The Silk Express

Feb 10, 2012

When the landscape outside our windows has faded to dull brown, bony branches and white lawn frosting, we pine for a bit color and organic shape indoors—like the beautiful fresh peonies in this room. Sure, silk flowers aren’t the real deal, but when purchased from a quality manufacturer and styled just right, they’re a darn good impersonation.

We picked up a couple bunches of silk peonies from silkflowers.com, one of our go-to suppliers for believe-it-or-not artificial flowers, and mounded them in this vintage-look urn for a lush, romantic arrangement. Follow these tips to get a similar look at home.

• Stick with one type of flower in a mounded arrangement for the most natural appearance. Peonies, hydrangeas in a mix of white and green or lavender and purple, and ranunculus are all good choices.
• Clip the stems as needed so they don’t poke up through the arrangement; a few pieces of foliage are fine, but you’ll want to hide or clip the remainder.
• Use an opaque vase or other vessel to hide the stems, which are the dead giveaway of the faux flower.