Monstera Plant

Plants are one of my favorite finishing touches in a dollhouse because they add color and a pop of life, even if that life is artificial. Today I'm sharing how to make a realistic mini monstera plant. Let's get started!

Materials:

-Pot

-Foam

-Filler

-Leaf stencil

-Green floral wire

-Faux leaf

I worked on the container first. I just used a wooden pot from Hobby Lobby. I used a handsaw to cut off a small piece of foam I already had to place in the bottom of the pot.

I snipped off a bit of Spanish moss I had from another faux plant in the house. (That's the great thing about miniatures. You don't need a lot of material to make something so you can often just take bits and pieces from things around the house.) I used a bit of hot glue to secure the moss in the pot.

Now for the time consuming but most important part: the leaves! You'll need a few stencils of a monstera leaf. I used 3 different stencils that I could flip over to give me 6 different leaves to make the plant look more realistic. I used the trace function in my Silhouette Studio software to create the stencils, and I sized the leaves down to approximately 1 inch. My Silhouette Cameo cut out the stencils on cardstock. If this option isn't available to you, you can just Google search "monstera leaf outline," resize the images to fit your scale, print out the pictures and then cut them out.

To get the most realistic looking leaves, you're going to cut them out of a faux leaf. You could purchase a faux monstera leaf from somewhere like Hobby Lobby, but I was too impatient for that. I stole an inconspicuous leaf from one of my faux fiddle leaf figs (say that 5 times fast). I used a pen to trace the leaves onto the faux leaf.

I had 3 different stencils, and by turning the stencils over, I was able to get 6 different leaves. I tried my best to trace where the veins of the leaf went in the right direction.

Use scissors to cut out the leaves. I cut around the outside and then cut out the slits. Cut slightly inside the pen marks so those don't show. If you leave some of the pen behind, it's easy enough to wipe off with a damp tissue.

Use wire cutters to trim off a length of green floral wire. I cut mine extra long so that I could trim them to the exact length I wanted when I assembled the plant. I cut 6 stems for my 6 leaves.

Apply a thin line of glue to the back center of the leaf and gently press the floral wire into the glue (be careful not to glue your fingers). Allow the glue to completely dry.

Now you have a finished monstera leaf on a stem. Repeat this process for each of the leaves.

Here are all my leaves ready to arrange in the pot. You'll stick the floral wire directly into the foam, which will hold them in place.

Make sure to vary the heights and directions of the leaves. Trim the floral wire as needed and bend the wire to make the plant look realistic.

Look at this cutie mini monstera next to my real (fake) monstera leaf!

Although it was time consuming to cut out all those leaves, I really love how this plant turned out and can't wait to try this technique with other plants, like my pothos. Now that I see this mini plant on a vintage book, I think it would even make cute decor in my big house.

I think Joanna would approve. The scale of the Homebody book cover matched so perfectly that I couldn't resist staging this photo. Doesn't it look like the photo is coming to life?

Here she is in her forever home, The Monica Dollhouse. I created this dollhouse for a longtime friend who is having a baby girl any day now, and the kitchen was missing something in this corner. I think this mini monstera plant completes the room perfectly.