Maybe it’s my 30’s approaching, or maybe it’s just a phase, but this year I decided I love houseplants. For Mother’s Day, Tyler and C took me to Home Depot and I picked out a snake plant. Then I found a couple golden pothos… A few succulents and a yucca cane. Now I feel compelled to fill our space with houseplants until it resembles one of those hipster jungles you see on Pinterest (but without the mattress on the floor and sheets hanging from the wall).
My “nursery” (or so I liked to call it), started out on our dining room table, scooted just far enough out of toddler reach. We were getting a little tired of the pots cluttering up the table, so we decided to throw together a houseplant shelf!
We found a 3’x8″ poplar wood board at Home Depot among the scraps and applied two coats of Minwax dark walnut stain. By the way, I don’t recommend wearing a white shirt for this… Not that you were going to. You’re smart.
After the stain dried (following the instructions on the can), I applied a layer of Minwax fast-drying polyurethane. Tyler sanded the board with 220-grit sandpaper to smooth the first layer of poly and then applied another layer.
Waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Once the board was finally cured, Tyler attached these 8″ over-under shelf brackets from Menard’s. We decided to go with the “over” configuration for a more modern look, but you can also attach them under the board to hang like a traditional shelf. We clamped some scrap wood perpendicular to the shelf board to act as pretend wall and pushed the bracket up against it. After attaching the bracket to the shelf, it was ready to hang!
The shelf is perfect for my houseplants! It’s small but makes a big statement! Now you can hardly see that cold air return, right?
Besides the dry time, this was a fast, fun, and inexpensive weekend project. And now that we’ve freed up space on the dining room table, I think it’s time for more plants! Don’t tell Tyler… mwahahah!