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Decorating With Faux Florals
We all know that there’s nothing like a fresh floral arrangement to brighten up a room but, sometimes the family budget simply won’t allow for weekly purchases of fresh blooms. That’s when we turn to the fakes for a flower fix.
As you may have noticed from past articles, I like working with fake flowers. To begin with, they’re cheap, especially when buying them at the dollar store, they’ll never get all droopy because you forgot to water them and you can store a variety of them so you can change them out regularly to avoid becoming bored looking at the same ones indefinitely.
Today’s fake dollar store blooms are better than ever. Here are two ideas for decorating with faux florals, outside and inside.
How to Dress a Door
I love having a seasonal wreath on my front door. Here’s an idea that will dress your door for spring and summer.
To make a spring/summer wreath you will need:
– 1 metal wreath form – (Dollar Tree has one that’s 14-inches round)
– 1-2 hanging plastic greenery stems (Dollarama)
– floral wire – 180-piece packages (Dollarama)
– three varieties of faux fabric flowers in your choice of colours (any dollar store)
– needle nose pliers with cutting edge (on hand)
Choose one or two long greenery pieces. I used one, but two would give you even more fullness.
Using the needle nose pliers, separate all the fronds from the main stem. This makes the greenery easier to work with.
Cut short pieces of floral wire to attach the greenery to the wreath frame. Continue with all of the lengths of leaves until the wreath form is covered to your satisfaction.
Hold the wreath up to see if any of the fronds fall down and secure any loose ones.
Cut the stems of your chosen flowers just short enough so that you have enough to wrap floral wire around. I chose medium-sized flowers as the main attraction and two different smaller blooms to complement their colour.
Space the flowers on the wreath at intervals and when you’re happy with the arrangement secure each flower to the wreath with floral wire.
A bright floral wreath on your front door makes an attractive welcome for summer visitors. I left a lot of green in my wreath, but you can add as many flowers as you like to make it even brighter.
Barrow of Blooms
These small metal wheelbarrows are available at Dollarama. While they’re probably meant to be planted in your yard somewhere, think about using one as a centerpiece inside, instead.
To make a floral centrepiece, you will need:
– square of floral foam trimmed to fit bottom of the wheelbarrow
– four large faux flower stems (Dollarama)
– 1 small decorative floral spray with long spiky grass and similar colours (Dollarama)
– faux leaf stems (on hand)
– small clip-on bird (optional – Dollarama)
Trim the large flower stems so that, when inserted into the floral foam, the heads sit just above the top of the wheelbarrow. The decorative floral spray should sit a few inches above the top of the wheelbarrow.
I chose to work with only two main colours in order to simplify things; in this case white and pink, and alternated the two colours, placing them on the ends and sides of the wheelbarrow. The floral spray has the same white and pink in it and goes directly into the centre of the floral foam to give the arrangement height.
Insert bits of leaf stems in the corners of the wheelbarrow where you may notice gaps. If you so choose, clip a colourful little bird onto one of the wheelbarrow handles.
Park your new centrepiece on the coffee table or dining room table where it can be enjoyed all summer long.
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