DIY hanging planters: 3 ways to make them from IKEA items

DIY hanging planters
Image credit: Monkeyengine and Mark Papamarcos

If you want to add some greenery to your home, DIY hanging planters are a great way to do so. And what better way to create them than using affordable IKEA items?

With some creativity and basic tools, you can transform IKEA products into cute hanging plant pots that add a touch of nature to any room. We have three easy DIY project tutorials you can customize to fit your style.

So, let’s get started on creating some beautiful DIY hanging planters using IKEA items.

IKEA utensil holder planter DIY

Image credit: Doug

We wanted some plants to hang vertically in front of the glass panel on the door in the kitchen. After brainstorming some ideas, we devised these DIY hanging planters using just two IKEA items.

Materials for IKEA DIY hanging planters hack: 

  • IKEA ORDNING cutlery stand
  • IKEA DIGNITET curtain rail

I used five ORDNING utensil holders to span the length of the door. You can use more and also use a mix of the taller (7 1/8”) and shorter (5 3/8”) ORDNING for more variation. We used two DIGNITET curtain wire mounts to hang up the containers to create the vertical garden on the kitchen door.

I wove the stainless steel wire of the curtain wire through the outside holes on the cutlery stand before installing it on the door. It is very secure once tightened. Install the DIGNITET mounts as per IKEA instructions, but with the planters already woven in. Be sure to drill into the solid parts of the door if you’re doing it like we are.

You can put regular plants in them, herbs, and even succulents. We slot the nursery pot with the plant into the ORDNING holder, which is less messy than using the ORDNING as a plant pot. If you like air plants, you can loop some wires around the holes for them to catch on.

Other planter ideas that we toyed with but didn’t use in our DIY Project.

  • Other types of string like twine or yarn instead of the DIGNITET wire curtains. You can easily thread and knot twine through the holes in the container to hold them up.
  • Macramé would be lovely, too, but we didn’t have the time (or patience)
  • Hanging basket instead of the ORDNING container
  • Spray painting the metal plant holders a darker shade to match our home decor. We may do this later, but at the moment, we like how it looks.

We love it, and it adds some greenery to our small apartment. You can Jumbo size this idea and make it longer and bigger by adding a few more rows.

~ by Doug, Singapore

How to make hanging planter bags from IKEA shopping bags (no-sew option included)

rsz_balkonampel
Image credit: Thomas

I tried to build a garden wall on my balcony using hanging planters. I wanted to use several planter bags. The cost quickly added up if I bought regular hanging planter bags. So, I made DIY hanging planters from large IKEA blue shopping bags.

I ripped the seams of the blue bags and cut them up to be sewn into miniature bags. They measure about 10x10x10 cm on each side. I sewed the rectangle, closing the open side and bottom. Then, I tucked the bottom corners in, forming a box, and sewed them down. Lastly, I added the straps to the sides to hang the planter bags.

At the ceiling, I fixed chains and hung up the little bags with small hooks; you can also use paper clips.

Materials for DIY hanging planters

  • IKEA FRAKTA blue shopping bag
  • Or use the small BRATTBY bags (27cm x 27cm) for a no-sew option. They are larger than the hanging planter bags pictured above.

You can now plant, for example, different herbs. Each hanging planter bag has a little hole at the bottom for drainage. When you add water to the plant above, the water runs from plant to plant. Very cost-effective DIY hanging planters for your own hanging garden.

~ by Thomas

Make a stainless steel hanging planter bowl

DIY hanging planter metal bowl
Image credit: Mark Papamarcos

So, if you’re like me, you’re fond of hanging things. Bikes, tables, and anything you can suspend from the ceiling rather than set on the floor is a big plus in my world. It follows that I’m rather partial to hanging plants. The problem is that most hanging pots/ baskets, etc., are macramé monstrosities, coconut fiber sieves, or otherwise fall short of my expectations for decor.

The IKEA BLANDA BLANK series of bowls seems to beg for repurposing. So I did. With some hardware from my other endeavors, I made slings from stainless cables, and with some eye hooks, the bowls became the hanging plant containers I’ve always wanted.

Materials for DIY hanging planters: 

Image credit: Mark Papamarcos
  • IKEA Blanda 14″ stainless bowl
  • 48″ stainless cables with swaged ends
  • Dual cable ferrules
  • Stainless eyes and S-hooks from Home Depot and
  • These marvelous little disks I got out of a surplus box at Minton’s hardware closing sale

Tools:

Image credit: Mark Papamarcos
  • Drill with a self-pilot bit
  • Hammer
  • Center punch
  • Wire cutters
  • Another drill with a countersink bit, and
  • A swaging tool

Instructions for metal planter bowl

1. Drill-guide jig is a cut out (using a radial saw) of the lip of the metal bowl and held in place with clamps. Underneath is a piece of cardboard marked with the locations of the four holes.

2. Center punch and drill drainage holes.

Image credit: Mark Papamarcos

3. Place bowl in jig and drill through jig and bowl.
4. Rotate the bowl 180 degrees, align it with the mark, and drill again through the jig.
5. Rotate the bowl 90 and 270 degrees, drilling the remaining holes through the jig.
6. Use a countersink bit to remove sharp metal bits.
7. Thread cables through the disk, making sure not to cross them.

Image credit: Mark Papamarcos

9. Loop loose ends of cable and insert into ferrules.
9. Swage the aluminum ferrules; it takes six passes, three for an initial crimp and three more to really squish them. It’s fun, but watch your fingers!
10. Insert an S-hook.
11. Hang and level.

It worked out perfectly that the cables I found were exactly the right length (48″) and had one end with a swage fitting pre-attached. You can use regular stainless wire rope too (3/32″) and cut it to length yourself – then you’ll have to use the ferrules on both ends.

The discs are not essential but seem to help to add some cable tension that keeps the bowls at level.

Add a screw hook to your ceiling and hang your planter up. For a two-tier version of this IKEA hack, see this IKEA Hanging Blanda Plant Pots tutorial.

~ by Mark Papamarcos, Silicon Valley, CA