DIY Hanging Planter

Plants are taking over. Which is great! I used to be hesitant about buying houseplants, on account of them being able to die and stuff... but during the last year or so, I've gained a huge appreciation for them. They're such an easy way to inject color and an organic ambience, and I've learned that different kinds of plants can reinforce specific design styles. The sculptural leaves of a fiddle leaf fig tree (probably the most popular houseplant these days) lend themselves to a more modern aesthetic, while plants like ivy and fern can steer toward a bohemian vibe.

Anyways, with the abundance of plants hanging out around the apartment these days, I'm finding the need to think of new and interesting ways to house them. I fashioned this wall-mounted hanging planter out of leftover wood from my ladder project. I'm all about easy (but good-looking) DIY projects, and this one takes the cake.

All I needed were the scraps of pine wood, one(!) screw, some twine, a clay pot, and a nice plant. First, used a cordless drill to screw one piece of wood into the other and to drill two small holes (one in the vertical piece, where the planter would hang against the wall, and one in the horizontal piece, where the twine would be knotted to allow for the hanging pot). I used a fancy twine technique that I found here for the hanging mechanism, but I had to make sure to string the twine through the hole in the horizontal piece of wood before tying the top knot, so that it would rest in place. I hope that makes sense.

This blog has made me realize that I'm a huge fan of raw, light, unfinished pine. Just look at almost any other DIY project that I've done. I added a color (neutral?) block of white paint to the bottom of the clay pot just to liven and lighten things up a bit.

Since my bathroom is about 80 years old and has a strange variety of hooks/nails just chilling in the walls, I was able to easily hang the planter using the hole drilled into the vertical piece of wood. I could have just as easily hammered a nail into the wall for the same effect, just like you'd do to hang a picture.