• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • L&R Collective
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

Love & Renovations

  • Shop Our House
  • Beginner Guides
  • DIY
  • Life
  • Organization & Cleaning

March 31, 2018 · 22 Comments

DIY Succulent Centerpiece

DIY Projects

We made this simple succulent centerpiece for our dining room table and it’s an absolutely beautiful way to add some color and texture to your dining table without a lot of effort! If you want to incorporate some succulents into your table decor, this is a great way to do it! 

I am a plant killer.

I know. It’s awful. I’m ashamed. But, the truth is I can’t keep a plant alive to save my life. It’s quite pathetic, actually.

But over the years, I have learned that some plants are more resistant to my murderous ways and can stand up to my lack of watering and providing proper care. At the top of that list are succulents. Not only are they hardy and easy-to-maintain, they are absolutely gorgeous.

That’s why I decided to use them for my new dining room table centerpiece!

DIY succulent centerpiece

Mmm…beautiful.

We’ve been wanting to add some plants to our home for a while now, and we’ve also been wanting to add something to our table to spruce it up a bit. We decided to combine the two ideas and started brainstorming ways in which we could tackle it – we went through a bunch of different ideas from several small planters across the table, to several small planters on a large silver platter, to one giant planter that would cover the length of the table.

Finally, we landed on the one-giant-planter idea, simply because it was almost impossible to find a platter that was both narrow enough and long enough to fit what we wanted. We didn’t like the idea of several smaller vessels for the succulents because we want to be able to easily move the centerpiece when we have guests over and are serving dinner. And, let’s be real – succulent centerpieces are the best kind of centerpieces.

DIY succulent centerpieces

How to Make a DIY Succulent Centerpiece

We chose MDF to build our succulent centerpiece because it’s cheap and relatively easy to work with. We chose the size for the planter based on a broad guess about what we thought would work best on our table – my tip here is to go ahead and set your table as if you were having dinner, then use a tape measure to see what size will fill up the blank space nicely without overwhelming your placemats. We cut a sample piece in the size and height we were thinking about to make sure we liked the scale on the table before we actually built the planter.

Gorgeous, simple DIY succulent planter.

Because we were working with MDF, which is even less water friendly than most wood, we knew we would have to do something to seal the planter from the dirt and water that we’d be filling it with.

base for easy succulent centerpiece

We built a simple box with the MDF that fit the dimensions we wanted to use. Once we had it built, we used something called Pruning Seal to act as a waterproof barrier for the box (since MDF and water are Pruning Seal to act as a waterproof barrier for the box (since MDF and water are not friends!).

A test run showed us that the pruning seal alone probably wouldn’t be completely waterproof, and we didn’t want to take any chances so we also lined the inside of the planter with a plastic drop cloth to prevent any water from damaging the wood.

Liner for succulent centerpieces

All Corey did was staple in a layer of the liner into the planter, taking care to make sure it wouldn’t be too visible once we added in the plants.

We also primed (Zinsser is my favorite primer brand!) and painted the outside of the planter in white paint – we played around with the idea of using a bright color, but we wanted the focus to be on the succulents and not anything else, so we stuck to a neutral color.

All that was left to do was plant! We ordered a set of succulents from Amazon (did you know you could do that??!), and we also grabbed a cactus from Lowes to bring in something with a little more height.

Gorgeous succulents for a centerpiece on your table

To make sure we planted them in a configuration we liked, we started by setting them all into the planter, arranging them so that there weren’t too many large ones grouped together, and that there was a nice variation of types throughout the planter.

How to make a succulent planter for a centerpiece

Once we were happy with the arrangement, we planted and put it into place!

Gorgeous, simple DIY succulent centerpiece

Gorgeous succulent planter DIY tutorial

Succulent centerpieces tips and tricks

Succulent centerpiece tutorial

Instructions for easy succulent centerpieces

Succulent centerpiece tutorial

LOVE. Love, love, love.

I’m so incredibly happy with how it turned out, and now we’re just crossing our fingers that we’re able to keep these little guys alive! Our table is much more textural and colorful now, and we absolutely love the life it brought to our dining room.

How are you with plants? Do you struggle as much as I do?

Here are Even More DIY Planter Ideas

  • DIY wall planter
  • How to turn tomato cages into backyard plant stands
  • Create a DIY cinder block plant shelf
  • How to hang planters from your ceiling
  • DIY gardening and planter ideas
  • DIY Tiered Ladder Garden

Previous Post: « Vinyl Plank Flooring in the Bedroom
Next Post: How to Use a Circular Saw (Power Tools for Beginners) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Keisha Robinson says

    May 4, 2022 at 11:36 am

    Do you have an update on this? Do you still have it? If not, why? How long?
    I absolutely love this and want to make my own!!

    Reply
  2. Megan says

    July 9, 2017 at 7:29 am

    I would love something like this in my dining room! And no, I had no idea you could order succulents from Amazon! #MM

    Reply
    • Amanda says

      July 10, 2017 at 8:39 am

      Yup! It’s pretty amazing what you can find on there, isn’t it?!

      Reply
  3. Candace says

    July 7, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    This is the cutest DIY centerpiece ever! I’ll have to save this for when I need a change on my table! Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
    • Amanda says

      July 8, 2017 at 11:40 am

      Thanks so much, Candace!

      Reply
  4. Cindy says

    March 28, 2013 at 4:58 pm

    What a beautiful project! I’ve been replanting my succulents as they get little babies for the last year. I have lots of pots outside, but I love it for the dining room. Might just steal this idea…

    Reply
  5. melissa says

    November 15, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    I think it looks awesome and I kind of want to do this now 🙂

    Reply
  6. Catherine says

    November 15, 2011 at 5:40 pm

    Sorry about the dying plants. we’re having the same problem. Actually, we also had a similar idea for a a tabletop planter but with cement and grass.

    Reply
  7. Kari says

    November 15, 2011 at 11:54 am

    What a great way to add some greenery to your house! In case you haven’t seen it, your dishes in this month’s Matchbook magazine.

    Reply
  8. [email protected] says

    November 14, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    Love your little succulent garden! That is so awesome! I think the white looks great too. And good to know you can order them from amazon. I had no idea!

    Reply
  9. Sarah says

    November 14, 2011 at 5:19 pm

    Awesome job you guys! Nice work all around! It looks fantastic on your table! If I didn’t think my kitty would get in that and try to eat everything all up (oh yes – cactus included) I would try to make one of my own!

    Reply
  10. Steph | glitter and goat cheese says

    November 14, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    Amanda, it looks SO good! Totally worth it!

    Reply
  11. Brooke says

    November 14, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    I love the idea of a Chevron pattern! And if the imperfections start to bug you, you can always cover it in fabric or paper with mod podge. I saw a great tutorial on Joyfolie about using glue and butcher paper as a floor treatment, but I think it would work great on your planter too!

    I also had a disappointing project, and strangely enough it also involves MDF. Last year, I built Ana White’s apothecary media console. The building part was fine, but the MDF was a freebie lot a friend gave me, and it was absolute crap. Once the console was done, it almost immediately started falling apart. I hated it. The shelves stuck, hinges kept coming loose, blech. I hated it. Finally I gave in and sold it on Craigslist for 40 bucks. It still makes me cringe to look at pictures of it!

    Reply
  12. Debbie says

    November 14, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Looks great!

    Reply
  13. Jessica says

    November 14, 2011 at 11:08 am

    I love it! I think it was totally worth all your hard work 😀

    Reply
  14. Ghenet says

    November 14, 2011 at 10:22 am

    It looks great! I think going with white was a smart choice. The succulents and table settings POP. 🙂

    Reply
  15. Abby says

    November 14, 2011 at 9:16 am

    I love it, and I love that it’s custom-made to fit your dining room table! Great job!

    Reply
  16. Lauren says

    November 14, 2011 at 9:07 am

    I love how it turned out and I really like the white!

    Reply
  17. Lyndsey says

    November 14, 2011 at 8:51 am

    Love it! I can’t keep plants in my house because I tend to kill anything that doesn’t whine to get fed, but I like them in other peoples’ homes! Also, if you wanted to add back a bit of color you could always do a design on the planter, like chevron or some kind of stencil. 🙂

    Reply
  18. Our Wired Lives says

    November 14, 2011 at 8:50 am

    great idea! great job.

    Reply
  19. Sandi says

    November 14, 2011 at 6:43 am

    I love the white. Perfect.

    Reply
  20. Mandy says

    November 14, 2011 at 5:31 am

    hahaha I’ve been wondering about this project since you told me you bought so many succulents SO long ago! I see now why it didn’t go up sooner 😉 I think the end result looks fantastic though! I really love the white, and it looks wonderful on the table!

    We built the three huge planter boxes in our backyard, which ended up being 8’x2′. It was SUCH a pain and we also thought that it’d be a weekend project. Fat chance. It took us nearly a month to do, and we were lucky enough to have Dad’s help with some of it!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hey, friend!

 photo IMG_5108 2_zpstvngxnnk.jpg

Overwhelmed by DIY? Let's do it together! I'm Amanda, and I live in the suburbs of Austin, Texas with my husband and two sons. I've taught myself how to make simple updates to help make my house a home, and I want to show you how to do it, too. Click here to learn more about us.

Looking for Something?

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · captivating theme by Restored 316