Coasters + Jar Lid = Beautiful Planter!

Farhana Rahman
by Farhana Rahman
4 Materials
$5
5 Minutes
Easy
I had some extra air plants leftover from a Hometalk event. These little beauties needed a lovely home- but I'm oddly picky. DIY to the rescue!
Leftover air plants from Hometalk event.
I wanted to make a planter that was simple (to the eyes,) but not too simple. It also needed to be pretty, but not too pretty such that it would overshadow the plants. Oh, and I also didn't want to spend money, so I only wanted to use the random things I had on hand. Luckily, I have a lot of things. One of the perks of having a huge family that never comes to visit empty-handed.
Itty bitty jars from IKEA
At first, I was thinking of taking the lazy route. Why not just place them in these tiny jars that an aunt recently gave me? Then I figured nah- not a good idea. The plants will grow. Also, I didn't want to separate them like they were beta fish or something.
Plan B: Cork coasters
I looked through my drawers and shelves of wonders (jam-packed with trinkets,) and found these cork coasters. I knew I found the winner. I see a lots of fancy images on Instagram of plants against cork/pottery/wood-like things. This should work. And there's two of them in this pack.
Stack attempt #1
At this point, it became a matter of how to stack. This method has some shiplap appeal. But how about flipping the bottom one over?
Stack attempt #2
Hmmm, and this one here has pottery appeal. Both cute! I decided to go with the shiplap one. But I liked the way the pottery one was more raised. I realized that I had to come up with a way to raise the shiplap one, but I didn't want to place something towards the bottom as a base. The only option was to put something in the middle, thereby losing the shiplap aspect but something's gotta give, so okay.
Lid from jar of cocoa spread.
How about this lid from the old jar of cocoa spread? It's a nice natural color, and has the right height too. Let's see how it does in the stack test.
Pottery sandwich
I started off sandwiching the lid between the coasters in pottery mode. It looked good- but far too raised. The air plants are really tiny, and I want them to be the star of the show.
Shiplap sandwich
The look changed completely after I turned the coasters back to shiplap mode, and placed the jar lid in between. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Time to break out the glue gun!
Carefully applying glue
I decided to place the open part of the lid towards the bottom, so any glue that seeps out would be concealed by the shadows. Felt pretty smart for thinking of that.
Carelessly applying glue
After placing it in the center(ish) of the coaster, I went straight to applying glue on the top.
Trying to figure out center
I guess I should have traced or marked the center, because it wasn't particularly easy to figure out at that point because of perspective. I kind of got it right by the time the glue dried out.
Voilà! He's handsome! Yes, he's a guy. A handsome guy with a full head of hair.
His home (for now)
I decided to place him in a section of the guest room that could use a touch of a cool color. All the things you see there- yep- all presents from the family. And those presents from the family were all very welcoming to the new addition.
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  • Linda Premo Linda Premo on Mar 17, 2019

    I love air plants. They are so vibrant and such a pretty shade of green. They really enliven your table top and your collection of gifts from the family. You could always glue a piece of burlap ribbon around the brown lid if you didn’t want to see “the shadow”. Thanks for sharing!!

  • Imogene Imogene on Mar 19, 2019

    I live in Georgia and I dip mine in water every 2 weeks also. If I didn't they would die. Have had that happen.

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