Faux Floral: DIY No Fuss Succulent Planter Box
Succulents and other desert plans seems to be a breakout star this year! It seems that everywhere I turn there are succulents, cacti, and desert plant decor! I think it's a fun trend that adds a little green to your life.
One misconception I had was that these desert beauties were impossible to kill. Not true! Succulents, cacti, and air plants still need some love and care and they absolutely need sunlight. Sadly, our house doesn't get a ton of sunlight throughout the house. We have tons of big old trees that prevent that, but I will say it keeps us nice and cool in the summer. The problem, however, is that it's hard to have plants in many of our rooms.
No sunlight? No problem. I recently found the perfect solution to get some greenery around the house without having to host a regular plant funeral.
What You Need
Faux Succulents (Dollar Tree or local craft store)
Moss (Dollar Tree - $1 for a bag)
Floral Foam (Dollar Tree or local craft store)
Wood Box or other container
Stain (optional)
Glue Gun (Optional)
On a recent trip to Dollar Tree, I came across a wide array of faux succulents. You can certainly buy these at a local craft store, but they often run well over $1 a piece. Coupons can help, but this was too good to pass up! I wanted to buy them all, but I decided on 3 of my favorites.
If you are a regular reader of the blog, you know I am a fan of Goodwill for many different reasons. I've picked up amazing thrifted decor and regularly find supplies for DIY projects, like these Christmas sheet music ornaments. What's also great about Goodwill is that they often get the Target clearance leftovers. Basically, Target tries to clearance out items (sometimes not for long) and if it doesn't move quickly, off it goes to Goodwill. On one of my treasure hunting trips to Goodwill, I came across a brand new set of three unfinished wood craft boxes straight from Target for $2.99. At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I knew they'd come in handy. Nothing like this laying around? Target and craft stores carry similar unfinished wood boxes in stores.
Knowing I had these boxes, I picked up a square-shaped piece of floral foam while at Dollar Tree. I already had some leftover moss from my Easy Easter Egg Tea Cups, but you can also grab a bag of this at Dollar Tree as well.
Step 1: Prep Your Container
If you decide on using an unfinished wood container, you will likely want to paint or stain it to your liking. I stained mine with Varathane Weathered Gray. This stain is designed to dry within 1 hour, so you can get the rest of your project done the same day. If you are a first time user of stain, don't be scared away. Check out my staining tips on this previous sign making project. If you don't want the hassle of painting or staining, pick up any other finished container.
Step 2: Arrange Your Succulents
This is really easy! Place your floral foam into your container. Don't worry if it doesn't fit snugly. The main goal here is for you to have enough succulents to cover most of the container opening. The bigger the container opening, the more succulents you'll need. Any spaces remaining (as pictured below) will be filled by the moss. Stick the succulents right into the foam in the arrangement you'd like.
Step 3: Fill in with Moss
Take the moss and begin filling in the spaces until it is filled in around the succulents. If you'd like it to be more permanent, use a glue fun to secure the moss in place. Mine was tight enough in there that I didn't use glue. Note that the moss is messy, so you may want to put newspaper down underneath your project to make for easy clean-up.
Step 4: Enjoy!
That's it! In minutes you've got a no fuss succulent planter box that requires no additional sunlight or water! It might need a dust rag every now and again, but that's about it!
