Cheap Pool Noodles Can Make An Awesome Tablescape

Creating the Pool Noodles Faux Coral Reef Tablescape

Perusing many pins on Pinterest, I was inspired to create a faux coral reef for my granddaughter’s 4th birthday. She wants a Mermaid party. Incredibly, these are made using foam pool noodles and pipe cleaners! Some of the faux coral shapes are simple and some are a little more complex. By following the steps below, you can make a variety of different shapes from the foam.

How To Cut the Lime Green Coral from Pool Noodles

Pool Noodle Coral Reef How To — Lime Green Foam Pool Noodle Faux Coral

The simplest faux coral involves slicing the pool noodle at an angle on one end. Flip the noodle around and slice straight across the foam noodle to whatever length you like. The longest length for the display shown is 19″. These are also cut to 12, 7, 4-1/2, and 3-1/2 – inches at the top of the slanted side. Your display will be more pleasing to the eye if the noodles are cut at different lengths. Varying lengths create a more interesting composition, too.

Making the Lavender Faux Coral

The tallest of the lavender faux corals is about 14″ tall. Slice the cylinder about 4″ deep through the center. Slice again two more times creating 6 somewhat equal loose flaps. Cut another piece of the foam noodle the same length as the loose flaps.

How to cut the pool noodle and add sections.

Slice this cut piece in half lengthwise. Cut each of the two pieces into thirds lengthwise and cut each of those into wedges. After doing this a few times, it is evident that it’s easier to lay the piece with the outside edge up and cut from the outside of one end to the center of the other end. Repeat on the other side. I found it was easier to create a sharp point on the front side this way.

Mermaid Party - Coral Reef How To — Slice the foam piece in half lengthwise. Cut each piece into thirds lengthwise and cut wedges from each.

Insert one of the wedges into one of the slices between two of the flaps. Pull one side apart slightly and using a low melt glue gun, apply glue to one side. Repeat on the remaining side of the wedge. Using some pressure with your fingers, press the foam pieces firmly together until the glue holds securely. This will just take a minute or two.

Repeat this process until all of the wedges are glued into each of the slits on the foam end.

Making Sea Anemones

Cheap Pool Noodles Can Make An Awesome Tablescape - Sea Anemones — Sea Anemones

For the sea anemone, you will need a foam noodle and some pipe cleaners. I used about 15 pipe cleaners for each anemone. It is not necessary to cover the bottom 1/4″ rim, especially if you will be adding small items around the base.

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My first intention was to make these anemones from foam balls but a package of two of those at the craft store was a whopping four bucks. The idea to use the cut foam from the foam noodles ended up being a cheap alternative. You can find these at a dollar store, a grocery, and some craft stores, too.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a pink foam noodle but we did have a muted red foam noodle. It worked perfectly fine.

The first thing you need to do is cut a piece of foam about 1-1/4″ long. Start cutting angled pieces about 1/4″ from the top of the piece. That ring of 1/4″ around the top, when flipped, will end up creating the base.

Creating the sea anemone from a foam noodle. — Fill the hole with foam and begin adding pipe cleaners.

Fill the hole with some of the pieces of foam, which you just cut off of the piece. Stuff it firmly to hold the pipe cleaners securely.

Throw The Best Mermaid Party - DIY Ideas You'll Love! — Cut the pipe cleaners into quarters to make this 3-1/2 – 4-inch sea anemone.

Cutting the Pipe Cleaners

You will need to cut each of the pipe cleaners into four equal pieces. Fold the pipe cleaner in half and cut. Fold those two pieces in half and cut them again. You can cut one pipe cleaner and then, use that one as a guide for cutting the others.

How to manipulate the pipe cleaners to create the sea anemones. — Bend slightly and shape one end of each of the pipe cleaners.

Bend the pipe cleaners slightly and shape on one end. The bending is really subtle but it makes the finished anemone look more realistic.

If you like projects with pipe cleaners, check out the DIY Flamingo straws I made a few years ago!

How To Make Orange Coral from Sliced Pool Noodles

Cheap Pool Noodles Can Make An Awesome Tablescape — Gluing the foam pieces together.

First, cut several slices of the foam noodle. Lay the first slice flat as a base. Use the low melt glue gun to glue another foam slice vertically in the middle of the first. At this point, you can copy the pictures or get creative with how you glue the slices on the column. Make it bigger or make it smaller to work with your composition.

Next, make some rosettes. To do this, you will need to make some 1/4-inch slices of the foam. Don’t worry about measuring. Just guesstimate. It’s not critical.

Then, squeeze some low-melt glue around the base of the rosette and place it in selected holes in the slices on the faux coral column. How easy is that?

Making Blue Floral Coral From Sliced Pool Noodles

Cheap Pool Noodles Can Make An Awesome Tablescape - Scalloped Foam Noodle Floret Coral — Use the scalloped foam noodles to make floret coral.

If you can find one of the scalloped foam pool noodles, they make pretty floral-looking slices. This is another easy element for your design. Just slice the foam noodle into 1″ slices. Set one of the slices on its side. Next, place another slice off-center on its side so it balances on top of the first. Using the low melt glue gun, place a little glue on the bottom of that slice and reposition it off-center in the same position. Repeat with another slice.

You can make these as short or as tall as you want. Since the composition I made is a shorter version, these actually stood and balanced quite well on their own. Ultimately, they are glued to the foam board securely.

Mermaid Party Book - Faux Coral Reef — Mermaid Party eBook – Faux Coral Reefhttps://mermaid-party-book-faux-coral-reef.milotreecart.com/

How To Make Green Seagrass From Pool Noodles

To make the seagrass, cut a length of a foam noodle. For this display, the noodle is cut to 16 – inches. Next, cut 5 slits down the noodle to 1-1/4 – inch at the bottom. Try to make the sections somewhat equal but don’t overstress if they are not totally equal.

Cheap Pool Noodles Can Make An Awesome Tablescape - Foam Noodle - Seagrass — Seagrass

Lay the noodle on its side on the edge of a counter with 4 of the loose sections down the edge of the counter. Slice the remaining section to resemble a blade of grass, cutting from the outside of the section gradually to the middle of the section at the end.

Now, hold the knife like you are about to fillet a fish. Slice down each of the sections, effectively thinning the ‘blades of grass’. The foam noodle in the picture has 3/4″ thick walls. Take slices with the knife that gradually fall off from the 3/4″ to about 1/4″ on the point at the end.

At this point, the leaves seem to stand straight up even when bending them, they revert to an upright position. So, use the knife to make slices slightly into, but not through, about 1/4 – 1/2 – inches apart down the length of each of the blades. This makes it a little more malleable.

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Next, take a heat gun and carefully apply heat down the inside of the ‘grass blades’ while bending the blades to shape them. Be careful to keep your fingers away from the heat gun! Also, be very cautious with the heat gun. You need to keep it moving. If you hold it in one place for very long, you might have a hole. Practice on a spare piece first. Hold the foam leaves in more curved organic forms until the blades are cool and hold the shape.

A Styrofoam Base For The Tablescape

As I began cutting and creating different shapes for the ‘faux coral’ from the foam pool noodles, the idea of a base to use for displaying them was on my mind. Not a big fan of the cardboard boxes some other crafters have used to display these, I began contemplating other options.

Use sheets of Polystyrene as a base. — **Use Sheets of Polystyrene for a base.**

Hello! There are actually people who save the Styrofoam packing from the packages they receive on occasion. Their thinking is that someday they just might need it. Fortunately, to Dave’s chagrin, I am one of those. Stored in the basement, it has come in handy on more than one occasion. I thought these would work perfectly.

The long sheets of foam came in a package of shelving. The Styrofoam sheets only need to be scored and then broken to size. We don’t want sharp straight edges in the front. At first, the plan was to create two separate ‘coral reefs’ to decorate and to use the Mermaid trunk as a centerpiece.

(I found this cardboard Mermaid trunk at Tuesday Morning. I love this store! I’m not an affiliate of the store, just love it!)

Cut Foam Pieces To Size For the Base

Cutting, shaping, and arranging the foam pieces, a new idea was born. Instead of the first idea of a taller version for a floor display, a shorter 3-section tablescape began to take shape. Creating 3 separate pieces of stacked Styrofoam and attaching the shorter foam creations to those will make a more easily transportable project, too. The top pieces of the foam base are 12 inches wide and 15-1/4 inches long. The middle and bottom pieces of foam are a little wider than the top. The bottom piece is 12-1/2 to 13 – inches wide.

Coming up – Part 2 explains how to paint the base and attach the foam coral creations. Who knew pool noodles could look this cute?

Crystal-clear clarity sometimes doesn’t come until you are halfway into a project! That’s okay; my vision is clear now. You, on the other hand, will have to sign up below for the newsletter or follow me on Facebook to be sure you see the entire final project! It is adorable!

Leave a comment below if you love this idea or have a question!