Reinvent It: Grow a Mini Vertical Garden in Printing Press Drawers
After renovating the living room in her San Francisco condo, Stephanie Van Dyke wanted a living wall to add some life to the large, open space, but she experienced some frustration at first. "Most of the ideas I found were far too complicated and/or expensive," she says. However, while staring at some unused printing press doors in her office, crafty inspiration struck. "I'm really more of a crafter than a green thumb, so I relied heavily on my friend Franck Perry for advice on this installation, as I do for all of my plant care," she says.
Project: A mini vertical garden in printing press drawers Cost: $250 to $300 Time: One weekend, including shopping time
Materials and tools:
Three vintage printing press drawers
Sawtooth hooks for hanging
Plants, rocks, mosses and other finds to fill the nooks
Paint
Five-minute epoxy
Staple gun
Netting to hold in the soil and succulents
Spray bottle for watering
Van Dyke scored the vintage printing press drawers at a flea market for $40 each. After filling each one with plants and other objects, she created a triptych on the wall.
She nailed sawtooth hooks to the backs of the drawers for easy hanging of her composition.
Van Dyke selected various mosses, air plants and succulents for her indoor garden. "The air plants are the simplest and easiest, because they require no soil," she says. "The succulents were a little bit trickier, but they require very little soil, so the shallow drawer nooks were not an issue."
To affix the succulents in the boxes, she created pockets of soil with netting. For each plant she cut a hole in the netting for them to pop out, then stapled the netting down with a staple gun.
She filled out the rest of the composition with pebbles, bits of broken glass, shells and paint to add additional textures and color.
A few vintage print blocks placed here and there reference the drawers' initial use.
Van Dyke sprays the plants with a little bit of water every few days.
"I think that live plants are the liveliest and loveliest decor, because they bring the outside in and add freshness to any space," she says. She loves the juxtaposition of her expansive city view just beyond the plant installation.
Materials and tools:
Van Dyke scored the vintage printing press drawers at a flea market for $40 each. After filling each one with plants and other objects, she created a triptych on the wall.
She nailed sawtooth hooks to the backs of the drawers for easy hanging of her composition.
Van Dyke selected various mosses, air plants and succulents for her indoor garden. "The air plants are the simplest and easiest, because they require no soil," she says. "The succulents were a little bit trickier, but they require very little soil, so the shallow drawer nooks were not an issue."
She filled out the rest of the composition with pebbles, bits of broken glass, shells and paint to add additional textures and color.
A few vintage print blocks placed here and there reference the drawers' initial use.
"I think that live plants are the liveliest and loveliest decor, because they bring the outside in and add freshness to any space," she says. She loves the juxtaposition of her expansive city view just beyond the plant installation.