Avoid The Hassle Of Growing Snake Plants With This Charming DIY

In the quest to decorate with indoor plants, you may have tried to grow a snake plant. After all, they have a reputation for being easy to grow. However, did you know that a snake plant is an exceptionally slow-growing plant? You may only get the pleasure of two to four new leaves a year! At this rate, your dreams of a showstopping interior plant display may come crashing down. However, with this charming DIY, you can make your own artificial snake plant in a terracotta pot with as many leaves as you want in just a few short hours. 

Felt works well for this project as it's thicker than most regular fabrics, much like the leaves of a snake plant. Cut out at least a dozen long, sword-shaped leaves. Cutting them all slightly differently is one of the tricks to make your fake plant appear perfectly imperfect. Lay them on a nonstick surface, spray the leaves with a product like Mod Podge Ultra that will make the felt stiffen up, and allow them to dry. Flip them over to spray the other side. Repeat so that each side has two coats. Paint faint green horizontal stripes across all the leaves, then edge them in yellow.

If you decide to play around with making different types of snake plants, pick up some felt in different shades of green, such as FabricLA craft felt fabric rolls, and adapt the leaf shape slightly. To copy the 'Black Gold' cultivar, add a thick yellow border. Make a silver snake plant known as 'Moonshine' by using a paler green and widening the leaves. Or, reproduce the smaller 'Whitney' with exquisitely delicate patterns along the borders of the elongated leaves.

Before gluing the leaves in place, decorate your terracotta pot. You could always leave the pot plain for a simple piece, but decorating it is half the fun. For a rustic look, wrap jute around the middle and glue it in place. You could also customize your pot using paint, stencils, stamps, or even decals and stickers. This is a good moment to make sure your DIY will suit the room you intend to display it in. If the terracotta pot isn't quite right, switch it out for a budget plastic planter. This gives you versatility to slip your snake plant inside an elegant ceramic pot, a rustic woven basket, or a sturdy log planter, depending on the rest of the decor. 

To bring it all together, cut out a circle from a piece of cardboard just the right size to fit the opening of your pot, and make three slits in the circle. Arrange the felt leaves into three bunches, aiming for a good-looking arrangement. Fold the bottoms of each bunch vertically so the leaves curl around each other, and insert them into the slits. Finally, glue them underneath the cardboard to stay in place. Press the cardboard circle into the pot and glue around the edges. Top it with a layer of sand, moss, or pebbles to look like soil.

Once you've made a couple, decide where to put your fake plants to make them worth their while. There's nothing stopping you from making as many as you need to create the impact you want. Plus, you don't have to stick to single plant pots, and you can fill a long planter with these beauties.