How I Transformed a Flower Stem Into a Faux Houseplant

11 Materials
$8
1 Hour
Easy

This is a post for those who didn't get the green thumb in their genetic code or they may like the look of houseplants but not the maintenance they require. Either way this is an easy and affordable way to add some green into your current home scene so let's get started! The Coleus stem you see laid there was discounted half price to just $5 so I bought two of them thinking that it would be easy to turn them into fake houseplants.

Supplies to Start

I had some empty plastic flowerpots but how would I keep the big stem upright in such a lightweight pot? We have a saying around here that whenever we have a slight meal, leftovers or a processed food we look at the bright side and say, "Its better than a rock in the pot!" But in this case a rock in the pot is perfect, well maybe a few rocks would be needed!

The chunk of asphalt seen there along with a few other chunks gave me the counter weight I needed for the top heavy plant. But now how would I conceal the weighty matter? Where there's a will...there's a way! I decided to make an insert for the flowerpots using a recycled Styrofoam tray.

I just cut out the biggest possible circle tgat I could get out of the teay at first then I use some of my dinnerware plates to determine the best fit for the insert to be. Once I found the size I traced it onto the tray and that became my cutting line.

There's an inside ledge to the flowerpots so that's where I wanted this template to sit and rest upon.

Now to poke a hole in the center for the stem to feed down into the base of the pot.

Ok so that looks pretty blah, nothing like soil that a real plant would be growing out of, I have the solution! I'll paint the soil onto the template...piece of cake! Dab, dab, swish, swish, plop, plop and smooch, smooch with brown and black acrylic paints.

That mud slinging was fun, I mean it's starting to look like the real deal now!

So now it's planting time...no digging required though! I used foam, well it's actually recycled Styrofoam packaging material but if you don't have access to any then use dry floral foam. The plant is poked through the mud layer then into the Styrofoam ready to be laid into the pot.

I am kinda drooling over my fake mud topping, if you know me you'll understand how passionate I am about good growing soil! Haha, this is foamy not loamy but it serves the purpose!

So in review the stem is secured into the styrofoam and the styrofoam is wedged between the asphalt chunks laid into the pot bottom. It stands up perfectly with the secure fit and it looks like the real deal!

As a topping for the layers I used glass gems to make it a little more glamorous, you see it's a surprise gift for my mother in law!

She loved it and once her guests saw it they thought it was real and asked to get a snip of her beautiful plant!!

So I stepped up to the fake it plate once more and chiseled out another one for her friend that she in turn would give to them! This time the top layer used was a stove burner cover!

Once I flipped it over it was the perfect size insert for the next flowerpot I chose to use. I drilled a center hole for the stem and then spray painted the underside of it with black flat paint, a couple of coats ensured good coverage. I had some small pebbles to accent the fake soil layer with so really very little of the cover would ever be seen.

Here it is as I'm about to deliver it to my mother in law to surprise her guest with, they now get to have their very own faux Coleus houseplant too! I was given the gift of happiness from giving and making them both so happy and grateful, a win-win situation! Until next time...spread a little craft happiness. Thanks for popping by!

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