DIY Succulent Plant

Whatever the opposite of a green thumb is, I have that. I cannot keep a plant alive for more than couple days; it is something that despite how hard I have tried, I just can’t master it. I usually water the plants way too much and am constantly fidgeting with the leaves (probably a sign that I am going to be a helicopter mom that smothers my children with love). I have finally accepted defeat and decided to stick to fresh-cut flowers and artificial potted plants. This is an issue for me, though, because I really hate look of silk flowers or plastic plants because I can immediately tell they’re fake! No fooling me, folks. Until I found succulents! Even real succulents look fake because they’re so perfect and usually symmetrical. Just the look of the leaves on a real succulent appear to be plastic-like at first glance. Initially, I tried a real succulent because I have heard they’re nearly impossible to kill. Well, not for me. *eye roll* But in the two weeks that I was able to keep my succulent alive (that’s a record for me), I grew to love the way it looked on my coffee table. I knew I needed an artificial option but I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted so I made it myself! Here are the instructions for my DIY Succulent Plant! You can make this with any plant or pot you want, in any size or color you want. Totally able to be customized to your liking!

I started out with the gold pot that I originally used for my real succulent, in an effort to make it really authentic *wink*. I got mine at a market in San Diego but I found this one that is nearly identical from Urban Outfitters. Bonus, it’s only $10! I liked this one because it went well with the decor I already had and was the right height for my coffee table – I don’t like anything too high so that it doesn’t block the TV or hinder conversations from across the room.

Next, I needed to find a succulent that fit inside my existing vase. I didn’t worry too much about the succulent’s height because that could be adjusted later. As long as the diameter was able to fit inside my pot, the succulent was a go! I ended up getting this one from Target that is currently on sale for less than $7. It was much shorter than the pot I had so I knew I was going to have to prop it up inside. If it was too tall, I would have taken it out of the vase it came in and cut the bottom of the succulent accordingly. Depending on the succulent you purchase, this might be tough so try to avoid this if you can.

I ended up filling the bottom of my pot with paper towels to give the succulent something to stand on and reach out of the pot like a real plant would. Very tricky, I know. Doing this allowed me to make adjustments easily and still allowed the plant to have a tiny bit of movement like a real one would. Once I got it to the height I wanted, I filled the top of the pot with a vase filler that I love. This allowed me to fill in all the edges around the plant and cover the top so that you couldn’t see its original container. I got my vase filler from a local store in San Diego called Pigment but you can find this type of thing anywhere. If you live in San Diego, run, don’t walk, to Pigment and fall in love. It’s my heaven on Earth. I found a really similar vase filler here and here. You can sprinkle the vase filler in using a spoon to have more control and make sure it’s going exactly where you want it. Using the paper towels to prop it up made me need a lot less vase filler, and subsequently less money, because I only used the filler where I knew it would be seen.

That’s it! So easy! The whole project came to a total of under $20 and I know I can never kill it, which is the real win here!

What other kind if DIY projects would you like to see me try out?

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