This Budget-Friendly DIY Faux Indoor Tree Can Actually Make a Small Living Room Look a Little Bigger

Home design and DIY Instagrammer Carly Fuller of @mycityapartment has a knack for replicating high-end products to best fit her design aesthetic, budget, and small space. One of her latest endeavors? DIYing her very own faux indoor tree, which now resides in her living room and looks just like designer pieces that retail for hundreds of dollars.

“I wanted something with height for on top of the pedestal (preferably greenery) to draw the eye up and help the small room feel larger while adding some life to the room,” Fuller says of her inspiration for the project. “I’ve had tall plants and trees here before, but they never lasted because the corner unfortunately doesn’t get enough natural light.” Thus, a realistic looking — yet fake — plant seemed like the best bet.

The branch that Fuller used to create her tree is real though. “I wanted something dramatically tall,” she explains. After taking to the outdoors to find a couple of branches that spoke to her, Fuller began her DIY. She purchased some floral foam, placed it in a vase, and used paper to fill in any gaps between the foam and vase, which provided extra stability. Then, she used a hot glue gun to attach the two branches she collected together. “I obviously just recommend getting one branch — the size you want,” Fuller says, but she needed two since she couldn’t quite find anything large or dramatic enough. Next up, it was time to attach the faux leaves, which she also used a glue gun to do. Fuller repurposed hers from faux branches that she had previously ordered on Amazon. Once that step was complete, she placed the branches in the vase, sticking them into the floral foam. “I used moss to fill the top of the vase to help make it look as real as possible,” Fuller adds.

This project didn’t pose any major challenges for Fuller (aside from locating the perfect branch and opting for two separate ones instead), and she couldn’t be happier with the end result. “I love to add large statement pieces in my small apartment, so I’m really happy with how this corner now looks,” she says. “It’s the first thing you see when you walk into the living room.” Even better, it draws the eye upward upon entering the room, making the ceilings appear taller and the room just a little bit more expansive. The neutral color scheme certainly augments that effect, too.

As far as the fool-the-eye factor goes, Fuller’s followers often message her asking where her tree is from or what species it is, and guests who’ve visited her home have also had a hard time believing that the piece is not, in fact, real as well. “Unless you get up close and personal, it’s hard to tell,” Fuller says. Plenty of ways to expand upon this project exist, too. “You could make this a seasonal DIY — think red/orange leaves in the autumn or cherry blossoms for the spring,” she says.