Easy Colorful Faux Succulent Wall Art with Dollar Store Supplies
Make faux succulent wall art with DIY felt succulents and artificial moss and plants using simple step-by-step instructions.
Do you love the look of living wall art but are not crazy about using live plants? Check out how I made a colorful faux living wall art with felt succulents and dollar store moss rocks in this creative DIY on a budget.
DIY Faux Succulent Wall Art
If you are new here, howdy! I’m a recently retired military spouse who moved back to Texas after being gone 19 years. I’ve perfected the art of rental decorating and overcoming challenges in small spaces the last fifteen years but now am tackling homeownership with a new set of challenges! I love infusing a colorful, global style with DIYs and furnishings in our one-story 60’s ranch-style home.
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I’m excited to participate in another Create and Share with my talented friends. We all started with the same plain wood tray to create something new this time around! If you are interested in the tray, you can find it with three different size options on Amazon.

As soon as our lovely hostess Stephanie from Casa Watkins Living suggested this tray, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I’ve been eyeing beautiful faux and real living wall art pieces on Pinterest for a while and decided to make my own with the tray and dollar store items I had in my crafting stash.

DIY Faux Succulent Wall Art
Create a cute artificial living art with DIY felt succulents and faux moss rocks.
Materials
- A tray; repurposed, new, or unfinished.
- Felt squares in various succulent colors like blue, green, purple, and yellow.
- Faux succulents, greenery, and moss rocks from the dollar store.
Tools
- Teal and white craft paint or spray paint if the tray needs paint.
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun and sticks.
Instructions
- (Option) Sand and paint the tray white with spray paint on the outside edges and trim.
- (Optional) Tape off when dry and paint the inside a dark color like teal with craft paint and a brush.
- Cut a spiral shape from the felt squares starting at an outside corner about 1/4" in. Cut straight across and rotate at each corner until reach the middle.
- Roll up the piece of felt from the center of the spiral and hot glue the outside end in place.
- Once you have 20 felt succulents in various colors, arrange them in the tray with faux plants and moss.
- Secure them in place with hot glue.
- Attach a picture hanger on the back of the tray to hang on the wall if needed.
What you need to make a fake succulent wall art:
- Tray (Repuprosed, thrifted, or like the one I linked to above)
- Teal and white craft paint or other dark color for the inside of the tray
- Felt squares in different greens, blues, yellows, and purples
- Faux succulents/air plants or other greenery and moss rocks to fill in the around the felt succulents
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun and gluel sticks
How to create an articifical scculent wall art:
First, prepare the tray unless you are starting with a decorative tray or basket tray.
- Lightly sand an unfinished wood tray.
- Give the outside sides and edges two light coats of spray paint or use craft paint and a brush. Make sure to read the paint directions before application.
- Once the white paint is dry to the touch, tape off the edges and spray paint or hand paint a darker color inside. I had a sample jar of teal paint left over from my kitchen table makeover that was perfect for the background.

How to make DIY felt succulents:
The next step is to make little felt succulents in different colors.
- Cut a square spiral in a piece of felt starting from an outside edge and cutting straight across about 1/4″ thick. Rotate at each corner to keep the spiral going all of the way to the middle.
- Start from the center of the spiral and roll up the felt.
- Place a little bit of hot glue on the end to hold into place. The square shape creates the points found in succulents.

Keep making felt succulents until you have enough to fill at least half of the tray. I made around 20.

Arrange the felt succulents and moss rocks in the tray and secure each one with a little hot glue on the backside.

Now it’s time to pop in other greenery as you wish into the tray. I used faux succulents in different sizes. Secure them with more hot glue one by one. Watch those fingers!

The end product is a colorful artificial moss wall art with succulents. Isn’t it cute?

Attach a picture hanger to the backside if you want to hang it on the wall! Otherwise, it looks great leaning on a shelf.

I mixed it in with art and seashells in our bright and eclectic foyer when we lived in Okinawa, Japan.


I’m super happy that I didn’t have to make a trip to the store for supplies for this project. If I ever get tired of it, I can always pull out the “plants” and peel off the hot glue to have a pretty teal and white functional tray. Right now, I’m loving it!
Join me on Instagram for behind-the-scenes, DIYs, decorating tips, room tours, and home inspiration. I’ll see you over there!
Now it’s time to see what my friends made with their trays!!
Faux Living Wall Art by Up To Date Interiors
Tray Makeover by Refashionably Late
DIY Wet Mitten Dryer by Our House Now A Home
DIY Portable Office Space by One Mile Home Style
DIY Trendy Plaid Tray by Casa Watkins
Grain Sack Stripe Inspired Tray by The House Down The Lane
DIY Tray Art Organizer by Shabby Grace Blog
How to Add an Initial and Stripes to a Plain Wooden Tray by Green With Decor9
Word and Picture Of the Week Boards by Uncookie Cutter

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Kathy I LOVE THIS! What a great idea and I love how it’s a statement piece in your home! I want to make those little felt flowers now!
Thanks Ruthie!! Those flowers are super easy to make. (I had considered cutting out individual petals and then I was like nah!) lol
Hi, Kathy ~ This tray looks absolutely beautiful! And I love those felt flowers. :0) The tray looks great in your foyer, and I’ll bet you’ll have some conversations with guests.
Thanks Tiffany! It sure adds a lot of texture and color. 🙂 I need to have more guests. lol
This is gorgeous! I adore all of the green colors! Those flowers are great!
Thanks Emily!! I was happy to use items out of my craft supplies. I had bought all of the green for St Patty’s day. 🙂
Wow! So creative and beautiful. I would have NEVER thought to do this!!!!
Thanks Sara! As soon as I saw the tray I envisioned it. I wish all of my projects went as smoothly. 🙂
This is amazing!! I love love love it! I, too, love just the plain white and teal tray. This is so creative :). Thanks for sharing!
Thanks April!! I’m kind of excited to take it a part down the road and enjoy it as a tray. 🙂
How creative! I love how you did the felt flowers. Beautiful job!
Thanks Meghan! The felt flowers were super easy.
Love how creative and unique this is. I kind of don’t even have words to describe how much I love it because it’s so cool and I’ve never seen anything like it. 🙂 Pinning away! Another great project.
Thanks for the kind words and sharing Sam!
This is such a fun idea! And those felt succulents are so neat, I am going to have to give them a try!
Thanks Stephanie! They are fun to make.
Kathy this is so awesome! I love the art work and it was such a creative twist to the challenge. Pinned and shared. Thanks for participating in the create and share this month!
Thanks so much Steph!