How To Make Potted Faux Succulents
If you are like me, you may have a love-hate relationship with plants. As an ADHD female, I’m lucky if natural plants survive me. Sometimes it’s easier to have succulents that look real and do not have to be watered!
Here is my less than 15-minute tutorial on how to make some pretty awesome decor for your home, office, apartment, or dorm room!
Here’s what you need for your potted faux succulents:
- Small decorative pots (I got these from Dollar General)
- Plant Craft Foam (Most dollar stores and craft stores carry these)
- Quality Fake Succulents (these came from Hobby Lobby)
- A bag of decorative pebble stones (most dollar stores and craft stores sell these).
- Wire cutters
Here’s How To Make a Single Plant Potted Faux Succulent
Step 1: Add your foam to your pot.
Your first step is to get your foam to the correct size to fit neatly into your single pot. This foam was way too thick, so I had to cut it in half to get it to the correct size to go down into the pot.
Once it is right, you want to make sure the foam sits down below the rim an inch or two so that you have the space to cover the foam with the rocks and not have them fall out on you. Mine was low enough in the cup to cover the foam, and I didn’t need hot glue to hold the rock in.
Step 2: Add your plant to your foam.
Sometimes, you may need to cut off a succulent from the stem of other plants. You can do this carefully with a set of wire cutters.
Stick the plant down into the foam. I found it was easier to do this outside of the pot.
Step 3: Add your foam and faux succulent plant to the pot.
I then added my succulent to the pot. Note that you may have to trim around the outside of the foam to make it fit. Remember to leave a bit of space for the stones you will add.
Step 4: Add the stones around your faux succulent plant.
Now that the plant and foam are in place, it’s time to add your decorative rocks to the planter. Just take a few at a time and place them in and around the plant. Let them fall where they may and keep filling until you can’t see the foam, but the rocks stay put. You may have some spill out in the process but that’s okay, keep going until it’s covered.
Step 5: Step back and admire your single plant potted faux succulent! Then place it where you want it in your space!
Now that you’ve made a single potted faux succulent, I will show you how to make a plant with more than one succulent.
Here’s How To Make a Triple Plant Potted Faux Succulent
One simple rule of thumb in plant decor is to use odd numbers. You can ignore that whenever the creative urge hits you, but if you want to keep things simple, it does work.
In this case, I wanted to make another pot for my mantel with 3 plants. Here’s how that process went.
Step 1: Add the cut foam to your pot.
Step 2: Cut your faux succulent bunch apart.
My three succulents were bunched together, so I had to cut them apart with wire cutters.
Step 3: Press faux succulents down into craft foam.
You may have to play with the placement of these plants depending on how much space you have to work with in your pot, but I went with a tight triangle pattern as I placed them.
Step 4: Add rocks to faux succulents.
Just as before, I added the rocks in and around my faux succulent planter. This one was obviously a bit more challenging because I had a little less space to work with, but ultimately, I got it just how I wanted it, and the rocks stayed put. You can always hot glue them if you want to, but it didn’t seem to be a problem for me without it.
Once you have all your rocks in place, you can set your planter out for the world to see! If you have other plant murderers, this can also make a great gift! The nice thing about faux potted succulents is that if you get decent plants they can look really convincingly real, which is what you want!
I kept mine up on my mantel and they looked great for years. You may need to dust them a little occasionally and by being up high you don’t have to worry about them being bumped and the rocks falling out if you didn’t hot glue them in place. I hope you have enjoyed this crafty tutorial!
If you enjoyed this, check out my other quick and easy home decor projects.
Other Quick DIY Home Decor Projects
Kim Anderson is the organized chaos loving author behind the Thrifty Little Mom Blog. She helps other people who thrive in organized chaos to stress less, remember more and feel in control of their time, money, and home. Kim is the author of: Live, Save, Spend, Repeat: The Life You Want with the Money You Have. She’s been featured on Time.com, Money.com, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, and more!
