How to make a faux plant
look completely real
There's a difference between a faux plant that looks artificial and one that genuinely fools people. The plant itself is only half the equation. The other half is how you style it — and most people skip the finishing steps entirely. Here are the five tricks that professional interior stylists use to make faux plants completely convincing.
Why most faux plants look fake
It's rarely the plant itself that gives it away. Modern premium faux plants have extraordinary foliage detail. What gives them away is almost always one of three things: the black plastic nursery pot sitting in plain sight, perfectly symmetrical branches that no real tree would have, or placement that looks like the plant was set there rather than grown there.
Fix these three things and even a mid-range faux plant looks convincing. Apply all five tricks below and a premium faux plant becomes genuinely indistinguishable to most people.
The five tricks
The moss and stones trick — the most important one
The black plastic nursery pot is the single biggest giveaway. No real plant sits in a plain black pot on your living room floor. Covering the base takes five minutes and transforms the entire look.
How to do it: Place the nursery pot inside a decorative planter. Fill any gap around the sides with rolled newspaper or packing material for stability. Then cover the top of the nursery pot — the visible surface around the trunk — with one of these: white decorative pebbles (from any hardware or garden store), preserved moss (available at craft stores or online), coconut fibre mat (cut to fit), bark chips, or fine gravel. The specific material matters less than having something there. Bare black plastic = obviously fake. Any natural cover = completely believable.
Spread and reshape the branches
When your tree arrives, the branches will be slightly compressed from packaging and shipping. This gives it a slightly too-tidy, too-symmetrical look that no real tree has.
How to do it: Take five minutes to gently bend each branch outward and downward slightly. Vary the angles — some branches reaching up, some reaching out, a few angled slightly downward. Real trees grow toward light, away from obstacles, in the direction of least resistance. They're never perfectly symmetrical. The more natural asymmetry you introduce, the more convincing the result. This is the most underrated trick in this list.
Choose the right decorative pot
The pot is as much of the design object as the plant. A great plant in a cheap pot looks cheap. A premium plant in a beautiful pot looks expensive and considered.
How to do it: Choose a pot that's the right diameter for your tree (roughly 1/5 of the tree height) and in a material that suits your interior. Fibestone reads as premium stone without the weight. Ceramic works beautifully in contemporary spaces. Terracotta suits warm, earthy interiors. The pot colour should complement rather than compete — cream, white and warm stone are universally safe. Matte black is striking. Avoid shiny plastic pots — they read as cheap regardless of what's in them.
Place it where natural light hits it
This doesn't benefit the plant — it benefits you. Natural light creates shadows through the leaves and branches that make the tree look alive and three-dimensional. It also makes the leaf colour more nuanced and natural.
How to do it: Position the tree so that natural light (not artificial light) falls through or across it during part of the day. Morning light is particularly beautiful on olive and fiddle leaf foliage. A tree in a dark corner with only artificial overhead light will always look slightly flat. Move it so the light interacts with it and the difference is immediate.
Style it so it looks like it belongs
Real plants don't sit alone in the middle of a floor, equidistant from everything. They're tucked into corners, beside furniture, under shelves, against walls. Place your faux plant the way a real plant would have grown — slightly imperfect in its relationship to the space around it.
How to do it: Position the tree so it has something behind it (a wall, a corner) and something beside it (a sofa, a console, a stack of books). This gives it context. A tree floating in the middle of a room looks placed. A tree in a corner beside a sofa looks grown. You can also style a few other elements near the base — a stack of books, a small stool, a throw — to make the area feel inhabited rather than staged.
What to buy for the finishing touches
Your finishing kit — all from Bunnings or online
- White decorative pebbles — bag of 2kg covers most 30–40cm pots
- Preserved sheet moss — available from craft stores, Etsy or garden centres
- Coconut fibre liner — sold in rolls, easy to cut to any shape
- Bark chips (fine grade) — natural and earthy, perfect for warm interiors
- Fine white or grey gravel — clean and contemporary
A note on dusting
Real plants collect dust just like faux ones — but they clean themselves in rain or when watered. Your faux plant needs occasional attention. Gently wipe each leaf with a dry microfibre cloth every few months, or use a fine-bristle paintbrush for detailed foliage. A slightly dusty faux plant looks less real than a clean one — this is the one ongoing task that genuinely matters.
Start with a great tree
The tricks above work best when the plant itself is premium quality. Browse our full range — real wood trunks, real-touch foliage, ships Australia-wide.
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