Anthropologie Inspired Table Decor From Palm Leaves

We have quite a collection of palm trees growing in the garden and this time of year they have all flowered and have fruit. I marvel at how rugged the leaves are, they seem to be indestructible. For instance, I have been submerging a big leaf in a bath of water for the past 3 days in the vain the hope that it will soften so that I can cut it. No such luck, whatever part is not completely submerged merely dries out again. They defy science!

So, as part of my current palm leaf mission I have resorted to using more manageably sized ones. These work really well as bowls and mini sculptures because they hold their structure.

This is the type of palm they are from - I don’t know what type exactly but its not a big one.

And these are the type of leaves I mean, with toothbrush as size reference. Someone will probably point out that they are not leaves at all but part of the fruit or flower. For the sake of hygiene I chose ones that had not been laying on the ground for too long or had any evidence of animal activity around them.

Some needed trimming with garden shears.

Next I lay them in water and bleach for 10 minutes or so, scrubbed them clean with an old toothbrush, then rinsed them with clean water and laid them out to dry.

In my wisdom I decided to spray paint them so went through the whole rigmarole of masking sections. In retrospect it would have been much easier to just paste a strip of masking tape and paint with a brush and chalk paint.

I used Krylon Chalky Finish in Anvil Grey. Some of the leaves were so stained that I painted everything instead of leaving some of the natural colour.

Then I used correction fluid to draw dots on simply because it was at hand. Initially I used the little sponge applicator that comes with the bottle but found it is much easier to use an ear bud (cue tip) as it gives a much neater dot as long as you keep the nib tidy and the cottonwool under control. I suggest using ear buds with bamboo sticks as these are more environmentally friendly. I’m sure you could also use acrylic paint or nail polish, or you could stick gems or stickers.

I was left with a pretty collection of bowls.

Looking at the image above you can see that not all the leaves have the same shape. This is where you have to determine which would be easier to use as bowls and which would could be pasted upright. The one on the right is better as a bowl.

I used a glue gun to stick the rounded ones to pieces of scrap wood. They look a little bit black and scary in this picture but seen from all sides they are very sculptural.

Here they are being used as part of a tablescape.