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Simple DIY Flower Arrangement Using Faux Florals

How to make classic DIY flower arrangements for centerpieces in this step-by-step tutorial using realistic faux flowers.

artificial floral DIY altar flower arrangements and centerpieces

Years ago, when I was making my own DIY wedding centerpieces, I WISH I’d known then what I know now.

I am by no means a professional florist, which definitely explains why I gravitate toward realistic faux flowers more often than buying expensive real flowers that make a mess and die within a week. (A realist over a romantic? I don’t know but my practical side wins out a lot.)

diy faux floral centerpieces

But the other week, I whipped up a couple of DIY altar flower arrangements for our church and thought it would help to document the step-by-step tutorial if you ever need to make your own DIY centerpieces using faux florals.

This would be perfect to recreate for Mother’s Day, Easter, birthdays, or adapted to any other holiday of the year to reuse on multiple occasions.

diy altar flower arrangement and centerpiece using artificial florals

How to Make DIY Artificial Flower Arrangements for Centerpieces

Supplies

Tip: Follow this video tutorial for more tips on how to arrange real flowers. If you plan to make DIY floral arrangements as wedding decor or for a special event, consider ordering wholesale flowers in bulk ahead of time from the grocery store.

Footed Bowls for All Budgets

Steps

placing a half sphere of florist foam in a footed bowl to make DIY altar flower arrangement

Step 1 – Place Foam

Tip: You can make an inexpensive footed bowl yourself by gluing together a dollar store bowl and candle holder with E6000 adhesive and spray painting with texture spray paint.

Place the half sphere of florist foam in the footed bowl or cut a florist foam block to a similar shape using a knife. Use a little double sided duct tape or hot glue in the bottom of the bowl to keep the foam in place if you’d like.

(I kept my foam unattached so that I can easily change out the flowers seasonally to reuse the footed bowl as a base. If you’ll be transporting these centerpieces, I’d highly recommend securing the foam to the bowl.)

Tip: If you don’t have foam, a good alternative is to use a chicken wire floral cage in the bottom of the bowl or place floral tape around the rim of the bowl to separate the stems.

footed bowl with florist foam half sphere

Step 2 – Trim and Fluff Faux Flowers

It really helps to give your faux flowers a little “fluff”. Shake the stems (or even blast them with the hair dryer) to loosen petals. Or you can gently spread the faux petals with your hands to make blooms look more full.

I found these realistic faux hydrangeas in a pack of 5 stems for less than $25!

Decide the height you’d like for your centerpiece and trim the stems with wire cutters, leaving at least 2 inches of extra length to stick into the foam. I cut mine at about 16″ long.

Step 3 – Place One Bloom in the Middle of the Bowl

Push the end of one stem in the middle of the florist foam so the flower is sticking straight up. This will be the maximum height of your flower arrangement.

faux flower placed in florist foam

Step 4 – Place Two More Stems in a Triangle

Place the next two stems below the first stem to make a triangular pattern (see image below). Turn the bowl 180 degrees and place two more stems on the other side in the same way.

See the triangle shape below? It’s always best to arrange in clusters of odd numbers.

placing faux flowers in odd numbers to arrange in foam to make wedding altar flowers

Step 5 – Continue Placing Stems in Triangular Patterns

Continue to the last row of stems placing them near the rim of the bowl in a triangular pattern so they are staggered from the second row of stems you placed in Step 4.

artificial flowers arranged in florist foam to make a DIY centerpiece

Step 6 – Separate Ruscus Into Smaller Stems

To start filling in greenery, use the wire cutters to separate the large ruscus stem into smaller sections of leaves.

Step 7 – Fill In Gaps With Stems and Blooms

Place the ruscus stems between the hydrangea stems in the florist foam and begin filling in gaps.

Repeat the process of filling in gaps with the large roses and ranunculus stems evenly spaced out until there are no more holes between blooms.

how to arrange flowers for DIY centerpieces in florist foam

Step 8 – Add Floral Accents

Add interest using any final floral accents you’d like. I chose to add a few stems of faux seeded eucalyptus.

fake flower arrangement centerpiece using faux hydrangeas, roses, ranunculus, ruscus, and eucalyptus

Finished DIY Flower Arrangement

white flower arrangement wedding centerpiece with fake hydrangeas, roses, ranunculus, ruscus, and eucalyptus

That’s it!

I’m definitely no professional at floral design, but I promise you if I can handle assembling this faux flower centerpiece, anyone can do it.

You could easily add in or substitute a brighter accent color like pink, blue, or yellow to adapt to any holiday or event’s color scheme.

I plan to add blue flowers for Father’s Day and incorporate a few red and blue blooms for July 4th.

classic DIY flower arrangement with fake hydrangeas, roses, ranunculus, ruscus, and eucalyptus

Related: You can see more of my favorite realistic faux flowers and floral centerpiece ideas here!

These would be so pretty as wedding day floral arrangements at an altar or as dinner table centerpieces at a wedding reception.

If you prefer to do DIY projects before your big day, these are a great way to save the budget by shopping after-season sales on faux flowers.

diy wedding centerpiece using fake flowers

Think you’ll try this DIY fake flower arrangement yourself?!

Even though I ended up transporting these to our church to be used as altar flowers, I love how they turned out so well that I might make one more to keep at home.

More Floral Decorating Ideas

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5 Comments

  1. Thank you for all the great shallow vases. So many attractive pieces to use for many uses in the home. And a wonderful choice of prices. I have several in mind!

  2. I love this floral arrangement. I love your simple step by step directions. I will love to make one of these this year. Thanks for sharing