Fabulous Faux Olive Tree DIY

This post was written by Alicia Treasure. Alicia is an Instagram micro-influencer who inspires her followers through her DIY home décor, design, and small builds. This faux olive tree DIY tutorial is ingenious for anyone looking for faux plants on a budget.

If you’re like me with no green thumb and can’t keep a potted plant alive to save your life, then you’ve probably resorted to buying faux plants. While the smaller faux plants are usually pretty reasonably priced, and you buy every single cute one you find, you’ve probably had the same reaction I have had to the larger faux plant prices. They can be so pricey!

I came up with a solution that can be very inexpensive if you get creative! I have done this with a few different types of plant stems already, but for this post I’m going to explain how to make a medium sized faux olive tree, and you will see how it can be universal to so many other plant possibilities.

Here is the Down Bliss Lane version of Alicia’s tutorial. I didn’t add the skewers/dowels, but still love how this small tree turned out!

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions in this post remain my own. See my Disclosures for more info.

Faux Olive Tree Supplies Needed:

1 Faux olive branch stem – (I buy my stems from Hobby Lobby when they are 50% off)
Desired size of flower pot – (this is where you can get extra creative, I used a super inexpensive plastic pot, that I then put inside of a rattan basket) or you could put directly into a larger ceramic or terracotta pot of your choice – lots of options here.
Appropriately sized foam block (that will fill most of your pot, you will want it to be snug so your plant doesn’t tip over)
Pot filler – this will be whatever you prefer. You can use mulch, dried moss, real potting soil etc.
2 wooden skewers, or thin dowels
Floral tape
Paint that matches the color of the olive branch stems (if you can’t find what you need in the acrylic paint section, I used a paint sample I got from the paint store! Lots of options for color matching there!)

Directions to “Plant” Your Faux Olive Tree:

If needed, trim your foam block down using a razor blade or cutting knife so it fits into your flower pot. You want the foam to be snug, so don’t over trim. Insert the foam block into your flower pot.
Use the floral tape to wrap the wooden skewers to the bottom of the stem. Pulling the tape tight will help it become sticky and make the stems and skewers become secure to one another.
Once the skewers are secured to the stem, insert it into the center of the foam block.
Now its ready for the paint! I painted all along the floral tape and a little above, onto the stem, to help it blend the paint and stem better.
Allow the paint to dry.
Fill flower pot with your desired filler choice and enjoy your new beautiful faux olive tree!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CZ0e4tdAikZ/

For my next faux, I am going even bigger! I am going to try making an even bigger faux olive tree using real branches! So stay tuned for that!