The best modern plants for your Home.

So addicted are we at FAKE IT with faux houseplants, that it can become hard to choose between them all. The best options though, do it all – and they live forever!  They’re sleek enough for living rooms and bedrooms and stylish enough for kitchens and hallways.

From Hawaiian Spider plants to Fake It’s Ferns, we have handpicked an edit of designs to suit all spaces.  No need to keep those green fingers crossed with these...

Hawaiian Spider

This real touch Hawaiian Spider is perfect in any home, adding a subtle touch of greenery to a space.

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From a coffee table, island, or bathroom. Ribbon like leaves to create width. These are available as individual wired stems so you can style your spider as you wish, our pot photographed above features 3 stems. Perfectly paired with our mini succulent to create some different levels of height and greenery.

Zebra Grass

This Zebra Grass adds a mix of contemporary greenery, colour and texture

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Perfect alone or positioned along side another partner plant. A graceful, fountainous grass that takes its name from the horizontal cream bands on the leaves, which usually appear in late summer. However, with our deluxe artificial Zebra grass It will stay at its best all year round.

Cascading Fern

This beautiful cascading fern is the perfect plant for indoors right now.

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On a coffee table or shelf tumbling down, they add a gentle vista of greenery. These individual stems of trailing duke fern plants can be placed on their own or en masse to create a larger looking plant. Each stem comes with multiple stems of foliage of varying lengths to give a loose, natural looking plant.

Fern Dicksonia

This beautiful fern gives you the ability of having a mini tree fern in your home.

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Its the perfect size to add that pop of green in any room. We have ours on a lovely old card table that was my grandmothers against a Hague Blue wall, what’s not to love. It also looks great in a bathroom to add a bit of life to what is often a more neutrally decorated room.

Philodendron

The Philodendron is your perfect green foliage plant for the office or living room.

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This faux plant is hard to distinguish from the real thing with plenty of foliage and width. The leaf colour is a mixture of dark and fresh green. Again – perfect alone or partnered along side something else.

Fake it Fern

We are passionate about ferns in any form here at Fake It and this one is a firm favourite.

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The delicate fronds create a cloud of greenery and fall in a natural soft way. We love it on its own but it mixes with anything. Like all of our stems, you can mould them to suit any arrangement and the stems can be cut or bent making them perfectly adaptable to any space or vase.

All our stems are available online or alternatively email us at info@fakeitflowers for more info. Happy styling all.

Frieze masters – re creating the world of Barbara Hepworth.

The request…

Here at Fake It we have been asked over the years to do may unusual projects which we approach with great enthusiasm and occasional trepidation.  Of late however, by far he most exciting and unusual project request was by the London based Dickinson Gallery to re create Barbara Hepworth’s magnificent Trewyn Studio garden in St Ives.

 The garden was to be part of a display stand at Frieze Masters 2018 London show, with the plants from Fake It surrounding some of the most spectacular Hepworth paintings, sculptures and drawings.  Not only did the garden have to do the magnificent artworks justice but also we had to faithfully re create the loose planting style and structure of her beloved Trewyn garden which she laid out herself with the help of her friend, the composer Priaulx Rainier from 1949 through to 1969.

Planting – how did we re create St Ives?

The mild climate of St Ives and its seaside location lends itself to a very specific form of planting which we lovingly tried to re create with our faux greenery.  The hard landscaping created swirls of narrow paths and rockeries for us to fill with dense greens through which there would be the astonishing reveal of the magnificent bronzes.

What did we use?

 Grasses are highlight indicative of her magnificent garden so we used lots of faux zebra grasses and fountain grasses.  Large glossy leaf monstera and ferns added a sculptural quality. Paradise palms and bamboo all replicated the beauty of Trewyn.

Legacy and press 

The garden received rave reviews.  Harpers Bazaar called it “a magical place” and Vogue UK said “If you only visit a single area, however, make it The Dickinson Gallery’s stall, home to a minutely detailed recreation of Barbara Hepworth’s beautiful St Ives garden.”

 We were obviously delighted with the reviews but by far the most satisfying part was that once the exhibition had finished the Dickinson gallery would then donate the garden to Herriot Hospice Homecare to decorate their Yorkshire medical centres.  This donation would celebrate Hepworth’s Yorkshire origins and her interest in the medical profession.

Go Zen - Cherry blossom inspired interiors.

vintage zinc bucket filled with white cherry blossom

As predicted in this months UK Elle decoration ( number 307, march 2018).  The trend for soft dusky pastel tones for the home continues apace. 

Elle Decoration March 2108

Pastels for interiors

Say the word "pastel" and for some it might conjure up a series of stereotypes of 1980s style interiors a la Dynasty.  However, pastels have re-emerged as a bright, airy, calming option.  A modern take on this colour palette is to ‘ground’ these airy tones with harder materials such as concrete or smoked glass.

Cherry blossom inspired interior

Cherry blossom for interiors

A new slant on this trend is a nod towards Japanese interiors.  The calming effect of the colour tones gives an air of tranquilty and the delicate colours of peach blossoms are the perfect starting point to inspire soft furnishings and room colour palettes.

Bring in the Spring…

Cherry blossom ( sakura) season in Japan is in April so it’s the perfect time to start getting ready for for the beauty and freshness of Spring time after a long dark winter.  Using our faux cherry blossom stems you can immediately as a light delicacy to interiors.  The beauty of the faux blossom is that you only need a few stems.  Place either in a clear vase or concrete or metallic planter for a modern take on the trend.

Go faux - the 'Fake it' faux cherry blossom stem is available in pale pink or white.  It brings a soft nod to springtime into your home.

The humble pot plant gets its moment of glory.

Where once the potted plant was the mainstay of a console table of the older generation, they are now enjoying a well deserved revival with a younger, more style savvy market.

The Seventies revival

It's not just the revival of all things seventies that has bought our attention back to the small interior house plant ( see our previous blog post for all things Seventies style). Customers are realising how lovely it is to be surrounded by greenery.  The beauty of the faux houseplant is that they are interchangeable, cost effective and work with pretty much any interior space - there's a lot of fun to be had with mixing up shapes, heights and styles of plant.

The indoor garden

Here at Fake It, we often talk about the merits of an indoor garden as you can very easily achieve a real style statement at a relatively low cost purely by using varied pot plants.  The trend for green walls is for most inaccessible, but the look can easily be achieved in a less structured way with a bank for shelves and individual pots.  Not only does this mean it is less permanent than a fully installed green wall, but also it is interchangeable should you see another plant specimen you like the look of.

A beautiful green wall made from gorgeous pot plants.

Spider and cheese

If you're planning to go for the full retro look.  You can't go far wrong than combining the spider plant with the cheese plant.  Both have distinctive foliage but the glossy big leaves with giant splits of the cheese plant teamed with the variegated stripe fountain of the spider sit particularly well together.

The Fake It faux spider plant

The Fake It faux Cheese plant

Pot plants set for world domination

The shift from the cut flower look to the indoor garden revolution is rapidly creeping towards maintstream horticultural domination.  Ikea showed its house plants at the Chelsea flower Show for the first time this year, whist Alocasia was used and runway inspiration for this years Jasper Conran's runway shows.  Just a glance at any Pinterest interior shot these days will almost always feature a little green specimen.

Green up your gaff.

During the winter months, the easiest was to add colour and personality to a dark interior is to add some species plants.  Here at Fake It we have a huge collection to choose from and each work individually or as a beautiful grouping.  

Our love for pot plants shows no sign of abating.  We do however draw the line at giving them names and personalities....see Instagram feeds such as @jefferywolfgangvonplantypot and you may see what we mean! 

The fiddle leaf fig - the supermodel of the plant world.

The fiddle leaf fig tree - making a style statement with this superstar feature plant.

The current trend for a large feature corner plant is something we love here at Fake It.  The darling of the interior design press, a glossy green indoor specimen can deliver as much impact as any soft furnishing or statement lamp, often at a far cheaper cost.

The Fiddle leaf - The supermodel of the plant world.

A good place to start is a plant with a large architectural leaf. Bold foliage looks striking and fresh against a strong coloured wall and can deliver fabulous style when teamed with a large contemporary pot.  The current 'it' plant of the design world is the fiddle leaf ficus.  It has a sculptural quality, thin trunk with big lush leaves which delivers the perfect balance of volume and structure.  

 A stunning fiddle ficus tree. Image credit to www.swoonworthy ( https://www.swoonworthy.co.uk/2015/my-fiddle-leaf-fig-tree-was-it-worth-the-money.html/ )

Upkeep - we hope you have green fingers??

Amazingly due to the popularity of the real fiddle leaf leaf plant most would believe that it is an easy, low maintenance specimen. Sadly this is not the case and the real trees are notoriously temperamental to keep alive and looking green and glossy.  
Due to the popularity of the fiddle, the Fake it team have worked hard to ensure our new Faux version perfectly replicates the real fiddle ficus, so we can deliver all of the style statement without any of the difficult upkeep.

Detail of the new 'Fake It' fiddle ficus tree- the perfect tree free alternative. 

A stunning fiddle ficus makes a real style statement.

The power of a single plant

Large leaf plants aren’t just for large rooms, they allow you to play around with scale in a smaller space.  Popping just one of these lovely specimens in the corner of the room will immediately elevate it from unloved to modern and fresh.  These gorgeous trees seems to work in all interiors from modern to granny chic and seem to magically transform any room.

To see our beautiful faux fiddle trees, please do pop by the Fake It showroom to learn more about these green superspecimens.

The stunning 'Fake It' fiddle ficus - for more details please contact the 'Fake It' team

Be inspired by the decade that style forgot

When we think of 1970s interior design, a few key pieces tend to spring to mind. Macrame hanging baskets, spider plants, rattan furniture, avocado bathrooms and lots of tones of browns and oranges. The style of the decade was greatly influenced by the back-to-nature movement, which stemmed from the hippie notion of rejection of materialism and being ‘at one’ with nature — hence all the earthy tones. Interior designers at the time went crazy with the ’nature’ ideal turning everything possible into earthy tones and bringing the first real indoor gardens and terrariums inside the living rooms of a suburban house.

Some interior designers went crazy on the green theme

Top tips to bring 70s styling into the modern home

Ok so we realise you may not be ready to bring back the avocado bathroom suite just yet, but there are elements of the 70s look that work brilliantly in today’s home.  

Natural materials

Using planters made from wicker or rattan brings back a rustic element to the living room. If you’re ready for it, we are also seeing a lot more macrame hanging baskets creeping back onto the market. Styled in a Fake it way, we say make sure your hanging basket is filled with a sumptuous large fern or architectural succulent... avoid anything too delicate. This look is for the bold and can be truly stunning if styled with confidence. Try grouping three hanging baskets in a corner at varying heights filled with large leaf faux plants for real impact.

Macrame hanging baskets are back!

Indoor gardens

Large architectural plants and trees are back and live happily in the corner of any lounge or bedroom. Make sure your tree or plant in oversized, has really unusual large striking leaves and sit them in an oversized statement planter. As in the original 70s lounge, don't be afraid of lots of greenery in the lounge. Sit groups of succulents on the coffee table, maybe a small tree fern on an occasional table and a large strelitzia tree in the corner. The effect of the greenery guides the eye around the room and gives a calming more natural feel to an indoor space.

 Large architectural plants and trees are back

Handmade ceramics

Give your containers a homespun/handmade feel.  Small pots and containers should feel homemade and unique, sat together in groupings of colour with varying height plants.

Give your containers a homespun/handmade feel

Fake It 70s style

We love the 70’s styling elements and we have worked with our manufacturers to design the best quality faux trees and plants to give you this look. Here is a guide to some of the many plants and trees available from Fake It to really adopt this look with style.
 

Say Cheese! A lovely glossy leaf cheeseplant is perfect for the ‘big leaf’ trend.

Spider-tastic. Yes, we are even seeing the faux spider plant creeping back onto the market!

What a stunner! If you do a hanging basket, why not make it enormous and striking like this amazing faux fern.

So why not give it a go yourself. We reckon this look is here to stay. When done well it’s a fresh, contemporary take on the indoor garden look. That said, with all style-trends, it's important to know when enough is enough. If you have adopted indoor greenery in your life as illustrated in the below picture, you may have gone just a tad too far!

Too much!

Love,

Emma & Becca x

P.S. Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for regular styling updates.

Fake It featured in Homes & Property

We were delighted with the article in the Evening Standard Homes and Property section in January this year. It was a great project to work on and the client was pleased with her faux window boxes and trees.

Read the full article here / all images © Paul Dubois

It’s finally here!

We are very pleased to announce that our new website and showroom have officially launched.

We hope you enjoy exploring our new website and please come down to the showroom to have a look.

You can visit us at our shop in Fulham, 419 New Kings Road or contact us for more information.

Fake It showroom is now open

Fake It has previously worked closely with top London landscape designers ‘Harrington Porter landscapes’ and we have now proudly opened our first London showroom space. Clients can now come a see and feel the quality of Fake It exterior displays, with many of our window boxes, hedges, topiary balls and trees on display. To come and take a look see us at 419 New Kings Road, London SW12.