Farmhouse décor is all the rage right now — whether for wedding decorations or for your home — and with good reason. Warm and charming, a farmhouse look can’t help but make you and your guests feel welcome. While there are plenty of ways you can decorate your home in a modern farmhouse style, it can take months to find the right mix of eclectic, vintage, and vintage-inspired pieces. For a quick, easy, and budget-friendly dose of farmhouse chic, why not learn how to make a rustic silk floral arrangement?
The key to putting together your own farmhouse flower décor is choosing the right materials. After all, if you’re going for a farmhouse look, you really want to make sure the container and stems you’re choosing will get the job done. Once you have a good selection to work with, putting together your farmhouse floral arrangement will be a breeze. Read on for your guide to this easy afternoon DIY.
Part 1: Finding the Right Container
A rustic silk floral arrangement is only as good as the container it’s in. Simple containers (mason jars, empty milk bottles, plain white ceramic, wood boxes, old pitchers, galvanized coffee tins) are often best for a farmhouse feel. Maybe you already have some of these lying around your house. If not, a thrift or antique store could yield the perfect vintage container. If vintage isn’t to be had, you can most likely pick up a vintage-inspired container at your local craft store.
When you’re selecting your perfect container, be sure to consider where you want your finished flower arrangement to go. To hold my farmhouse floral stems, I ultimately opted for a galvanized metal pitcher. It’s larger than any of the glass bottles or jars I was considering, and I thought it would be a better fit for the sideboard I was looking to decorate. If you have a larger space to fill, you could also put together several small arrangements and group them together to form an attractive cluster for your table, mantel, or wherever.
Part 2: Selecting Your Stems
Once you have your container under control, it’s time to move on to picking out the perfect farmhouse artificial flowers. The most important thing to consider is color scheme—think pastel rather than bright, opting for tones like purples, white, yellows, pinks, and blues for the most appropriate farmhouse look. For a lovely, unified look, stick to just one or two hues and play around with lighter and darker tones of that color. A good strategy is to pick out flowers you like and lay them out together to see how they’ll look once combined.
Beyond color, if you’re trying to stay true to a down-home country feel, flower type is also important. You won’t see too many hibiscuses or birds-of-paradise down on the farm. Here’s a quick rundown of some of your best silk flower choices for a charming country bouquet:
Rose
A countryside classic, garden roses are wonderful options for any rustic flower display.
Photo by Oliveshadow on Shutterstock
Hydrangea
These large clumps of flowers come in shades of blue, pink, purple, and white, any of which could be appropriate for your arrangement. If you have other décor, farmhouse or otherwise, you want to match, let that help dictate your color choices.
Lilac
Who doesn’t love a beautiful lilac floral arrangement? This super pretty bloom comes in a variety of colors from blues and reds to whites and yellows. Keep it classic with one of the most popular and recognizable flowers: the common purple lilac.
Photo by Stanislav Photographer on Shutterstock
Wisteria
Another lovely option, wisteria (real or silk) is easily recognizable by its drooping clusters of lilac- or lavender-colored flowers and makes a dramatic addition to any arrangement.
Peony
A favorite of wedding bouquets everywhere, this beautiful bloom is like a fluffier version of a rose, coming in pretty pinks, reds, whites, and yellows.
Photo by Julia Sudnitskaya on Shutterstock
Lavender
A popular addition to any farmhouse arrangement, faux lavender comes in an array of lighter purple and more bluish-purple hues.
I opted to bring a French farmhouse flair to my flowers by making lavender (famously associated with Provence in Southern France) one of the stars. I chose large white dahlias to provide contrast and focal points, and for some extra texture and color, I picked some darker purple monkshoods.
Whether you opt for a selection of specific flowers or do your shopping based on ‘look’ rather than flower type, be on the lookout for any stems that look too fake. Faux water droplets are a no-no, as are unrealistic colors and cheap foam leaves and stems. Shopping smart will go a long way towards making your arrangement as realistic as possible.
Part 3: Putting Your Arrangement Together
Once you have your container and flowers selected, the actual arranging of your stems is the easy part. Start with your filler, or backdrop, flowers. For my arrangement, these were my clumps of lavender. Depending on the height of your stems, you may need to shorten them or stick some floral foam or newspaper in the bottom of the container to raise them up a bit.
Go ahead and spread your filler stems out evenly before adding larger flowers that you want to be the focal points. Don’t be afraid to cut apart the flowers if they came fused together. If you think of a real flower arrangement, it’s much more realistic to have one flower per stem and to spread them out throughout the floral display.
Once I had a good spread of my lavender and dahlias, I added the purple monkshood in last. These were the pieces I wanted to have sticking out for texture. A farmhouse flower arrangement should look natural — like you just picked the flowers from your garden. Avoid making it look too tight or tidy.
And just like that, you’ve got yourself a lovely floral arrangement perfect for bringing the farmhouse home. Stick around for more farmhouse décor ideas from House Tipster!
