Its PLANT WEEK!!!!!!!! Do you even know how exciting this is?!? Its like Shark Week but WAYYYYY better and with a lot less fear (mostly). Every day this week I have got an amazing project for you that will make the love in your plant-lovin heart swell to massive proportions.
You.GUYS!! I hope you are enjoying this fun weeklong series as much as I am. It was just the kick start that I needed to get back into project life.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that today’s project is one of my most favorite EVER. Ever ever.
About 6 months ago I pinned this awesome picture because hello I want to move in there yesterday. For months I have been itching to recreate this modern trellis project in my home, and hooray! for finally getting around to it!
This wall in my kitchen eating nook was the perfect spot. There is a ton of light and you know how plants love that. And the ceilings are sooo tall (10 ft) that it is a major statement. A statement that says “I Hoard Plants”. So in an effort to get all of the little guys evicted out of their current residence (i.e. the kitchen table) this wall became their new home.
Also this was majorly one of those make it up as you go projects, so if you are going to recreate it make sure that you read all the words, and not just skim the pictures. Cause without the words the pictures are a leeeeeeetle confusing. 🙂
Every one’s wall dimensions will be different but the basic premise is the same. Start by taking the width of your wall and divide it in 3rds. This will give you 2 points to work off of.
I started by cutting a few different angles on my miter saw (because I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted it to look like and what angle would achieve that) a 60 degree angle ended up being just right.
To be completely transparent, when I was doing this project there was a lot of temporarily putting boards up to make sure that they were going to work and double measuring before I made the cuts.
There were a handful of long boards that extended the width of several diamonds. I didn’t really have a rhyme or reason for which ones went where, it was just where they made the most sense.
Once the 120 degree base angle boards were up, all I did was fill it in with boards that were cut to 15” and had a 60 degree parallel angles on both ends.
You know how sometimes I have those “I can teach it to you but I cant understand it for you” tutorials? This is one.
*One thing to note, when you are working on a miter saw, 90 degrees is 0, you subtract your angle from that. So to cut a 30 degree angle, I needed to set my saw blade at 60 degrees. Because 30 + 60 is 90. (The reason most people overlook this is because the most common angle is 45 and that is exactly 1/2 of 90, so you set your blade at 45.)
To cut the starting boards set your saw at 60 degrees. (2) 60 degree cuts joined together will make 120 degrees. The 15” boards with the parallel angles get a 60 degree angle at the end of each board, which means your blade will be set at the 30 degree mark on the saw.
To finish off an outside corner, take the measurement of your board (15”) and add the width (2”) so you’ll cut the outside corner boards to 17”. Or you can do what I did and use long boards to start/end the outside corner boards.
Once everything was in place with tap/temporary nails, I went back through and secured it with finishing nails. Make sure that you are hitting studs when you are finishing everything up so that it can hold the weight of your planters!
The original plan was to use cup hooks and these little egg shaped hanging planters that I found on Amazon (you can see it in the bottom left of the picture below)
But they looked so…
dinky.
So I scrapped the idea and decided to come up with a way to hold regular sized containers instead.
I scored all of the planters on clearance at Target and gave them a coat of Rust-Oleum Flat White 2X spray paint.
The leather that I used was left over from my couch reupholstery and if you know me at all you know that I LOVE leather. Like its probably a problem but I’m just so happy about it I don’t even care.
The most important thing is to make sure that you leather will fit snuggly around your planter on all sides with the edges overlapping 1/2”. The main strap measures 14”x2” and 2 cross straps measure 10”x1/2” each. To get the right measurement for the bottom straps all you have to do is drape a piece on an upside down planter and make sure it’s hitting just above the rim.
Fold your main strap in 1/2 (hotdog style) and using a leather punch you are going to punch 6 evenly spaced holes through both sides. I folded mine because I didn’t want it to stretch. If you have thick leather you most likely wont need to fold.
Take the 1/2” pieces and find the center point on each and punch a hole there as well as on each end.
Using a grommet setter (get them at Home Depot they are so much cheaper than craft stores!) you are going to attach everything together, starting with the center holes on the 1/2” straps.
Next put one end of the 1/2” pieces inside the main folded piece and line up the hole. Attach all 4 ends just like that.
Set the grommets in the 2 reaming holes and you are done! (and left with what appears to be a leather jockstrap. You’re welcome.)
Fold the edges over and line up the holes, this is where you are going to attach it to the wall. Place a screw inside the grommets.
Drill it onto the center the diamond points (make sure the sides are straight and not droopy!)
Yay! It’s not a jockstrap anymore!
They’ll hang a little, but you don’t want it to droop too much.
Fill it with your favorite plants (see more about how to do that here!)
Man I just love the wild and crazy hair on this little guy!!
Now, lest you think that my house is not suffering immensely from all of this planting… I present to you, the work station. Just out of shot.
See you tomorrow plant lovers!
I love this so much I can’t even describe it. I have no words
Man, this project is sweet! It’s more than I could handle putting together, but I would love to look at it every day. I would stare at it for hours.
My goodness Mandi, you are fantastic. Thanks for creating something I haven’t seen before and for sharing your process so well!
Okay, I can’t seem to get my head around the angles logic; wouldn’t the angles need to total 360? Like, if I have a rectangle with four 90 degree corners, that’s obviously more than 180. Plus, the angles labelled 60 degrees look obtuse to me. What am I missing here?
You are so right! Thats what I get for writing after midnight!! Fixing it now
xo
m
Ok I think I’ve got it worked out. Thanks so much Sarah!
xo
Hooray! Thank you so much; I get it now!! 🙂
Haha you’re officially the smartest person in my life today! Congrats!
xo
Mandi, you are incredible.
I don’t know if your family understand how lucky they are to have you as a DIY Goddess mother/relative/wife, etc. You go with such gusto and the results are majestic!
Thanks also for keeping it real with the out of photo shots…makes me feel better about my accumulation of piles of junks around the house of projects in motion…
LOVE LOVE LOVE this! This is absolutely a project I would do for myself at home. Did I say I love this project?!
That plant wall is super cool! Thanks for the inspiration!
It looks great and is really inspirational. Slightly worried that you’ll mess up the floor when you water though. Maybe you could put a trough of plants on the floor at then bottom so water from the hanging pots waters the plants in a trough at the bottom?
All of these little guys have stoppers on the bottom of the planter so they don’t leak but that would be such a cool idea!!
xo
m
You didn’t mention how you did the fade-out white paint job on the trellis.
That is actually just the lighting in the room (I think its reflecting off of the floor)
xo
m
That is a super awesome wall…but I have to say those first image of the leather straps where ummmm a little like jock straps. Glad to see that image was vanished from my mind once the plants were installed. Which brings me to my next question….
I have been a cacti succulent girl for over two decades (I learned long ago, plants were not, are still are not, my thing—I have a dead thumb) and I see them everywhere used indoors. I do not understand how folks get them to last longer than three months indoors without dying. Is there a secret? Maybe its a California thing, but mine will NOT grow inside no matter what I do. I have 20 years of trying; but cacti and succulents will only grow outside for me. Do you and other bloggers have some inside blogland secret to getting these to grow indoors? I see all of these great indoor ideas and would love to try them.
Dawn in Sac
Mandi, you are officially the queen of everything! I love the way you adapted this idea to your home – everything looks so beautiful! <3
I bet this would be super cute too with pipe clamps & mini mason jars (for the non-leather obsessed lol)
TOTALLY!!!
I enjoy your blog immensely, but this series takes the cake. What wonderful ideas! Thanks so much.
The leather strap/hanging thingy is BRILLIANT! (even if it does look like a jockstrap). 😉
Ah! I love this so much. Thanks for all the inspiration you give. I really needed some today. 🙂
This is amazing! This question is probably completely obvious, but did you use 1 x 2s for the boards?
Okay, so how do you water them? Especially the ones that are way up there? Do you have to keep a ladder handy? This is so cool, and I’d love to try it on a barn wood wall in our bunk house!
I’m not exaggerating when I say this is MY favorite project, either…. but then, how can I compare this to The Nugget? Either way, I’m a major plant nerd (landscape architect) in my other life and this is pretty stinkin’ awesome! Pinning the heck out of it.
So inspiring i hope it will be build more!
I’m sorry Mandi, but the picture where you proclaimed it to no longer be jock straps- they still look like jock straps nailed to a wall :’D But then they looks hella cool with the planters slipped in! Just when I thought I was getting good with Plants, a whole platoon of my plant army just died. Ughhhhh. If I can stop doing that I’ll have to come back to this and get inspired to make something cool, too!
This is brilliant! And your photos are very beautiful. Why everything you did is so perfect 🙂
This looks fantastic!! May I know the names of the plants you hung? 🙂
Such a neat idea!
Looks great. I love this DIY wooden project very much. It is always a good idea to decorate our home with woods. Thanks for sharing your idea.
Really great job and awesome project. I wonder if you can tell me how do you water them? Wouldn’t there be water drained on the floor?
That’s my question too!
That’s awesome! But I have a question, how do you water them? Doesn’t water drips on your floor?
You’re so clever and creative Mandi. I have never thought about a green wall until read your article. Do you think we can plant fruit trees like that?
I just found this posting today and it’s still the coolest tutorial on the internets! Awesome project! I’m going to attempt a similar treatment of a smaller scale, myself! Can’t wait to do it! Thanks for posting this!
I have seen such planters that come in a self-contained unit – you pour water in, (but only a wee bit) and overflow goes into the bottom sealed part of the unit to be drained off later
Love idea and the way you arrange the beautiful trees on the wall. I have a blank space at home and this post help me know what to do right now. I intend to stick some pictures onto it but the plant wall is gorgeous. What you did is totally perfect man!! You should be proud of yourself!!
Can you tell me more about how you attached the wood boards to the wall and to each other? I am a novice at miter joints and I want to make sure that this doesn’t fall off the wall!
Fantastic project, really gave me some good ideas. Made me spit coffee out thought at the jockstrap reference! LOL! I am a teacher and I want to try something similar to this in my classroom. Pallets abound here! Looking forward to reading your other posts.
Thanks for the inspiration! This is beautiful! I think I’ll imitate it small scale with an old accordion coffee cup rack:)
Just what I want hanging from my wall, leather jock straps. My friends already think I’m weird, now they’ll think I’m collecting detached penises, lol. Great design for herb plants.
I love this and I am so glad I am finding it now!!
I know this was posted back in 2015 but do you remember how much wood you used and what lumber size worked best? Im hoping to build this over the weekend with my hubby 🙂 thanks!
Hi Jordan!
I used 1×2 pine! Super inexpensive at Home Depot!!
I love this so much that I have asked for this project to be my Mother’s Day gift 🤣
I’m very intimidated by the leather, but am going to follow your directions to a t. Did you use the 6 inch pots from target? Also, how is everything holding up a few years later, have the plastic stoppers held steady? LOVE This. Thank you so much for sharing. We are going to use cedar instead of pine- hopefully it works 🤷🏻♀️🥰