Succulent Planter

This week I’ll be at Pinners Conference in Atlanta teaching how to make chalk paint faux-stain succulent planters. The class sold out weeks ago! I figured since not everyone can be at Pinners this week, I’d share this fun and easy project with you.

I found a huge selection of succulents at my local nursery awhile back.

I should mention that my green thumb must have been sprained when I was little because I struggle to keep plants alive. This is why I love succulents—they are literally next to impossible to kill.

They are in 2.5” pots. Aren’t they adorable?

To make planters, I started with an 8’ piece of 4”x4” wood from Home Depot…

…cut into three sizes: 3 1/2”, 4 1/2” and 5 1/2” high. An 8′ piece yields several of each size.

Once the blocks were cut, my husband drilled a hole 2” wide x 2” deep in each one.

It was easiest to use a drill press set to drill 2” deep.

We drilled the first few blocks with a “high density steel bit” from Home Depot. It only lasted for about 13 blocks before it was too dull to use. We bought a new one and had the same problem. That wasn’t going to work for 300+ blocks, so we ended up buying a “Carbide-tipped Forstner bit” from woodworkersemporium.com that drilled the rest of the blocks with no problems.

With the blocks cut, drilled and sanded, it was time to “stain” them. Of course, I never use traditional stain. I always use chalk paint because there’s no smell and clean up is a breeze. Besides that, I can get exactly the color I’m after.

I made my own chalk paint by mixing BB Frosch Chalk Paint Powder with Benjamin Moore “Mink” into a squeeze bottle. Squeeze bottles are the way to go for crafting with chalk paint!

Other supplies include:

• jar of water
• huck cloth to wipe paint
• paint brush and wax brush
• BB Frösch Dark Premium Finishing Wax.

Here’s a quick time lapse of the faux stain process.

I used the same faux stain technique I used here. It’s seriously this fast!

Once the paint was dry, it took about three minutes to dark wax each block.

Here’s a time lapse of the waxing process.

I removed each succulent from the plastic pots they came in, and plopped them into the hole in each block.

Voila!

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