9 Ways to Style the Best Faux Flowers that Look Realistic

Find out where to buy the best faux flowers that look so realistic plus easy tips to decorate with faux florals and artificial plants for the most realistic look for your home decor! You can use these favorite artificial flowers to brighten and refresh your home in a budget-friendly and low maintenance way!

I am definitely feeling all of the spring vibes here in South Florida and bringing it indoors with some of my favorite decor! Today, I’m going to share some of the best faux flowers that I personally own and love, along with how I’m using them around our home!

While I love the look of fresh flowers, I have found that the best faux flowers still give the same beautiful home decor style while being a lot more budget-friendly and low maintenance.

Those are winning words during this busy season of life!

Even though it is barely March, we’ve been having our “spring season” for the past few weeks. My favorite oak tree by our driveway burst into gorgeous, bright green leaves a couple of weeks ago. Our bougainvillea bushes are showing off with beautiful real blooms and the white vinca flowers in our landscaping have exploded!

As I mentioned, I absolutely love the look of fresh flowers. While it comes to bringing real flowers inside too, I have thankfully discovered some of the best faux flowers for budget-friendly prices. These pretty faux blooms are the perfect way to make it easier and more affordable to enjoy keeping cheerful flowers around our home for everyday decor.

A beautiful vase of fresh flowers is wonderful for special occasions or for a splurge once in awhile. At the same time, there are so many gorgeous and affordable options for the best faux flowers that look so incredibly realistic! In fact, sometimes I even mix real blooms with some of my artificial flower collection.

But, let’s not jump too far ahead….

First, let’s take a look at my favorite artificial flower stems, faux plants, and where to find them!

How to make faux flowers look the most realistic?

Page Contents

Keep reading for details on each of my favorite tips for styling and decorating with the best faux flowers!

Use an opaque vase.
Fluff the best faux flowers all the way.
Style the best faux flowers in odd numbers.
Add about 3 inches of water to a glass vase.
Cutting single stems vs. bending the stems.
Add fresh greenery to the best faux flowers.
Add faux greenery to a vase of fresh flowers.
Use the best faux flowers for outdoor use on the front porch.

9 Ways to Style the Best Faux Flowers that Look Realistic

Where to Buy the Best Faux Flowers that Look Realistic

If you enjoy having pretty flowers to bring natural beauty indoors but you don’t have a particularly amazing green thumb (I definitely do NOT have a green thumb!), then these artificial blooms will be wonderfully convenient and easy for your home decor.

My favorite places to purchase the best artificial flowers are:

Amazon
Afloral
Pottery Barn (more expensive, but I watch for sales!)
Target (hit or miss on being the most realistic but I have some gorgeous ones from here too)
Terrain (for amazing greenery)

In my personal collection so far, these are the best faux flowers and artificial plants (available to link currently) that look the most realistic, while still being budget-friendly.

I have a few favorite silk flowers that I cannot link because I have had them for so long and they aren’t available. However, that is the great thing about investing in the best faux flowers. You can enjoy them for years and years to come!

How to Style the Best Faux Flowers for a Realistic Look

One of my favorite ways to decorate with fake flowers or fresh blooms is to combine the stems with unique vintage or vintage style vessels. Over on THIS blog post, I share several ways to give inexpensive, fresh flowers from the grocery store a high-end look.

Most often in my home decor, you will find one of my favorite vintage or vintage style vessels being used to hold faux floral arrangements with some of my best faux flowers.

When decorating with artificial flower arrangements, there are several options you can try to give the best faux flowers an even more realistic look!

#1: Use an opaque vase

While some faux flowers have realistic stems, the stem is usually the first thing to give away the fact that the fake flowers are, in fact, NOT the real thing!

Hiding the stems in an opaque vase (or vintage container!) is one of the best ways to make your faux flowers look more realistic.

#2: Fluff the best faux flowers all the way

Just as you do with a Christmas tree, carefully bending the faux blooms in different directions and separating the single stems is a great way to give faux flower arrangements a more realistic look.

#3: Style the best faux flowers in odd numbers

If you think about flowers you see in nature, they do not grow in perfectly symmetrical directions with shapes that are balanced exactly. Real blooms in an outdoor space will most often have a much more free-flowing, organic shape. As you shape your best faux flowers into pretty artificial flower arrangements, intentionally create an overall shape to your arrangement that is perfectly imbalanced with a bit of whimsy.

Pro Tip: Styling your faux florals in odd numbers is one of the best ways to get a more organic look and shape to your faux floral arrangements!

#4: Add about 3 inches of water to a glass vase

While I most often use vintage vessels that are not see through, I do enjoy using some of my clear glass vases too. Especially if I am setting up for a special occasion and need multiple arrangements, I enjoy using wide-mouth mason jars or inexpensive clear glass vases from the dollar store.

If you are using clear glass vases, add a few inches of water to the clear vase. This tricks the eye and brain into seeing “fresh blooms” where your best faux flowers are styled! It is a little detail that makes a big difference!

#5: Cutting single stems vs. bending the stems

When I am decorating with an opaque vase, I almost always bend the stems of my best faux flowers. This helps me be able to use them longer because I can make the faux flowers have different lengths to combine with a variety of vessels and containers.

However, if I want to use my best faux flowers in a clear vase, it is best to use a quality wire cutter to cut the specific flowers to the desired height for the vase.

I have had a variety of wire cutter options over the years but I really love THIS one!

#6: Add fresh greenery to the best faux flowers.

One way that I love to make my best faux flowers look even more like the real deal is to clip some fresh greenery a real plant in my yard and add to faux flower arrangements.

Secondly, this can also save you some money by not purchasing additional greenery to give more height and interest to your best faux flowers.

Thirdly, you can turn small faux flower arrangements into larger floral arrangements for the dining room table or living room sofa table by adding more filler greenery that you get for free!

#7: Add faux greenery to a vase of fresh flowers

The opposite option is also one that I use often. Sometimes I like to pick up an inexpensive bouquet of fresh flowers from the grocery store.

Adding some of my favorite realistic faux greenery is a great way to either make a larger flower arrangement for a beautiful centerpiece or even split the flowers and make two beautiful arrangements. This is especially pretty on the dining table!

THESE greenery stems are perfect to add just one or two to a vase of faux flowers. The organic shape of the greenery stems make even a smaller vase of faux flowers look like a luxury bouquet.

#8: Use the best faux flowers for outdoor use on the front porch

Used to, I would have never considered using fake flowers in my outdoor space. However, faux flowers for outdoor use have come a LONG way in recent years. Now, there are faux florals that are specifically designed to be used in an outdoor space, with UV protected color and weather resistant materials.

I still prefer mostly fresh flowers and greenery outside. However, especially here in South Florida, any flowers or plants that do not receive daily watering with our irrigation system just do not do well. Of course, there is such a thing as manually watering flowers and plants. As it turns out, I do not have a green thumb and I am forgetful. It’s a bad combination for the poor outdoor flowers that do not receive irrigation!

The best faux flowers and faux plants for the win! While there are a lot of options out there, I will just link the ones that I personally have and love, as the quality and look of artificial flowers can really vary.

Here are my personal favorites that we use:

These realistic topiaries in thrifted vintage pots by the double doors on the front porch.
Inexpensive, white flowers under $12. The key to making these budget-friendly little flowering bushes look great in your outdoor decor is to fluff them out really well and combine them in a pot with other plants or flowers. For example, I put mine around the base of the topiaries linked above!
These beautiful bougainvillea trees look so realistic. In fact, I held them agains the blooms of the large, real bougainvillea in our back yard and they blend in perfectly!
These cheerful bougainvillea bushes are great around the bottom of a pot or for a small pot filler. I’m going to combine mine with my thrifted, vintage, concrete swan planter!
I absolutely LOVE these beautiful white forsythia wreaths. They are a budget-friendly option and the white just adds such a bright, clean, look to any outdoor space!

Frequently Asked Questions about the Best Faux Flowers:

What are the realest looking fake flowers?

In my experience, the best faux flowers are usually made out of the real touch latex material. If I am looking for the best faux flowers, I often include “real touch” in my search. Almost always, this leads me to beautiful faux flowers that I use and love in our home!

Is it tacky to have fake flowers?

Absolutely not! Especially in the past few years, the materials and styles being used to make the best faux flowers are excellent. There are so many great options out there, not only for faux flowers, but for fake flowers that are reasonably priced as well!

How do you make fake flowers look more realistic?

Use an opaque vase.
Fluff the best faux flowers all the way.
Style the best faux flowers in odd numbers.
Add about 3 inches of water to a glass vase.
Cutting single stems vs. bending the stems.
Add fresh greenery to the best faux flowers.
Add faux greenery to a vase of fresh flowers.
Use the best faux flowers for outdoor use on the front porch.

Are Pottery Barn faux flowers good?

Personally, I have always had a great experience with faux flowers from Pottery Barn. I do try to watch for clearance sales in order to get floral and greenery stems that are in my budget.

At the same time, my favorite faux flowers are all from Amazon and cost much less than the Pottery Barn faux flowers! What I love the most from Pottery Barn are the extra large, faux greenery stems. These are perfect for big baskets and for adding to large floral arrangements.

How do you make cheap fake flowers look expensive?

Buy high-quality flowers: Start with good quality faux flowers.
Mix and match: Combine different types of flowers, including faux and fresh flowers and greenery.
Fluff: Gently separate and fluff out floral buds and leaves.
Cut and arrange: Cut the stems or intertwine the stems. Then, arrange them to create a natural look by making them not “too perfect”!
Use a beautiful container: Place the flowers in a container that is a statement piece, like a vintage vessel.
Add greenery: Add long greenery stems to give height, whimsy, and texture to a floral arrangement.
Add soil: Add soil to the container to create the illusion of a real plant.
Add a little bit of water in the bottom of the container: 3-4 inches of water will trick the eye into thinking the blooms are real!
Use a UV protectant: Spray outdoor artificial flowers with a UV-protectant spray to help preserve them.

As you can see, I love decorating with my best faux flowers during the spring and summer months. They are not only a budget-friendly way to enjoy giving our home a reset and refresh for the season, but they also save me money over the long-term since I can use them year after year.

While quality does matter…a LOT…for the best faux flowers, there are many more options that are realistic, beautiful, and budget-friendly!

Over on my storefront, I’ve added some of my favorite and best faux flowers for outdoor use and styling indoor living spaces too.

Here are some curated collections of favorite home decor you can also browse:

I hope you enjoy decorating with beautiful flowers in your home this spring. Also, I hope these tips are helpful as you mix the best faux flowers into your home decor in realistic and organic ways! Happy decorating!

You may also enjoy these popular home decor blog posts with easy decorating tips and ideas:

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Blessings,

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9 Ways to Style the Best Faux Flowers that Look Realistic

How to make faux flowers look the most realistic?

9 Ways to Style the Best Faux Flowers that Look Realistic

Where to Buy the Best Faux Flowers that Look Realistic