DIY SUCCULENT PALETTE WALL

I’ve been dreaming about having my own succulent wall for ages, there are so many amazing walls to be found on Instagram and Pinterest — so I decided it was time to create my own for my backyard!  Here’s what you’ll need:

• A wooden pallet – I snagged mine from my local warehouse store, they said I could have it
• Landscaping fabric – To hold the soil and succulents in place
• Soil – I ended up needing about 3 bags total for my succulent pallet
• Paint – I chose the colors ‘Tea Party’ and ‘White Moss’ from my local Ace Hardware’s $.99 Color Sample Pint sale!
• Paintbrush
• Staple Gun – To hold the landscape fabric in place
• Succulents – I selected a wide array of different colors and types of succulents.  Trust me on this one, you’ll always need more than you think!

My first step in prepping the pallet was to pound in any loose nails that might catch to make it safe to work with, and sand down any super rough edges.  I wanted my pallet to look rustic and vintage so I preferred it looked a bit beat up and imperfect.

Next, I popped open my paint pints to get started in transforming my pallet from raw wood to a soft green color, perfect for my backyard.  I picked up these small pints at my local Ace Hardware during their 99 cent paint pint sale (usually they are full price at about $5 per pint) so I decided to splurge and get two different colors.  I think selecting the colors was the hardest part about creating my succulent wall because there were SO MANY to choose from, but I was really happy with my two selections.  I wanted a rustic look so I applied thin layers of ‘Tea Party’ to the pallet in hard strokes to give a vintage and worn down look to it.  I wanted it to look a bit imperfect so it was really easy to dab a little paint here and a little paint there.

Once the pallet dries, line the inside with landscaping fabric and use a staple gun to secure to each beam of wood so that it forms a pocket inside the pallet.  Make sure to use more staples than you think so you have a tight seal.

Start to add the dirt inside the pallet pocket and push it down into place to make sure there aren’t any major pockets — we want the soil to be dense so that the succulents stay in place.

Lay the pallet flat and cut X-shaped holes where you’d like to place the succulents.  Make sure to not cut the holes too big so the succulents fit in snugly.  I alternated small succulents next to large, green next to blue, etc. to get a variation in the look.

Once all succulents are placed, stand up the pallet and secure the top opening with staples and close the landscaping fabric pocket.  I learned a lesson here that you’ll end up needing more succulents than you think (unfortunately Ace was closed by the time I realized this — picking up some more this weekend!).  Over the next few weeks, the succulents will take root into the soil and begin to grow with their weekly watering.   You can add or swap out succulents easily by making additional holes in the landscaping fabric.

And there you go!  Pretty easy to make on a summer afternoon!