If you follow interior design trends or are sucked into the Wayfair and flash website phenomenon then I’m sure you’ve noticed the trend with fake flower arrangements. They’re everywhere!

We use fake flower arrangements all the time for our interior design and home staging business. Since we are always on the hunt for them we decided why not try our hand at making them?

4 inexpensive ways to make your own fake flower arrangements

Fake flowers and greenery are great alternatives to fresh flowers. They add so much life and dimension to a room. But, the problem is that they’re so darn expensive!

You’ll be hard pressed to find a decent looking arrangement, even at HomeGoods, for under $50.

Image via Pinterest

But, did you know that making your own fake flower arrangements is ridiculously easy? Not to mention you can do it for a fraction of the cost!

Supplies

• Fake Flowers- mix and match or choose a premade bunch
• Fake greenery/leaves (for filler)
• Containers- vases, pots, planters, etc.
• Acrylic water solution (or Quickwater)
• Wire cutters
• Mixing Container- disposable plastic cup works well
• Spatula
• Newspaper or something to cover your work surface with

We wanted to make a variety of styles so we started by shopping for vases, pots, planters, etc. Then, we hit up Michael’s (look for coupons!!) and Walmart (surprisingly!) for faux florals.

All in, we spent about $130 on materials. This includes the vases/pots (4 of them!) all the faux florals, a pair of wire cutters, and the acrylic water solution.

Prep

First, we laid out all the florals we had purchased so that we could mix and match our arrangements. We played around with the arrangements in the particular vase that we wanted to put them in to make sure each one looked nice and full.

Once we had all the florals paired with the correct vases, we cut them to size. You’ll need a pair of pretty heavy duty wire cutters for this. We made sure to vary the heights of the stems and the leaves so it resembled a real floral arrangement.

1. Fake flower arrangements with acrylic water

• Remove tags and stickers from vase/container and flower stems- discard
• Using your wire cutters, trim stems on your chosen arrangement to correct length for your container

• Slowly mix acrylic water solution together in disposable container until liquid is clear (not cloudy)- follow instructions on package

• Carefully pour acrylic water solution into the vase. Be careful not to splash or get any drips on the side of the container

• Carefully place fake flowers into vase until you are happy with the look of the stems and flowers from all side

• Carefully place greenery and fillers into arrangement until you are happy with the look from all side
• Let sit on flat surface until acrylic water has completely cured – refer to package for directions
• Acrylic water should dry without bubbles

This cute little guy cost us around $25 to make, including the white flower sprays, the container, and the acrylic water.

Tip- 1 box of acrylic water will make 1 arrangement. I might suggest 2 boxes for larger vases.

Our biggest arrangement (above) is about 12” wide and is the perfect size for a dining table centerpiece. All in all, this particular arrangement cost us about $40 to make. In a store, this size arrangement would easily retail for about $70-75.

For the arrangement above, we used a $4 glass fish bowl, 3 large hydrangea stems ($4 each with 40% off from Michaels) and 1 stem of faux lamb’s ear ($5).

2. Fake flower arrangement with foam

• Remove tags and stickers from vase/container and flower stems- discard
• Using your wire cutters, trim stems on your chosen arrangement to correct length for your container
• Cut foam to fit your container
• Place & secure (glue) foam to the bottom of container
• Add  fake flowers into the vase and secure them by puncturing the stems into the foam
• Place greenery and fillers into arrangement until the arrangement looks full and you are happy with the look

Check out this article here for a better visual of how to add foam to your container

The arrangement above cost us about $30 to make.

3. Fake Greenery with rocks

• Remove tags and stickers from vase/container and flower stems- discard
• Using your wire cutters, trim stems on your chosen arrangement to correct length for your container
• Fill the bottom of the container with rocks/pebbles
• Add  fake flowers into the vase and secure them by pushing the stems through the rocks
• Place greenery and fillers into arrangement until the arrangement looks full and you are happy with the look

Since there is no acrylic water solution binding the stems in place, we are free to swap out the greenery for a different style or even add in flowers. This arrangement only cost us about $15!

4. Unsecured arrangement

• Remove tags and stickers from vase/container and flower stems- discard
• Using your wire cutters, trim stems on your chosen arrangement to correct length for your container
• Place fake flowers into the vase
• Place greenery and fillers into arrangement until the arrangement looks full and you are happy with the look

All together we made 5 arrangements. 2 of them are secured with acrylic water, 1 is secured with foam (still easy to pop stems in and out), 1 is held in place by rocks, and 1 just has flowers sitting in it. This leaves 3 out of the 5 arrangements open for change and we have PLENTY of leftover faux florals/stems to play with in the future. So, I’d say for $130 we made out pretty good!

And, look how pretty!