DIY $1 Farmhouse Decor Pine Cone Topiary

Make beautiful $1 farmhouse decor pine cone topiary with recycled paper & pinecones! Easy crafts, ornaments, & table decorations for Thanksgiving, Christmas and year round!

Do you love to create home decor from recycled materials? Do you love nature crafts? Yes, and yes? Then you are going to love this DIY pine cone topiary! It is very easy to make and practically free, and there are so many ways to use it in your home decor. 

It looks beautiful on a simple modern planter or an ornate traditional urn. You can use it as year round or as Christmas topiary decorations, table centerpiece, or hang it as a large Christmas ornament (aka kissing ball ).

Pine cones are such great  creative materials ! We have lots of pine cone home decor and crafts ideas here, such as DIY snow covered pinecones, how to make beautiful pine cone wreath here , and ...

how to make easy bleached pine cones without bleach!

Now let’s gather some pine cones and make a farmhouse topiary!

Check out the DIY pine cone ball video tutorial or skip to written tutorial below!

Materials and tools to make farmhouse pine cone topiary:

• 1″ to 2″ size pine cones, you can use a 5″ foam ball or make one with newspaper, masking tape and a dark colored plastic bag as shown in Step 1.
• hemp or cotton twine or ribbon if you want to be able to hang the pine cone ball.
• hot glue and glue gun, a simple white IKEA planter, or a 6″ Terra Cotta pot, easy-to-use LED fairy lights for lighted pine cone topiary.

Step 1: make a newspaper ball

Crumple a sheet of newspaper tightly into a small sphere.

Take another sheet and wrap it outside the first sphere, try to keep the shape of the sphere as round as possible.

Repeat by wrapping more layers of paper until the newspaper ball is about 6″ in diameter. 

Tape around the sphere tightly with some masking tape so it doesn’t unravel.

Put it inside a dark plastic bag or a sheet of black plastic, such as a Dollar store trash bag. The dark color will blend easily with the pine cones on top later. The plastic also makes the paper ball more resistant to moisture.

We also ties some strings to the ball. This way we can also hang this pine cone topiary ball as an ornament and hide the strings to use it as a topiary.

Make sure to use heavy duty hemp or cotton twine or ribbon on the pine cone ball and don’t hang it overhead unless it’s super secure because it can weigh 5 pounds or more when finished!

You may also love: easy & beautiful DIY pine cone wreath!

Step 2: glue pine cones to paper ball

Tips: use 1″ to 2″ pine cones on a 6″ paper ball. Hot glue works great on pine cones and plastic.

Start at the middle, add a small dab of hot glue to the base of each pine cone and glue a ring of pine cones around the ball. 

Glue the next rings of pine cones above and below the first row. Arrange the pine cones as closely as you can, as you get closer to the top and bottom part of the sphere.

Save some very small pine cones to fill gaps at the end. You can glue the small cones to bigger pine cones or to the plastic, depending on how everything fits.

Now let’s have fun with all the beautiful ways to decorate with pine cone topiary! You can hang it as a kissing ball, or use it as pine cone table decorations.

Step 3: create your pine cone topiary decoration 

Find a pot or urn in good proportions to the finished pine cone ball. Ours measured about 8″ in diameter and the pot we used is a 6″ Terra Cotta pot you can get here. 

If you want a more modern look, the topiary also looks gorgeous on a simple white IKEA planter similar to this. 

Set the pine cone sphere on top of the pot for an instant topiary, or add some green leaves and branches to create a layered look.

Put a layer of faux or real greenery in the pot, let them spill out. You can also use some floral foam or a jar of water inside to make the fresh cut greenery lasts longer. This topiary would be beautiful as a Thanksgiving pine cone centerpiece as well!

Here’s our lovely DIY Christmas topiary with easy-to-use LED fairy lights for table and mantel decorations!

Love pine cone centerpiece, crafts and decor ideas? Check out these 48 best DIY pine cone crafts and decorations!

Happy creating! See you soon!