Photos in this post by Coco of Cococozy
Bouquets of fake orchids at chic Los Angeles home and garden shop. (above)
Was browsing through Rolling Greens on Beverly a few weekends back during my hunt for the perfect garden stool (will do a full post on this cute home and garden store this weekend or next week), when I ran into this display of gorgeous flowers. At first, I was convinced they were real orchids, hydrangea and others…but then I was curious…there didn’t seem to be any water or the smell of flowers…so I approached cautiously, snapped a few photos, and then reached out to touch the delicate petals only to find that they were fake!
Then began my week of fake flower encounters (no names/initials used in encounters as I am not sure how I feel about fake florals yet…so don’t want friends getting all feisty and in a stir because I mentioned their initials)
First fake flower encounter…one of my best friends calling me and saying “are fake flowers ever okay?”. I responded with a resounding “no” only to have said best friend tell me she just spent over $100 on fake flowers. Hmmm….
Second encounter…then I received an email from another friend who owns a posh jewelry store in town, she recommended that I do a story on another friend of hers who does flower arrangements. I went on the friend of a friends website only to find a bunch of moss and wood and some faux stuff modern arrangements. When I wrote to the friend with the jewelry shop and asked, “are the flowers real”…she responded that the arrangements did not involve real flowers only maybe for weddings. Hmmmm…
Third encounter…then, another good friend of mine who works in New York for a famous fashion designer and does their in store displays called me to rave about a design she had just come up with that included high end silk flowers on mannequins. She sent me photos of her work and it looked quite nice. Hmmm….starting to get confused.
Fourth encounter…then, I asked my good friend who lives in Venice Beach who I think has great style if fake flowers are ever okay…and she said “never…except my mother has arranged some in our vacation home and they actually look pretty good”.
Fifth encounter…a publicist randomly emails me about a client of hers who does faux flower arrangements…Hmmmm….this is now getting freakishly weird.
Why would I have 5 or more encounters with fake flowers in one week (aside…an animal is either crawling on my roof or in my walls right now as I write this…when spring comes, here in the Hollywood Hills invariably all kinds of critters come out of the woodwork…literally…yikes…sorry back to fake flowers…)?
Need your help readers…my first instinct is to say that fake flowers are always a “NO” in home decor, interior design, decorating etc (why have fake when you can have real has always been my thinking when it comes to flowers as accessories)…but now I may be starting to view fake flowers in a different light maybe (maybe) (maybe) (maybe) (maybe). These faux florals are popping up more and more in surprisingly stylish settings and after the coincidence of my fake flower encounters all in one week…does this mean that fake flowers are now okay?
Yoohooo? Help on this one? Hello??? Anyone??? Everyone???
Are fake flowers acceptable in home decor?
xoxo
Coco
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Photos in this post by Coco of Cococozy
Hi Coco. I vote no to awful cheep fake flowers. I vote no to real “florist flowers” too. I love natural flowers from the garden. But then there are allergies (sniff), dropping petals, brown water, cats eating leaves. So, I vote yes to good quality faux flowers used in moderation. 🙂
Exactly
When fresh are not available, fake is good. When the flowers you love won’t grow where you live, fake is good. If you fall in love with a fake arrangement, fake is good. If you like it, it doesn’t matter if it is real, silk, plastic. It doesn’t matter whether it is acceptable to others. It doesn’t matter if it is fashionable or unfashionable. If you like it, feel comfortable with it and it doesn’t hurt anyone else then go for it! THAT”S MY OPINION!!!!! and you did ask!
I think fake is ok if you don’t have the budget for real flowers AND if it is done well. The average homemade bouquet from a craft store probably won’t cut it but like you said, there are ways to make it look good. I think fake is often better also when it’s not at eye level or somewhere where a guest can reach out and see if it’s real!
I never say never to anything…there’s ALWAYS an exception. The high end fauxs are pretty amazing, and for clients who will not go to the trouble to use real, we’ll use the fake. It also allows us to bring color to specific areas of the room that may be important for balance or repetition. No cheap ones from the dollar store!
I believe faux is fine, if good quality. I use fresh flowers and living plants, whenever possible. I do have a couple of faux orchids of good quality.
Fortunately, I have a source for good quality silks.
Moderation is key, with a change now and then.
I’m using a faux fern on a hearth in our home, at the moment. The faux will be replaced with real, as soon as I can find what I’m looking for. I set up a new vignette for the mantel, this week, and added the fern to the hearth as a part of the “staging” for photos, used in a blog post.
We live in a rural area, so it isn’t easy finding living plants and/or fresh flowers, etc. when I need them.
I put together and photograph table settings, quite a bit, for my blog. I use faux, in these arrangements sometimes.
I don’t subscribe to the what’s in and what’s out thing, though, in decorating. I’ve made some expensive mistakes following that idea, through the years. Do what makes you feel happy, in your home style. That’s what counts, at the end of the day.
I’m still a little afraid of these but, the colors are great and I can see how one might be enticed?? I love going to the Farmer’s Market and picking up a bunch.
Manufacturers have been making GREAT strides in artificial flowers and greens in the past few years. As a Landscape Designer typically I would say no, however, there can be a place for them…Under a carriage house with no sun, no water and NO maintenance where no one will touch them at a garden party…Perfect (as long as they come inside when it gets cold. Can’t have some awesome looking green ferns in hanging baskets in the snow-lol, it’ll blow my cover!) *Amy
I am the same way, when someone asks about fake flowers I almost yell “NO!!” but I also agree with some of the other comments, specifically the cost, maintenance, and life of fake flowers. Some flowers just don’t look good “fake” 🙂 But I do think when you can’t get a certain flower or need it to last longer than a week, fake is OKAY!
No.
I have always said no to fake flowers, especially when placed outside. That being said, there are some beautiful silk flowers available that defy the eye so everyone one in a while I am tempted to change my mind. Not plastic, not stuck in the dirt outdoors, but a beautiful silk display with stones and “gel” water might be OK for certain areas of the home. Also, large trees for your interior also since real ones are so expensive and when they die, you want to.
As a designer I may have to eat my own words and say “maybe”.
(like everyone else is saying, if it makes you happy dont worry about the “rules”—just dont put them in the garden!)
I would rather see no flowers than fake flowers. One can always cut a single rose from the garden, or buy a flowering plant to later plant in the garden. I have always said never use faux flowers. HOWEVER, I just bought a pair of lavender topiaries from Tyler Florence’s new store in Mill Valley. They look so real! They are perfect for our Wine Country home where we can’t keep real plants alive. So I guess one should say: never say never!
Yup, I think it depends on the flowers! If they are very convincing, then why not?
I also agree, though, that you should ALWAYS use the real thing as much as you possibly can~! =-D
I used a lot of really good quality silk flowers for my daughter’s fairy tea party. Some of them, like lilacs and hydrangeas looked amazingly real hanging up high. People were fooled. But that’s probably as far as I’d go. I have a couple of faux orchid plants in my house, but I keep them hidden in places like bathrooms, and go for real flowers elsewhere. I have a friend who would stick a fake orchid flowers into real orchid plants in between blooms — that was hilarious!
What a great topic! I have to say that if the fake flowers look as good as the ones you photographed they are good with me! I think they have their rightful place in home decor. I would especially say this if it is a place that is out of reach so you really can’t tell if they are real or not. The big thing to remember is for people to dust their fakes off frequently. The worst thing is dirty fakes!
Interesting discussion! I guess you can never say “never”… but I err on the side of never when it comes to fake flowers. 🙂 I guess I have never seen really nice ones, though. If I had, maybe I would think differently about it!
I think faux is fine as long as they are fabulous! Fresh is always best, but Windward does some fabulous fakes!
I may be in the minority here….just say no!
Great question! Personally I don’t buy fake potted flowers. On the other hand I have an orchid, which is in bloom all year with the help of a faux branch I stuck into the soil. Let’s face it; without that branch, the whole plant would be in a trashcan a long time ago!
I think fake flowers are acceptable in home decor.. but probably only if they didn’t really look fake. If they look like hunks of plastic, I’d probably steer clear. However, nothing beats real flowers. Really great post — a lot of the pictures looked like real flowers!
Mix fake flowers, ferns, foliage, ect with a few that are real. Makes it much more realistic.
Who knew that fake flowers would spawn so much discussion.
Here on the blog everyone seems pro faux…
On the Cococozy Facebook Page, the majority of commenters seem against the whole idea.
I am going to go with my initial gut instinct and say “no” to faux too (sorry for the bad rhyming)…(I think this is my final answer…I think…I know…I think…I know…so much for trusting my gut…I am the queen of waffling btw…easily persuaded!)
Continue to comment please…LOVE hearing from you on this.
Coco! I used to vote “no” across the board no matter what! Then, I spotted these at one of my favorite home stores in the world. I even highlighted them in this post…nervously.
I love them though and really think they are fab!
http://gimleteyed.blogspot.com/2010/03/alternative-to-sticks-ii.html
I vote “NO”. I have to say that they now make extraordinary imitations, but they lack of authenticity.
It is hard to duplicate real flowers in a home. The way some droop differently than others or the way some open at different rates from the others. That said, we are all highly allergic in my house and over the years I have given up on having real flowers inside the house. I have beautiful arrangements of silk hydrangeas in a vase and tulips in a basket (which would never happen for more than a day in real life) which I think are lovely to look at in my room. I plant lots of real flowers outside and on my deck and we can see these from our living room, so I get to enjoy them without wheezing! So I say YES to faux flowers of the right quality.
I wouldn’t wear fake Chanel, why would I use fake flowers? Oh wait, I once underplanted some palms with very lifelike silk bromeleads because the live ones kept turning brown. I think faux florals are as bad as dried, they don’t serve a purpose, you can’t smell them,they bring nothing to a room, except fakeness.
I vote no.
Wow..these fake flowers look awesome. it will sure adds to the beauty of Interior.
No to faux. I’d rather have real Gap than fake Prada and I feel that way about flowers too. If you can’t get fresh flowers all the time, settle for something else like a fern or a succulent.
I say they are worth it in certain situations. I’ve recommended them to two clients. 1) it was a vacation home and I wanted them to have something green and pretty. 2) a hallway that gets NO light and needed some nice orchids. There are some companies out there who sell REALLY convincing fakes. But if you have the choice, real is best 🙂
We sell alot of them in the shop. The orchids stems and potted plants are what everyone wants… next topic “faux fruit”?
Susan
Tell the truth on principle, but there are times when a lie saves a lot of trouble.
Same with flowers!
While some faux flowers can be atrocious I think if you can find the right bouquet that suits you. I found a great bouquet of faux Parrot Tulips at the store I work in and the look great in my tiny crystal vaze set on my side table, they are bright and bold and make me happy……
I think the secret to high quality faux looking real is th e addition of a few flaws here and there. A slight brown tinged edge to a bloom ( tea or coffee solution ) applied carefully for realism. I have some brilliant latex and silk amaryllis lillies and have done this as well as tinged a few of the stamens etc. real flowers look perfect for a day or so but in a bunch there are always some small signs of deterioration. The trick is to replicate this!
I vote yes to good quality faux flowers 🙂 But I do love real flowers as well..but they always die for me….;)