I just cant believe what a huge difference a live plant makes in a space. If a room in your house is feeling a little ho hum, get your cute butt a plant. They are a really great inexpensive way to liven things up (literally!)

Every plant needs a planter to spread its roots in. This is something that we all agree on, but finding one (and one that wont cost you your left trunk) is quite a different story. Until today. This Openwork Cube Planter comes in just under $30 and is the easiest thing to build!

You will need:

(1) 12” Terra Cotta Planter
(6) 1”Square Wooden Dowels that are 36” long (standard length from HD)
Wood Glue
Nailer or Screws
Wood Filler (optional)

Start by cutting (12) 13” pieces. If you are making this with a different size planter, measure the top (ours was 12”) and add 1”. This will give you a hole that is 11” (because each wood piece is 1” wide)  If you don’t have access to a saw, you can have these pieces cut for you at Home Depot.

To assemble them put a small amount of glue on the end of one piece.

Then attach it with your nailer or a screw.

Wipe the excess glue off and move to the next corner.

You will make 2 squares.

Glue and nail the other 4 pieces onto the squares you just made.

Fill in nail holes with wood putty.

Let it dry for 24 hours before placing your potted plant in it.

Picture how cute this would be on a smaller scale with glass fishbowls or small pots on a book shelf or running down the center of your table!

The post Modern Openwork Cube Planter DIY appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Staghorn Ferns are one of the coolest most fascinating plants to use in home decor. They are great planted in a planter, but the really cool thing is that they can also be mounted on a board and hung on your wall, just like a living picture! Today we’re going to talk all about how to mount and care for Staghorn Ferns.

Staghorn Fern 101

Staghorn Ferns are a species called Epiphyte which means that they don’t need soil to grow, the reason that you can hang them on the wall. They are in the same family as airplants, and in the wild find a host, that they attach their roots to and pull all of their nutrients in through their fronds.

Staghorn Ferns have 2 different types of leaves (or fronds).

The first type is the “antler” leaf, they are long with uneven tips and vary in size. They grow from the center of the plant and jut out in every direction. The second type of leaf is the shield frond. These flat circular leaves grow against the base of the plant. When they sprout, and until they reach full size they are green and veiny, once they are fully grown, they turn brown and papery. DO NOT REMOVE THE BROWN LEAVES!! These leaves form a protective shield over the root ball and help it stay anchored in place.

The roots on the Staghorn Fern are fairly minimal (one of the reasons you can mount them!)  They need a good amount of drainage so that they don’t get root rot.

Watering

Watering a mounted Staghorn Fern is a little bit of a commitment, because they absorb water through their fronds, they love a good misting. The root ball also needs to be soaked every 1-2 weeks. Keep reading, I’ve got a whole step by step tutorial at the end of this post!

Light

Staghorn Ferns, love bright indirect sunlight. Find the brightest room in your house without direct light and that is where they will thrive.

Are you ready to learn how to mount them?! Let’s get started with our step by step tutorial.

How To Mount Staghorn Ferns

Mounting Staghorn Ferns should be done on rot resistant wood like cedar. Because of the aggressive way that they are watered, and the fact that they are so closely connected to the wood, you need something that can last long term.

You’ll need:

• Cedar board
• Fishing Line
• Stainless Steel Screws
• Heavy Duty Picture Hanger
• Sphagnum Moss (i.e. Sheet Moss) You can find this in the indoor garden section at Home Depot.

Make your shield

1. Fold a piece of paper in 1/2, making sure that when it’s unfolded, it fits onto your cedar board.
2. Draw a shield shape
3. Cut it out and trace it onto your cedar board.
4. Cut out your shape with a jigsaw

The edges got a light sanding and they were ready to go!

Start by mounting a heavy duty picture hanger on the back, the large plants can get pretty heavy when they are wet.

To Divide or Not To Divide, That is the Question

Staghorn ferns have rhizomes (remember we talked about those here?) which means that there are different growth points that can be divided. It is really easy to tell where to divide these plants because of the shield leaves. That being said, the roots are really dense. They’re teeny in size but mighty in numbers. You want to use a knife to gently divide them.

You don’t need to divide the plants to mount them though. If you want a larger statement piece, you can simply remove the plant from the pot and get rid of the excess dirt.

Determining Your Root Ball Size

When you’ve successfully divided and conquered, loosen the roots and remove a good amount of the dirt.

Your root ball should be about the size of a fist for smaller plants, and continue larger as the size of the stag increases. You can tell the general size based on the shield leaves, make your ball about the size of the shield leaves width.

Mounting Your Staghorn

Now that we have our mount ready, and our plant ready, we’re going to marry the two in complete happiness!

Step #1: Determine Your Screw Placement

Lay your fern on the mount and see the general space it takes up. Mark 4 spots just inside the root ball borders, this is where your screws are going to go

Pro Tip! If you screw them in at an angle its easier to wrap your fishing line around.

Step #2: Place a small amount of moss onto your board

When you are mounting the plant you want to do it so that the dried shield leaves are at the top, but not directly against the board (or else the plant will shoot straight up and not up and out. Especially the little guys.)

Step #3: Secure Your Root Ball On Top of the Moss

Put your root ball on top of the moss, and lightly secure it to the board using fishing line. (I used 12 lb test line and probably wouldn’t recommend anything thinner)  When I say lightly I mean not too tight and across the root ball just a few times. This is just making it easier when you put the moss on top.

Step #4: Add More Moss

Spread a not too thick/not too thin layer of sheet moss over the root ball and up around the back of the plant at the top. You don’t want to see the dirt at all.

Step #5: Secure Everything With Fishing Line

Wrap the fishing line really thoroughly over the root ball, connecting the screws in all directions. Make sure that you aren’t getting too close to the living shield leaves, and don’t go over the top of the dried ones, just gently lift them and go underneath. If you go over the top of the dried leaves, the fishing line will cut through them.

Step #6 Finish It Off

Tuck a few bits of moss over the screws to hide them. Trim your fishing line and you are done!!

How To Water A Mounted Staghorn Fern

To water your fern, fill up a sink or tub with water and submerge the plant (I usually stick it in up to the moss)

How about a pool party? Everybody in!

When the moss is completely soaked through, drain the water and place them sort of upright to let all the excess water drain off.

Staghorn Ferns need constant moisture, so I do this about once a week and mist the moss with a squirt bottle almost every day.

Do you want to see something cool? I decided to remount the plant that came mounted (the board was ick looking)  This is what the backside of the ferns look like after they’ve been attached to a host for a while.

Don’t they totally look like antlers?! I wish you could tell in these pictures how big they are.

See you tomorrow!

The post How to Mount (and Care for) a Staghorn Fern appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

I know that Plant Week was last week, but I got to Atlanta last Wednesday and realized that I forgot to shoot this fail-proof tip. Soooooo I guess its Plant Week + 1 day!

I’ve tried a lot of different ways of handling cactus for planting. Everything from leather gloves to salad tongs. But the problems are always the same. If I actually touch the cactus (even wearing gloves) I always get poked. Those little suckers work their way through the gloves no matter how thick they seem. And if I try to plant without touching it (like using tongs) I don’t ever have enough control over the situation. Especially if there is more than one growth on the cactus.

But necessity is the mother of invention, and I had a lot of planting to do for Plant Week. And most of all I didn’t want to spend $20 on a pair of leather gloves that would get filled with microscopic needles that would have to be trashed 5 minutes later.

I looked around my kitchen and came up with a pretty great solution.

All you need for poke-less cactus planting is a paper grocery bag!!

Cut it in 1/2.

Fold the bottom in 1/2. This is where your hand will go when you hold the cactus.

Trim down the length and you are done!

Seriously that’s it!! If your cactus is really heavy you might want to double up on the bags, but for smaller cacti one is totally sufficient. The long sharp needles don’t go through.

And the teeny furry ones (that are actually the spawn of Satan if you were unaware) don’t stand a chance.

This way you can hold the cactus, loosen the roots and move it around as much as you need to without getting poked!

The post 100% Poke-less Cactus Planting (You’ll Die When You See What the Trick Is!!) appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

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.

So I get it. We’re not all plant-errificly gifted. Its fine. But just because you cant actually keep things alive doesn’t make you a bad person, it just makes you a bad plant owner. Just kidding. I know, its hard. But its ok because I have a bunch of plant treasures that require zero watering, sunshine, or guilt.

Black and White Cactus Print from Arrow and Apple. GET THIS. RIGHT NOW. Seriously.

Watercolor Cactus Print from Fox Hollow Cottage

Botanical Sumi from Minted + Domino

Aspen Minted + domino

Minimal Cactus Print Throw Pillow

Palm Leaf Throw

Green Watercolor Throw Pillow

Cactus Sketches (**I’m having problems with the shop checkout so if you are interested in these send an email to vintagerevivalsblog@gmail.com with your order and I will get it sent off!)

Have the best Friday of your life!

The post 8 Finds for the Self Confessed Plant Killer appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

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!

The post DIY Wood and Leather Trellis Plant Wall appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

A few years ago I was pretty in to gardening. In fact I was so into it that I dedicated a huge strip of land on the side of our house to it. It was awesome. Then I started to travel, (I’m pretty sure we were actually home for 4 weeks the entire summer of 2012) and the garden was a little overlooked. It got pretty overgrown and had lots of weeds to keep the tomato plants company. We were so busy that I was fine with it, but Court said never again. The first chance he got the garden was gone and in it’s place was freshly laid sod.

For the last few years I’ve wanted a garden again, but something more manageable. Every time I brought it up to the husband he was unwavering in his response of “You are ridiculous. No.” I mean, how is that even an answer?!

A few weeks ago my sister was in town and we decided to tackle the project. This is what the requirements were:  Inexpensive, Fast (so that it could be done before Court got home from work) and it couldn’t be in the backyard.

There is this little spot in our front side yard that was just useless. Basically its job was to be a prime location for weeds and trash. It is the only part of the yard that isn’t landscaped. You wouldn’t really notice it because of the tree in front of it, but it was the perfect spot for a small garden. There were a few things that made planter boxes a must. At the beginning of the year we put down Preemergent to prevent any weed growth, but doing so also prevented us from planting directly into the ground. Also, there is kind of a lot of stuff right underneath the surface, sprinkler lines, drainage pipes, decapitated Littlest Pet Shops in their final resting place (<— not a lie). Above ground planting was an absolute must.

So I did what I always do, I went to Home Depot. The employees there recommended Cedar because its really weather/rot resistant so we grabbed (16) cedar fence posts and (2) 8’ cedar 4×4’s.

The finished size for the bed was 8’x3’. I started by cutting the 4×4 into 18” pieces.

The next step was to attach the boards to them.

If you hear nothing else that I say today, hear this. Self Drilling Screws are FREAKING AMAZINGGGGGGGG! You don’t have to predrill your holes (which saves you a ton of time) and the star tip on them makes them less likely to strip. They have a little notch cut into the tip that is like magic.

The fence posts are 6 feel long which meant that we needed an additional 2 feet past their length. This worked out really great for the stability of the boxes too. I just made sure that the 4×4 post sat right between the planks.

Stagger the short board (1 one each side) this will give you 4 posts on each long side of your box (the 2 on the corners and 2 at 2’)

The walls of the planter at about 12” high, the additional 6” goes into the ground to stabilize it.

Once your boxes are built, take them outside and mark where the posts need to sit in the ground. Dig down deep enough that the edges of the box sit flush against the ground.

We have kind of some weird sloping action so we had to build up the dirt in some places so that the boxes were level, you can kind of see in the front right corner in the shot below where it needed to be filled in. Also if you make it look like you are having a blast then your kids will beg to help.

Remember earlier when I mentioned all of the stuff that was underneath the ground? Well….one of the posts in the planter box next to the house landed at the EXACT wrong spot.

That would be a drainage pipe from the rain gutter. Luckily at this point we had only built one box and could modify the second one with shorter 4×4 posts to accommodate the pipe situation. I know you’ve already seen this picture but if you look at the posts in the far left you can see that they only sit in the ground about 2”. All of the other posts on the planter at the normal 18” length.

We moved the dirt inside the planters to build it up along the edges.

Once they were filled we took a trip to a local nursery for dirt. We got 3 1/2 ton bags of pay dirt (they were about $25 each) and brought them home. So do you have those moments when you KNOW something is a bad idea but peer pressure takes over and you do it anyway? Amy my sister can get me to do practically anything. Its a problem. I didn’t want to inconvenience our neighbors so we (as in Amy) decided it would be fine to back the truck up over the grass and unload it that way. For the record I thought it was a horrible idea. She said it was fine. I trusted. As I was backing it up she said everything was looking great but we needed a different angle, so I pulled forward and backed up again.

Imagine the horror when I got out of the truck and saw that she had TOTALLY lied about it! The grass sunk in 2” where the tires had been. Court was going to be SO pissed. So I did what I should have done, pulled the truck off the grass, knocked on the neighbors door and asked them if they could move their cars.

Court always jokes that I am like Zorro and leave my mark on everything I touch. In this case he is 100% correct.

Oops. Maybe its an M for Marvelous?

Once the planters were filled (2 hours later) we installed a simple drip system that connects to our automatic sprinklers. It has worked out wonderfully and everything is starting to thrive!

I planted a few varieties of tomatoes (they’ve always done really well for me)

Spinach (from seed)

Rainbow Chard (this is new to me this year) My parents always planted Swiss Chard when I was a kid and I hated it but I haven’t tried it as an adult so I thought it might be a good tester.

Beets (from seed) they need to be thinned out but it is just so fun seeing them grow!

Carrots (from seed) this was Dylan’s pick. I have NO idea how they’ll do.

Bell peppers

,

Zucchini (from seed), yellow squash, cilantro, basil, and the one that I am most excited about…

Asparagus! They are so teeny and cute! These came as root bundle. Court’s grandma has the best stories about picking wild asparagus so I thought it would be fun to try it this year.

So here is what I’ve noticed. Over the last 3 weeks the dirt that we built up has partially washed away but the new dirt hasn’t come through so I think the dirt inside is still holding up. We need to still bury the drip lines into the ground and I want to put some sort of mulch or something down to make it a little prettier to look at, but other than that it has been a complete joy! Its so exciting to see how fast everything grows and changes!! This coupled with our surprise peaches is going to make for one delicious summer!

The total cost for the planter boxes was about $45. The dirt, drip lines and plants were another $100 so the grand total was around $150.

Hope you have the best Memorial Day weekend!!

The post Cedar Fence Post Garden Planters appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

After years of regrettable plant killing mistakes, I finally feel like I’ve learned enough to keep them alive (the obvious reward for this situation is to buy more plants!!). Which means…(you know what this means right?) I need more planters. Its like the gift that just keeps on giving.

I have the most beginner DIY friendly for those that are itching to use some power tools but aren’t ready to build anything massive yet. (Or if you don’t have tools, this is such a quick job I’m sure you can bribe your neighbor with cookies and they’ll totally do it for you)  Its kind of one of those projects that you cant screw up.

Find the full tutorial over on Home Depot’s blog The Apron here and get some of my favorite clean up tips here!

To enter the giveaway for a $200 Home Depot gift card, all you have to do is leave a comment below with your favorite type of plant! My current obsession? String of Pearls.

The post Wooden Disk Hanging Planter + $200 Home Depot Giveaway appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Shelves. They are one of those critical design elements in every space. I mean, there are just so many things to put on them! Right!? When I was working out the design for my living room and entryway, I knew pretty quickly that I wanted shelves in the entryway full of plants.

The original idea was to put the shelves on the wall that you see right when you walk in the door. But when we got a few installed it just made the walk space too tight. I knew it was going to be tight, I just needed to see it for myself. Being stubborn is one of my best qualities. Sometimes.

The obvious move was to bump them to the other wall in the entryway. Because plants. And also no one would hit their head. So its a win win!

Lets chat about the shelves themselves. Have you seen these ones that Anthro used to sell? Gorgeous. Amazing. Unavailable (and expensive). Just a few ingredients in the recipe for a perfect DIY project.

The hardest part for this project was tracking down the copper sheeting. Hello. If you give me a measurement thickness that means like nothing. Do you know what 3/342 of an inch is??! Cause I sure don’t.

After a fair bit of research I came across Basic Copper. They are flipping geniuses. On their site, they have a thickness guide with videos so that you can actually see what the copper looks like, how it bends, and how it cuts. I ended up buying a roll that was 24” wide x 20’ feet long and the copper was 5 Mil thick. I overestimated on how much I would need and was originally planning on making 5 shelves (it would have been the perfect amount for 5) and I am super glad that I did. #learningcurve

The first thing that you are going to do is construct the actual floating shelf. I used 1×2” sandwiched between 1/2” MDF that was cut 10”x36”  Use wood glue (I love Titebond III) and screws to hold everything together. I laid the 1×2’s so that the long side was against the MDF.

The next step is to build the inner support. It has to be able to fit in the hole that you created in the back of your shelf, so you will use 1×2” for that too.

Measure the length of your opening (it will be about 4” shorter than the length of your board) then attach 3 boards that will run the width of your shelf. This helps support and stabilize it.

When your shelves are built its time to wrap them in copper!

Just a word of advice, you will 10000% want to use gloves while you are handling this because it will cut you faster than you can say your favorite cuss.

Measure the distance from the back of your shelf, all the way around the front and onto the back of the other side, and trim your copper. Leave just a small overhang on the sides, they don’t need to completely cover the space because we are putting a trim piece on the front. Try really hard to shape around the corners as you go.

Then you are going to use a staple gun to attach it. You might need to lower the pressure if you are using a pneumatic gun so that the staple doesn’t go all the way through the sheeting.

If the length of your shelf is longer than the width of the copper roll you can do what I did. Put one piece on, and then on the second piece fold the edge over before you attach it. That will give you a finished edge for your seam.

Now for the trim piece. Measure the height of your shelf and add 1/4”. Use a straight edge, a fabric cutting guide is PERFECT for this project and measure so you have 1/8” poking out. Carefully fold along the edge.

Then place your straight edge on top of the fold and tap it down flat with a hammer.

You can find teeny copper nails at Home Depot. I used 1 package for each shelf. Space them about 3/4” apart.

When its time to mount your shelf, use a stud finder and secure your brace piece onto the wall.

Then slide your shelf on.

Attach the shelves with finishing nails or screws.

Shop my favorite planters below and check out the other tutorials in this series here!

[show_shopthepost_widget id=”683318″]

The post Anthro Inspired DIY Copper Shelves appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Have a few people still on your list? Yea, me too. Its ok though, because today I have a project that will simultaneously check them off your list and let you take out all of your holiday stresses on a hunk of clay! Win win!!

To make this project you will need:

Clay (we Amaco Air Dry Clay from the craft store ) The clay takes about 24 hours to dry
A marker or something to make a hole.
Magnets
Acrylic Paint
Tools to smooth and cut (if you have a set of Cricut tools, they are AWESOME! if you don’t you can totally use a butter knife and a credit card!)

Here is how we did it:

A few things to note:

If you let the clay dry for a few hours before you start cutting the geometrics off then you will get harder corners (which is a good thing!)

If you are using Air Dry, you have to paint it to be able to water the plants (otherwise it will just remoisten the clay)  If you want it to be clay colored you can buy the type of clay that gets baked.

Need more handmade holiday gifting ideas? Go here.

The post Mandilicious Christmas: Magnetic Geo Clay Planter appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Dudes! We are overhauling a 1972 Bell Travel Trailer! Follow the entire series from the beginning here!

Finding a way to bring plants into The Nugget, and being able to take them out for normal day to day care is the problem on the chopping block today. I knew that I wanted plants. Because hello. But there were a few things logistically that needed to be worked out.

I wanted a lot of them. As many as I could fit, because plants just bring so much life to a space. The problem was that I didn’t want to have to pack/secure them separately for each trip. 1 or 2 in the sink isn’t a big deal but an entire box full of just plants seemed a little unnecessary. So that meant that I needed to give them a permanent home that they could travel in and be safe.

The cool thing about this project is that it can totally translate into a plant shelf for your kitchen window,  Just add a few L brackets on the ends that connect into your window sill and you are good to go!

There is just one special thing that you need to do this DIY. A 4” Hole Saw. It is this really large and in charge drill bit that basically makes a giant circle in your wood (the same type of Hole Saw that we used to drill the holes for the door knob!)  Its not the cheapest of finds ($19.97 at Home Depot) BUT it was SIMPLE to use and sure beat the heck out of jigging all of the holes out.

I decided that the back window would be the best place to put the shelf because we already had a board across the back (to break up the white wall) but it turned into this super functional savior for this project!

I started by measuring the width of the shelf. There was one spot that we needed to trim down because of the other shelf, but it was a really easy fix.

Next I decided how many planters I wanted and evenly marked and measured their distances.

Then we positioned the Hole Saw and let er rip! This was a great project for Court to do (he is the best!) because the teeth on the Hole Saw are really grabby and sometimes they grab and want to spin the drill (and your arm) instead of cutting through the wood. It is kind of one of those things that as you are doing the project you will get a feel for it.

The girls had a blast playing with the circle scraps, so it was sort of a win win on the project front.

After all of the holes were drilled we took it inside to make sure that it looked right. Turns out the notch on the side needed to be a little deeper….

The next step was to put wood glue (Titebond III) on the top of the piece that was already mounted to the wall and then put the planter piece in.

Then we used a combo of nails from the nail gun and screws to secure it to that piece and to the side of the other shelf.

I was convinced that we would need to put a bracket on the left side but after seeing what a tight fit and the combo of glue and nails did, that thing isn’t going anywhere.

We painted basic terra cotta planters with a bunch of tester paint from The Home Depot and gave them a coat of clear gloss spray paint.

I could not wait to get the plants inside.

I wanted plants that wouldn’t die at the word go. Most of the plants that I have are Cacti and Succulents. I did add a fern for pictures because they are so big and beautiful but I have a hard time keeping them alive, so i don’t know if we’ll keep it there long term.

The really great thing about this project is that it gave me a place to subtly tie all of the colors together.

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