DIY Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree

If you are at all interested in home decor, or perhaps house plants, you probably know the “it” tree is the Fiddle Leaf Fig. Personally, I love it. I love everything about it; the pretty green tropical leaves, the fun name, the beauty and conversation it brings to a room..shall I go on? I remember seeing them pop up a few years ago and I told myself I NEED that tree. I began my hunt for this majestic tree, but it was harder to find than I thought. None of the local nursery’s were selling it, and I’m not sure why but I couldn’t get myself to buy one online. I lost interest in finding a live one, and when I think about it, it was probably for the best. If I laid my paws on it, that sucker would’ve been dead in no time. One thing I am really good at is killing plants. Except orchids, I’m not sure why but I have always been able to keep them alive and thriving. Anyways, I moved on to plan B, a fake tree. It would save me money in the end vs. spending $50-$200 every few months on a living tree. All the forums online say they can be pretty difficult to keep alive, so I know that I made the right decision. Faux trees are still really expensive, especially for a good quality, realistic tree. I ended up ordering one of mine from Amazon for about $90.00. It was a warehouse deal because the box was mangled. Pretty much all the leaves weren’t in tact and one of the stems holding the tree up was broke. I used a zip-tie around the base to hold all the stems together, and put it in a basket to hide everything. It worked pretty well, and the tree looks ok. It definitely doesn’t look real, but it’s huge and fills an awkward, empty corner in my living room. The tree has held me over for the last year or so, but I see all these pictures of gorgeous faux fiddle leaf figs and I get so jealous! I started looking for a new one, one that looks more like a fiddle leaf, and a bit more realistic. Target had two options, but they were both smaller than I hoped for and they were more than I wanted to spend. I saw an ad that Michael’s had Fiddle Leaf  Fig’s and they were on sale for $40! In the picture the tree looked exactly how I was hoping and it said it was 4.5 ft tall–YESSS!! However, my dreams were crushed as soon as I walked in and saw that the tree was $129.99. Even if I used a 50% off coupon I didn’t want to spend that much. I asked a sales associate about the tree in the ad and she said it was a smaller tree that they sold out of about 3 months ago. She didn’t think they were going to get anymore in stock and I was out of luck.

My faux Fiddle Leaf from Amazon. (This was a warehouse deal)

I was about to go drown my sorrows in the Starbucks next door but as I was leaving I saw Fiddle Leaf Fig stems! They were huge, and looked pretty realistic. They were $19.99 each, but they were on sale for 60% off, so they would only be $8/stem. A little buzzer went off in my head and I wondered how difficult it would be to make my own knock-off tree. I found the biggest vase the store had, which wasn’t as big as I’d hoped, but I was on a mission so I grabbed it. I picked out three stems (I think I will go back for another one to fill out a bit more), the biggest galvanized bucket they had, faux grass filler, and twine. I was able to get an additional military discount, and I had a few coupons on top of that, so everything was a little less than $35.

All of my materials. (minus the foam)

I had a foam floral ball hanging around, so I ended up not needing to use the twine I bought. I was going to tie the stems together using the twine and then add the grass filler to hide the ties. The foam ball worked a lot better, so i would definitely recommend that over anything else. I stuck the foam ball into the vase and pushed each stem through. I pushed them in at different heights so it would look more realistic and appear bigger. Once I was satisfied with the different heights I added the grass filler to cover the foam piece. It took less than 5 minutes to put everything together.

I am so excited with how this project turned out! I think it looks better than the one in the store, and it was a fraction of the cost. I think I will be taking a trip back to Michael’s tomorrow to make a few more of these to keep on hand. You never know when you might get a hankerin’ for a Fiddle Leaf, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes if you’re Fiddle Leaf-less.

-Jessie