I always incorporate plants in my stages. Plants immediately fill a space with life, texture and feeling. Everything you want in a room, right? The right plant in the right spot can feel more like a piece of art work. My preference, of course, is fresh and living. In fact, I use fresh real flowers as often as I can, but in lieu of that I use faux plants. Yes, I said faux. Now wait a minute. Get that vision of plastic, fake flowers out of your head. Modern faux plants are so realistic most people would never guess they are fake. Too many people make the mistake of adding plants as an afterthought rather than as a true element of design.
I never stage without plants and I don’t stop at one. I add plants in every corner, on a book shelf or horizontal surface like coffee tables and flower arrangements on kitchen and dining room tables. Here are a few of my guidelines.
Fresh is best
Flowers are great for brightening up any room. The only problem is they don’t last long. A great alternative for a fresh display is fern clippings. There are different types of ferns that look so beautiful green and fresh, and they last seemingly forever. Sometimes they last so long they sprout roots to transplant as a potted plant. When you start really looking at fresh plants you’ll notice various shades of green and other colors that can enhance the color in any room. As a bonus, research shows that living plants reduce levels of carbon monoxide from indoor air by 90 percent improving attention, and overall health.
Buying Fresh
My favorite spot for fresh flowers in Charlotte is the Kings Rd. Market when it is open during the season. There is a family that sells the most beautiful assortments for relatively cheap. I splurge each week here for my own home. Another great, perhaps unexpected place to buy fresh flowers is The Fresh Market grocery store. They have a really good assortment of bouquets and filler greens in case you want to make your own bouquet. I will buy a bouquet and filler ferns and baby’s breath and make more than one bouquet.
Faux is Fab
I use faux plants in my stages for obvious reasons. They never fade or wilt. They provide the same design impact as fresh and no real plants are hurt in the process. If you don’t have a green thumb this is a safe bet. Trust me, dead or wilted flowers do NOTHING for a space. If you want to stage because you aren’t going to be in the home while it’s on the market, faux is an especially great option since you probably won’t be there every day to water and care for real plants.
Buying Faux
I have a few favorite spots to purchase my faux plants. Michael’s is great for artificial flowers and stem plants. World Market is good for larger faux plants and it has some really interesting containers for plants, too. At Home has the largest display that I have found for artificial plants.
I’m all about fresh and living, but for the stage it’s better to have faux green than no green. So GO GREEN in 2019!
