House Plants - Faux vs. Real

If you follow along on any home decor blogs or Instagram accounts, you may have noticed the house plant trend.  Specifically, the Fiddle Leaf Fig trend.  This plant has so much popularity, I decided to write a blog post about it.  Specifically whether to buy real or faux.  Let me start by telling you that I have both, so I am sharing my personal opinion with you and will break down why one may be better than the other based on your lifestyle.

I have three kids and I can hardly keep up with how many pets we have! (Currently 3 cats and 1 dog.) I had been wanting a Fiddle Leaf Fig for a while, but they aren't the easiest plant to find in Northern California for some reason.  I had been watching bloggers talk about finding them at Walmart, Costco and Home Depot, but I have never seen them at any of those stores.  We do have some specialty nurseries and plant shops, but $$$...  I finally was able to find one at Emigh Hardware, for about $40 dollars.  It was about 2 1/2 feet tall and looked very healthy, so I brought it home.  I had done my research, and they are fairly low maintenance.  Water in the shower about once a week, let dry completely before watering again.

What I didn't take into account was how the plant would hold up with my busy family.  For some reason, my 14 month old daughter was obsessed with this plant.  She ripped the leaves up pretty badly and the poor plant started to look pretty pathetic.  I tried to find a fiddle leaf fig tree, that didn't have leaves down low, but they were well over $200 and I couldn't justify spending that on a house plant.

So, I started looking around for a faux plant.  I found one at World Market for $129, but I had 2 $10 off coupons and one 15% off my entire purchase coupon, so I went ahead and bought it.  Of course, about a month later I saw a faux one at IKEA for around $40... But, the truth is, it's not as full and I think the one from World Market is a little better quality.

If you decide you want to incorporate real plants, you may want to start off small.  Trader Joe's usually has a small selection of house plants in the $5-7 range that are nice looking.  If you kill it, you won't be that upset.  And if real house plants aren't your thing at all, IKEA has a pretty decent selection of faux small plants as well that are very cheap.  I happen to have both in my house and I'm a fan of both, equally.

Best advice, remember the type of household you have before you incorporate real house plants.  Especially ones that are expensive.  A faux plant may be a better investment for you.  For now, my real Fiddle Leaf has a nice home on a dresser in the spare bedroom, and the faux plant is the star of the show in the dining room.