Now that spring is here, why not bring the season’s fresh blooms
into your house? After all, everyone loves flowers and greenery. Decorating
your house with plants is one of the easiest face-lifts you can give your home.
It’s such a small gesture, but it makes all the difference in the world. Unlike
painting or reupholstering, you don’t have to think about color schemes or
budget or anything big like that. Just pick your favorite pieces from nature,
put them in a vase or a pot, and you’re good to go! If fresh is too much for
you, fake is fine, as is using flowers in less conventional ways. Whichever way
you choose, we’ve compiled some tips to help you make the most out of your
arrangements. You’ll find suggestions for vases, silk flowers, and more, all of
which come from Kohls and eBay, where you can use our Kohls coupons and eBay coupon codes to save on all your home decorating needs.
Decorating with fresh plants
Nothing brightens up a
home quite like a fresh bouquet or a pop of green from a houseplant. Living
plants add a subtle energy to your home that people pick up on. Plants make any
space appear cleaner, more lived-in, and more refined. It doesn’t matter what
you choose, either. Most flowers and greenery will thrive as long as you water
them. Making the plants look good, though, depends entirely on what you put
them in.
The type of vase you need depends on the flower arrangement, so
it helps to stock up on multiple styles. For traditional bouquets — lots of
flowers with long stems — you want a vase that has a narrow base and a wide
mouth. This fans the flowers out in an appealing shape, and makes it easier to
water the whole bouquet at once. The Mikasa Avenue Vase ($53.99 at Kohls) is a reasonably priced vase of this style.
With more modern arrangements, the idea is to play around with shape and
texture. So for bouquets like these, a vase with an interesting shape itself is
a good start. This Embossed Metal Round Vase ($20 at Kohls) is beautiful all on its own, but it has enough
room to fill it with flowers of all kinds.
Houseplants also need a special vessel. Houseplants are a
long-term purchase and are meant to stay in the same pot for as long as
possible. So your pot needs to be heavy-duty and able to withstand years of
use. This nearly natural Lacquered Braided Planter ($29.39 at Kohls) is made of lacquered wood, which is nearly
indestructible. The braided finish goes well with any interior decorating
style, and is easy to clean, too. You won’t have to do much to keep this
planter looking good as long as your houseplants stick around.
It’s always a good idea to stock up on a number of different
planters and vases. You never know when you might receive flowers, so they’re
good to have around the house. Kohls has a wide selection to choose from, and
you can save on all of them with our Kohls coupons.
Decorating with fake plants
For those of you who
don’t have a green thumb, decorating your house with plants doesn’t have to
mean using real plants. Fake plants have as many benefits as fresh. For one,
they cost much less money in the end. Though high-quality fakes cost more at
first, it ends up being less than replacing a bouquet every week. Also, you
don’t have to remember to water! Just wipe them down with a dust rag once a
week to keep up the impression of real greenery. Nothing says “fake” quite like
a dusty plant.
If you opt for flowers, choose ones made of silk, which best
mimics the texture of real petals. This bouquet of silk peonies ($5.99 on eBay) is indistinguishable from the real deal. So is
this sweet arrangement of tea roses ($39 on eBay). Fake houseplants shouldn’t be made with
rubber or anything thick. Again, the trick is to use delicate fabric to mimic
leaves.
Also, make sure the physical arrangement of the plant resembles
that of its real-life counterpart. The lush collection of leaves in this Boston fern hanging
basket ($35.82 on eBay) is very convincing. For a little more color, you can even do fake succulents ($9.90 on eBay)!
Ebay is the best place to buy fakes. Their website lists
thousands of vendors from all around the world, so you’re guaranteed to find
some florals to fit your taste. Sometimes it’s best to buy in bulk, so you can
rotate your greenery depending on your mood or the season. Save on your floral
stash with our eBay coupon codes.
Other unconventional options
Of course, there’s
other ways to incorporate plants into your decor. You don’t have to stick to
houseplants, bouquets, and the like. If you believe a full-size plant would
overwhelm your space, opt for smaller touches of nature.
A fun, creative use of flowers is drying or pressing them. For
dried flowers, choose a few of your favorite blooms, then bundle them together
and hang them upside down somewhere cool and dry for around two months. When
they’re ready — they should still have their shape and color, but a more
crinkly texture — place the whole bouquet in a vase, or break up the flowers to
make your own potpourri. Potpourri looks best when you can see all of its
colors, so display it in a shallow, clear vessel like this SONOMA life + style
hurricane vase ($16 at Kohls).
To press flowers, take your heaviest book, and open it to the
middle. Line the pages with tissue paper, then place the flower in between.
After you close the book, the weight will press the flower and preserve it.
(For multiple flowers, use multiple pages.) The flowers should be ready in a
month. Then, take them out and frame them! These Malden Portrait Gallery Frames ($12.00 – $24.00
at Kohls)come with matting,
which holds the flowers flush against the glass of the frame.
Just like in nature
itself, there are so many ways to display flowers and plants. As with so many
things in home decorating, it just boils down to personal preference.
Decorating your house with plants doesn’t have to be a big, expensive ordeal
reserved only for Valentine’s Day and Easter. In fact, it doesn’t have to cost
much at all when you use our following special offers.
