5 Minute Decorating: DIY Faux Preserved Botanicals

This project involves fake plants, so if you happen to be either A) Martha Stewart or B) A botanist with a collection of cherished pressed fern specimens adorning every wall of your home, you may want to look away now. Martha, surely you have something else to do--sculpting a dragonfly out of butter, perhaps, or cataloging your collection of Medieval leather doilies?

If you're an ordinary human who's "pressed" for time, here's a fast, easy, and affordable way to make some DIY faux pressed botanicals for your home.

Step 1:
Pick up some realistic-looking silk greenery from a craft store. Fern fronds work well for this. Not sure whether your greenery looks real? To help you decide, I've provided the sophisticated Faux Plant Self-Test below.

Faux Plant Self-Test

1. Are the leaves blue?
2. Does the plant resemble a fright wig?

If you answered "Yes" to either of the questions above, the silk plant in question does not look real. Do not buy it.

Step 2:
Once you have found a few realistic "specimens", arrange them in a mat and frame. You can use spray adhesive if you'd like, but you may not even need to--for the example above, the pressure of the glass was enough to keep the ferns in place.

Step 3:
Hang your frames on the wall with confidence. They look great in groups of three. If anyone asks whether they're real, just answer, "Yes". After all, they are real; if they were imaginary, no one would be able to see them, now would they?

Love DIY projects? This project has been linked to lots of other great DIY projects at A Soft Place to Land and The Shabby Chic Cottage.