Geometric Planter: Part Deux

Another Monday, another new hanging planter for the sunroom.

Who’d have thunk that I’d find the twinsie to my mini-hexagon planter at a rummage sale right around the corner from our little house?

The green sticker meant 50-cents, and the planter as a whole was in good condition. Solid hardwood, decent construction, no rot or weakening from years of wear or weather. Bingo, home it came with me, tucked between my feet on the scooter.

It’s not completely identical to the planter that I made using the scrap hexagons from the bedroom headboard:

• It’s bigger. 12″ diameter and 6.5″ height, whereas the little one is just 6.5″W x 5″H.
• And it’s octagonal.
• It’s construction is a little more organized. No random placements, the rotation of each octagon is more aligned than my little hexagon assembly.
• It’s stained red, with a bit of existing water damage that makes the base look darker/blackened.

It didn’t require much work to make it usable immediately, and I had the perfect space in which to hang it (because I decided it was strong enough to be hung). I blasted away some dirt from the nooks and crannies with the hose sprayer, and then restained over the existing stain with the same Rust-Oleum English Chestnut stain that I used when I refinished the mid-century buffet. I didn’t bother trying to sand off or roughen the existing stain because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it evenly by hand or with a power sander (too many tight spaces) so I just applied the stain with a foam brush and wiped off excess with a rag. It ended up being just enough to gently tint the finish and tone down the reds. No make-up, messy hair warning.

I planned to hang the newbie in the same exact fashion that I had hung the smaller planter in the sunroom: right over the new buffet. And I even had the perfect plant, a portulaca that my dad recently added to my collection.

Because I really wanted no water dribbles down onto the new buffet, I doubled up on the moisture barrier, using a new plastic planter with a built-in tray and a plastic 80-cent tray that I picked up The Home Depot. The bottom to this planter is solid with two drainage holes, so the likelihood of anything falling through all barriers seems minimal.

The pot itself, I had to trim down a little since the height of the wooden planter was considerably squattier than the height of the walls of the pot. I had to do this same thing with the dining room planter and outdoor planters this spring, so I already knew that hacking it down with a utility knife was a fair option to retrofit what I already had.

Any unevenness of the upper lip of the pot is completely disguised by the portulaca which is young, but mature enough to overflow the edges in a really nice way. Thanks Dad! 

To hang the planter, I used a trio of 1/4″ x 3-3/4″ eye hook lag screws (they were just 50-cents a pop at the hardware store), and importantly, 3-3/4″ meant they were long enough to go through more than layer of octagon for added reinforcement. I was reluctant to use the smaller eye hooks in such a heavy planter even though it feels pretty well-constructed; seemed like there was no point in trusting all of the weight on that top piece of the construction if I could find some screws that would extend through at least two layers of wood.

Even with pre-drilled holes, these things were rough to get in place. Quick tip: Save your finger muscles and use a screw driver as a lever and twist it around to make this step really easy.

I still had an extra ceiling hook from a package I bought for the first hanging planter, so I installed it in the ceiling directly next to where the smaller plant hangs. I’m crossing all 10 fingers hoping that the hook that promises to hold up to 100-lbs isn’t a lame marketing ploy that the marketing manager made up, and that all three strands of twine will be strong enough to keep the basket hung securely. It’ll probably be upgraded to chain when I find some that I like but for now seems to be secure.

It looks pretty charming in the sunroom now. Much different from what we were living with last fall thanks to the the refinished buffet, table, chairs, beach glass and assorted plants.

Come across any great finds over the weekend?