Styling a room with faux greenery and artificial plants

Indoor plants can add colour and style to your home, plus they have the benefit of purifying the air. But maintaining indoor plant decor can take up a lot of your time, plus each type of plant has its own care needs that you need to adhere to.

No time for any of that? Then fake plants and artificial flowers may be the right choice for you! Spotlight's range of artificial plants and fake flowers is the easy choice to freshen up your home décor without needing a green thumb. Do you want to fill your kitchen, bathroom or living room with indoor plants? Then check out our fake plants online or in store!

How to choose artificial plants for your home or office

When deciding what kind of fake plant you want in your home or office, there are a few things you need to consider.

1. Do you want them to look real?

Obviously you want your plant decor to look as close to the real thing as possible - what we're asking is if you want other people to think your faux greenery is the real thing! If you want to fool your house guests and office friends, you'll need to put in a little more effort than you would otherwise. Real plants have texture, flaws and a natural shine to them - carefully inspect the plants you want to buy to see if they can pass for the real thing. Look for things like rough stems, tiny imperfections in leaves and a level of shine that isn't plasticky. You can even add some dirt to the base of the fake plant and lightly spritz them with water before people come over if you want them to have that 'fresh from the rainforest' look.

2. What size faux plant will look best?

Just like real plants, artificial plants and fake flowers come in all sorts of sizes, from large trees to tiny succulents. Larger fake plants, like tall ferns and trees, can take up an empty corner in your living room or be placed on your verandah outside - but they will look cramped and out of place in a toilet or kitchen. If you don't have any glaring empty spaces but would love some greenery, try smaller potted plants like fake succulents or artificial hanging plants to take advantage of vertical space.

3. What fake plants should I avoid?

There are several characteristics you should look to avoid when choosing artificial plants, as they can be a dead giveaway that it isn't the real deal. Here are three traits to avoid in your fake plants:

1. An overly shiny or dull plant surface can be a dead giveaway that your plant is made from plastic or fabric. There aren't many plants that are super shiny, so make sure what you are buying reflects light like the real counterpart. Also be aware that if your fake plant is sitting in direct sunlight it may change colour and fade over time.
2. Real plants are always asymmetrical - even the most perfect looking leaf will have an imperfection somewhere. Perfect plants will look off to the casual viewer, so make sure any faux plants and fake flowers you buy are perfectly imperfect, just like the real ones!
3. Plants with fake water invite closer inspection for all the wrong reasons. Those fake drops sitting on the leaves? Begging to be poked and then proven unreal. And while fake water in the bottom of a vase can be useful for anchoring your plant in place, the lack of movement won't help in the realism department.

How to arrange plants in living rooms, kitchens and more.

You find just as much variety in colour, size and type in fake plants as you do in real ones - that's why it's so important to arrange your plant decor carefully, otherwise you'll have a cluster of plants that just look messy. Here are some tips when comes to placing and arranging your fake plants and flowers:

• Where you place your greenery can dictate how realistic they look. Think about where that plant would thrive if it were real - a cactus wouldn't love the humidity of a bathroom, while a tropical plant would struggle in a dark room. Make sure to place your fake plants where they would naturally love to be! Take advantage of large empty spaces like room corners or shelves and fill that space with a fake plant.
• If you want a good way to fill your living room with indoor plants and you have lots of tall, thick fake plants, consider arranging them all in one corner to create a mini 'jungle'. These are super on trend right now, and it can be fun to tuck a small chair inside for your own 'tropical' reading nook.
• If you have a few real plants, try mixing the real and fake together in one area. It will help boost the credibility of your fake plant while making your real one look a little less lonely!
• While you want to place fake plants in spaces they would thrive if they were alive, there are exceptions to this rule. If your windowless toilet cubicle is just begging for a small plant, do it! If you think artificial hanging plants on your kitchen windowsill are what is needed, go for it! You're buying faux plants to make your home look better, so if it looks good, then that takes priority over things like realism.

Best plant pots for artificial plants

When you purchase a faux plant, it will often come in a plain, black plastic plant pot that just doesn't look good. The best thing to do is transfer your fake plant to a new pot or planter (and it's much easier than doing so with a real plant - no dirt!).

The trick is choosing a plant pot that suits both your fake greenery and the room it is in. Larger plants should have a matching large pot, as if it has a large root system and plenty of dirt to hold. Smaller faux plants and fake flowers you can be more flexible with, so choose whatever cute container you think suits the room. You can use any container you would for a real plant, so stone, ceramic, plastic and clay are all options. But because you don't have to worry about things like water and dirt, you can get even more creative with your plant pot choices! Clear glass vases, animal-shaped pots or old appliances like clocks, toasters and saucepans are all up for grabs. Of course, impossibly-shaped planters will be a strong indicator your plant isn't real, but who cares - if your plant decor looks amazing, it's worth it!

Artificial plant care

Fake plants don't need water, sunlight, dirt, fertiliser or pest control - all big problems when you just don't have time to care for a real plant. But like any piece of furniture, they do require a tiny bit of care so they can keep looking their best.

You should give your artificial plants a light dusting once a week, and a good clean once or twice a year. And by good clean, we mean 'run it under water and let it naturally dry afterwards.'

Silk flowers shouldn't be washed as it can cause the dyes to run, so stick to gently dusting them when needed or buy a special silk flower cleaner.

Even if they come with a protective coating, UV rays will eventually damage the colour and makeup of artificial plants. If you absolutely must have them in the sun, make sure to rotate them regularly so any fade that does occur is even.

Style your faux greenery with Spotlight

Ready to transform your home with fake plants and flowers? Then start your journey at your nearest Spotlight store, or check out the entire range of artificial flowers and plants online.