I’m a little obsessed with terrariums right now. If my husband would not look at me as if I’ve gone completely cuckoo, I would have a hundred of them. There is something so totally magical about them; like a perfectly imperfect world in a bubble. There are as many terrarium themes as there are potential containers and sizes…basically the possibilities are boundless.

Take a peek at these seven terrifically unique terrariums.

1. Meadow & Mountain Terrarium: Doodle Birdie’s Etsy Shop , 2. Clam Shell Terrarium: Centsationalgirl.com , 3. Tiny Jar Terrarium: slugandsquirrel.blogspot.com , 4. Tiny Mushroom Terrarium: Lovely Terrariums Etsy shop , 5. Coffee Press Terrarium: Level One Team, 6. Hanging Terrarium: Gems Of The Soil Etsy Shop , 7. Berry Basket Terrarium: Simple As That blog

MY TAKE

PRETTY PLASTIC PACHYPHYTUMS!

I’ve had a variety of terrariums in the past but they are not the easiest thing to move interstate so often, the plants get donated and the containers, wrapped in 5 lbs of bubble wrap, get stored. That was the case with the big glass bubble I’m using for this terrarium project. At my Portland home, I had originally filled it with sand and succulents and had it on the guest bath vanity…sadly they died. I made an ethical decision to not torture any more live plants so the second time I filled it with faux succulents. Thankfully, since succulents have become so trendy, the quality of these little plastic pachyphytums is pretty awesome. I even had a guest complement me on my green thumb (why thank you!)

WHAT’S GNATS GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Since moving to Arizona I have started a losing battle with little gnasty gnats! They come from my house plants and I have waged war on them. I spray my soil with anti-gnat juice EVERY week. I have bright yellow sticky gnat traps in EVERY pot. I read that they like moist soil so I try not to over water my plants. YET THEY ARE STILL HERE! I forfeited my yogurt to one yesterday and this morning, two of them hijacked my coffee. The only satisfaction I get is that they DIED in the yogurt and coffee. Anyway, this post is about beautiful terrariums and not gno good gnasty gnaughty gnats. I did have a reason for bringing them up though; it is because of these annoying tiny creatures that I decided to do a mix of live cactus (which require very little water) and my faux succulents (because the real ones require more water, which equals moist soil…and you guessed it, more gnats). I also did some research on types of soil so that maybe I could find an alternative that is less attractive to the gnats. As you can see, the gnats have A LOT to do with it!

TERRARIUM TO-DOs & A TERRARIUM TA-DA

There are already so many great guides on making terrariums, like this one from www.dessima.co and this one from www.46spruce.com.

Simply put, there’s four basic steps:

AND… TA-DA

And for a desert setting… I definitely needed a little lizard (Dollar store lizard + Metallic paint)

With the terrarium complete, I realized there were enough faux succulents left over to fill a metal trough I had. You’ll see where I put this on my next post… see you have to come back now!

Thanks for joining me on this little creative adventure. I hope you enjoyed it and are feeling inspired to create your own perfectly imperfect world in a terrarium.

Sharing is caring!