Decorating with flowers - Fresh vs Faux

Happy Friday!!!! Ok, so it is spring out there and even though here in Vancouver doesn't feel like it yet, it is that time of the year where some of us like to re-decorate our homes and bring a bit of the colours of nature inside. These thoughts bring me into this debate of fresh vs faux flowers. 

Although I absolutely love fresh cut flowers, the whole idea of buying new flowers every week can get a bit pricey and time consuming, that is why some times silk flowers are not a bad idea. Nowadays you can find pretty good quality silk flowers that pretty much look real!
A few years back I couldn't stand to look at fake flowers, I thought they were ugly, the colours were not right and some of them looked so plastic and absolutely fake. When I got into home staging I found myself in the need to decorate with fake flowers, because I believe nothing finishes up a room better than a beautiful arrangement of flowers (of course fresh flowers will be a million times better!) however in a new built home, where no body lives there full time, it will be so hard to get fresh flowers as they will dry out and get droopy, and lets be honest... Who wants to see that, first thing when walking thru a staged home for sale?. 
This is why I started to turn around and looked for the best looking faux flowers out there to place in my staged homes, now I use them all the time, they help make a statement and I don't have to look after them!
In my home I use a bit of both, I really like the low maintenance flowers and with my busy life I don't really have time to stay on top of fresh flowers regularly so most of the time I opt for the faux kind!

Five tips to get the best out of your faux flowers:

1. When buying faux flowers, try to invest a little extra to get the high end flowers that look more realistic and feel great to the touch.
2. Make sure to get flowers that will resemble the actual colours of the flowers we see in nature.
3. Clean your faux arrangements regularly to avoid the layer of dust that usually gets into these flowers after a while and makes them reveal they are fake.
4. Adding Craft water (floral craft simulated water) it's a great way to make your flowers look more realistic.
5. Mix both real flowers and fake flowers around your home.

I love this beautiful combination of fresh and faux flowers that Randi from Randi Garrett Designs created at the entrance of her home. I bet  you can't even tell which ones are real and which are the fake ones!

I placed this orchid planter in this home to create a barrier between the end of the stairs and the front door as my clients believed in bad feng shui when your stairs face your front door.

These are a few different ways I have styled faux flowers in the homes I have staged before. 

This gorgeous orchid arrangement I bought from Costco looks incredibly real!! Even the cashier at Costco kept asking if it was real and kept touching it because she couldn't believe me when I told her it was fake, haha it was quite funny!

Any way, that is my take on faux flowers vs fresh flowers! What is yours? Do you like them or dislike them? Do you use them or do you have any tips to share with me? Please leave your comments below! I would love to read your thoughts.

Till next time, XO!