DIY Plaster Pineapple Bookends For Your Home
DIY plaster pineapple bookends. Try saying that three times fast! This DIY might sound like a mouthful but it certainly isn’t one to make. So grab your plaster and silicone and keep reading to find out how to make these bookends!
I’ve always wanted pineapple bookends, because I want everything pineapple related. I didn’t want to have to attach them to wood so I needed something heavy enough to support books on its own, which is where the plaster comes in. Plaster pineapples aren’t super easy to find but totally easy to DIY once you have the silicone mold made. Then all you need to do is add books and you’ve got some awesome pineapple bookends!
Materials for the silicone pineapple mold:
- Silicone
- Caulking gun
- Plastic pineapple
- Dish soap
- Water
- Container
- Paper plate
Materials for the plaster pineapple bookend:
- Plaster
- Water
- Container
- Stirring stick
Instructions for the silicone pineapple mold:
1. Start by mixing together water and soap to create a catalyzing solution for your silicone. I used 6 oz of water and 4 oz of soap.
2. Next, taking your caulking gun, puncture your silicone and put it into the caulking gun. FYI this stuff stinks so I would highly recommend doing it outside or in a ventilated area.
3. Pump the whole container of silicone into the water/soap solution. Make sure to keep it under water as it will start to harden when it hits air.
4. Using your hands, push the silicone into a ball and then knead it like bread until it becomes less malleable. This took about 2-3 minutes, though to be honest we didn’t feel that much of a difference from start to finish.
5. Push the silicone into a big ball and then press half of the plastic pineapple into it. You will want to wiggle it around a tiny bit so that you will be able to get it out later.
6. Put some soap on a paper plate and then put your silicone/pineapple down onto it. Let dry for an hour.
7. Once the mold has dried, gently pry out the plastic pineapple. I let mine continue to dry overnight until I moved onto the next step but I’m sure it would be fine to go straight to the next part.
Instructions for the plaster pineapple bookends:
1. Mix together your plaster and water until it is well incorporated – if it is too watery, add more plaster and if it is too hard add more water. I ended up using a lot a lot of plaster for this, I’d estimate about 2 cups with maybe 1 cup of water. This is just an estimation though as I kept adding more water as I mixed.
2. Immediately pour the plaster into your silicone mold. Let harden for a couple of hours.
3. Gently take out your plaster pineapple.
Optional: paint your plaster pineapple whatever color you want!
4. It sounds and looks more complicated than it actually is! So don’t be intimidated by this DIY. You might need a few weird things to make it but nothing was super expensive and these pineapple bookends came out amazing, so I highly recommend giving this DIY a go! Who doesn’t want pineapples on their bookshelves??