magazines out & pay closer attention to what they are doing in there now. I know lots of photo shoots have real flowers in them, but you wonder what the homeowners do all the time…every day. It would be nice to have real flowers everywhere, but that’s not practical either(or realistic $$ wise). But, this is the real world, so what do we do when we want some texture & life that plants inject in a room?
So, what do you do in your home? Real or fake…I’d love to know! Now ugly silk flowers, I just can’t stomach either, but I’m sure if some real designers walked in my house, many of them would probably poo-poo my fake plants…I’m sure of it.
This one I made many years ago too & it’s in my livingroom. I probably do have too many, now that I think about it, but what do you put in their place? I can’t imagine taking out all the greenery, it would feel so cold & sterile. My livingroom has a floral needlepoint rug, muted colors & these arrangements fit in there so well colorwise.
These 2 iron urns are on the coffeetable with fake plants too.
I made 2 of these sconces a few years ago & this is all dried material. I still like them too, with the artichokes & pomegranites & feathers. These colors work well with the painting here. I love Mary Carol Garrity’s style & notice that she uses lots of dried floral material. I’m trying to use more of that too & nothing garish or really fakey looking. I think I’ve succeeded at that,
at least I hope I have.
This is an iron base with more pomegranites & artichokes & feathers. I still like it…and if this wasn’t here, what then? I’d love to hear from all of you…is there something else that gives life to a room other than greenery or flowers?
Ivy topiary I made several years ago too & it’s on a wall sconce seen from the foyer.
Tin container in the diningroom with more greenery & berries.
Large silk palm in the livingroom..this really adds some drama, so I’m sure I won’t change it out. I’d love to do a real one, but I’ve heard they are pretty temperamental to keep going indoors. That’s the main reason I do mostly fakes…real ones require quite a bit of care to keep them pretty.
Faux forsythia in a tin on my desk. These really look real, but of course, forsythia only blooms in the spring.
A faux orchid is on the foyer table & I love the colors in this piece. It has the roots & leaves & I have it in a white urn. I see lots of orchids in magazines & they always look so pretty. We just added all those real plants & trees in my office & that really made me start thinking about all of this.
And here are some of my real plants. In the foyer, this iron basket is hanging on the wall.
And this floor planter is just inside the front door, also real. The ivy in this one is really taking off. This planter was a yardsale find for $5 last year.
Downstairs in the den is another peace lilly.
And I have several African violets in the laundryroom.
Have just started reading your blog and really enjoy it. I only have real plants outside; the cats would have way too much fun chewing up anything real I put inside!
Jacki
I’m with Nunnie’s Attic – I don’t seem to have the patience or the time to keep live plants living, so I use fake plants instead. The only thing I don’t like about the fake variety is the amount of dust they collect.
Well, as usual I am coming in a bit late on this. I think you can do either or both effectively. In fact, MIXING them is a wonderful idea. You cannot even tell the fake ones if they are mixed in, so you can double the impact.
Certainly there are some tacky faux greenery and flowers, but I think that advice to not use faux plants is a bit outdated, from back when faux used to be hideous. Now there are really beautiful ones out there.
As with everything, if it looks beautiful, USE IT. After awhile you probably need to get rid of them as they do tend to get dusty and dated. Then you can start fresh and get current with the wonderful new stuff out there!
Thanks for sharing, Rhoda!
I use fake. I try to get the realistick ones as I see you do. I mean i like real for seasons I put in my windows and such, but not into just green plants.
I think all your arrangements are beautiful and classic. You seem to have a nice balance of faux and real. The real plants look very healthy and full. I have cats and my male kitty enjoys digging up plants and be-heading flowers so I currently have neither. I would definately have a mix of both in my home. I just have to figure out how to keep kitty out of the real ones and put together a fab arrangement like you can. 🙂
All I can say is, THANK GOODNESS FOR FAUX PLANTS! My brown thumb wouldn’t allow me to have real plants throughout my house. But I also agree that the faux plants really shouldn’t be glowing with plastic parts and unrealistic colors. lol Although I have to admit, I have one fake plant in the upstairs hallway that really needs to be thrown away. I don’t know why I still have it – it’s the most pitiful thing you ever saw. Maybe I’ll take the plunge and get rid of the stupid thing. Soon. Not today. But soon. lol
Hi Rho- I have to agree with others that they make some very nice faux plants these days.You have some very stunning arrangements!!! Faux…real….who cares as long as it looks good :o)
~Des
I think ALL of your flowers/plants look wonderful. I can’t keep real ones alive. They end up looking terrible for me, brown, dropping leaves, etc. I’ve also watered them too much before and the water has run out of the pot and ruined furniture, carpet. No more real in my house. Too much mess and damage. I don’t have to worry about them being watered when I’m on vacation either. That’s another perk!
Also, those darn little fungus gnats are another reason NOT to have real plants. They live in the soil and it’s so hard to get rid of them.
Blessings!
I do both, but lately I have been into the real deal… I have a perfect kitchen for growing plants and they all seem to be quite happy. Then, I have been buying fresh little bouquets every week from Trader Joe’s here in California. I go in spurts and with moods. (With mental pause, there are lots of moods.)
Best Blessings, KJ
Love all your beautiful flowers. Mainly I have real plants with only a couple of faux ones. The secret to the fauxs is throw them out when they start looking whoabegone.
Well, I’m glad ya’ll like a mixture of real & fake too. That just seems to be the best thing to do when real plants won’t grow in every area. I was just thinking that I have gotten rid of all my fake ficus trees (which I used to have several!), so that’s probably a good thing. I replaced them with the fake palms which I really like a lot better anyway. Fake plants really have come a long way, thank goodness! I may spruce up some of my old arrangements & update them just a bit, but don’t think I’ll be getting rid of them either.
Thanks for coming by & leaving a comment on this. I loved hearing what you all do in your homes too!
That forsythia looks SO real!
All your plants are beautiful!
Hi Rhoda! Well, since you asked .. I have a few fakies. But they have to look real for me to decorate with fakies — LOL!
Also, I went “fake” with our xmas tree a couple yrs ago (when we moved into our current house with high ceilings) when I drove by a garage sale and saw this beautiful tree. I got it for $100. She had pd. $400 for it 10 yrs. prior!
Always love to come visit you.
Sandy
hi!
Well, I think your faux plants are lovely… no cheesy faded flowers at your house I see… I love real at my house, I only have recently added a dried arrangement on my entertainment center… I just have such bad allergies, with real plants you can wipe the leaves and get alot of the dust off… silk it’s not so easy. Classy arrangements like yours certainly have their place!
Your faux flowers are beautiful but I think also what makes them so pretty are the containers that they are in,JUST BEAUTIFUL!
Hello Rhoda,
I just wanted to let you know that that last post was from me Ginger, I forgot I started a practice blog with my husbands email account, and I was still on that.I love your new background it very pretty also.
Really love the photos! And love your cute signature at the bottom! How did you do that?
I went through a phase where I had quite a few faux arragements but my husband really dislikes them so I got rid of all but two. Plus you do have to dust them and I don’t need one more thing to dust. One is a combination of faux hydrangeas mixed with real dried ones and one is in my foyer. The foyer one I change out for the seasons so I never have a plant or flower that you wouldn’t really find blooming at that time. I do buy fresh flowers every week at the grocery store for my diing room table- they’re about $4. I do use some faux arrangements for fall & Christmas displays. But even at Christmas I use mostly live potted plants.
Manuela
I prefer real, but I hate the watering part. 🙂 I have a combination. It’s amazing how real the faux ones look nowdays. Plants make a difference, for sure. I loved seeing all of your arrangements. Love them all.
Hugs!
Kat
Rhoda,
Well, I’m a user of both….I have many green plants in my home and sun room…..and I also use some silk…silks are a million miles from the old plastic ones years ago…….
I like your arrangements…..Betty