How to Make an Easy DIY Rock Cactus

9 Materials
$5
1 Hour
Easy

A few years ago I made a super easy DIY rock cactus. It turned out really cute and best part—cost me nothing because I had all supplies already on hand.

I gathered my supplies

– 5-10 larger river rocks

– Green acrylic paint (2-3 different shades)

– Paint brushes

– White Sharpie paint marker

– Plant pot

– Handful of used plastic grocery sacks (not shown)

– Small river rock


Optional

– Faux pink flower(s)

– Hot glue gun

OR

– Pink acrylic paint and a faux flower in any color

I started by painting the rocks with two quick coats of the green paint (my toddler even got into the action). I decided to do three different cactus “plants” at the same time, so you might need to paint more or less rocks depending on how many plants you wanna make.


I did most of them in a solid color, but decided to paint stripes on a couple. I even got my kiddo involved.

Once the rocks were dry I laid them all out together and then started to divide them up into different DIY rock cactus “plants”.

I took my white sharpie pen and drew some cactus-like patterns on them. Stars and polka dots seemed to work best for me.

Once the white paint quickly dried, I took my pots and stuffed the bottoms with handfuls of plastic grocery bags.


This fills up the space and lets you get away with only using a handful of small river rock on the tops in each pot. It also keeps the cactus lightweight.

I began to layer the rocks into the pots until I was happy with their placement.

I began to layer the rocks into the pots until I was happy with their placement.


Then I painted a taped off section of the pot.

I decided that the simple single cactus needed a pink flower and that the both pots needed a paint dipped look, so I painted a two faux flowers that I found around the house pink and taped off the pots and painted them as well.

I repeated these steps on a couple other cactus pots....

And this is how they turned out.

What do you think? Will you give it a try? The results are super cute.

I have mine placed in my  home office nook, and they bring a pop of color to my day.

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Audrey Kuether
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4 of 19 comments
  • Myc48908067 Myc48908067 on Jul 13, 2021

    More that a notation that question. Several years ago I moved into a house where the kitchen was sorely in need of cabinet space.

    It turned out a cabinet company was going out of business. My husband suggested we but up over the counter cabinets. They were slightly thinner that below the counter, but still worked perfect along a bare wall. We painted all the kitchen cabinets white as well as the new ones all the cabinets white and covered the top to match the the rest of the counter top. This was the era of Formica. But granite or whatever pleases one uses will work. I will admit for mike was easier.


    ps. The irony of this was that in a previous house, a cabinet maker did a terribly shabby job. This particular cabinet maker felt sorry for us and redid it but didn't charge for tear down . He is the same cabinet maker but was retiring. Mary Anne Molinari
















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    • Jeanne Martin Jeanne Martin on Jul 13, 2021

      I believe you may have posted your little kitchen cabinet story on the wrong post. This post is about painting rocks to look like cactus. I would recommend you "copy" your story and "paste" it to either the correct post or to the main Hometalk page. That way more people interested in kitchen makeovers will see your post.

  • Mary Zamora Mary Zamora on Aug 09, 2021

    Too cute

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