Now that the 2021 QVC Garden Season is pretty much over (although I do have an airing on August 12th), I need to find new homes for all of the live plants I bought for my presentations. Most of them can go in the ground, but there were two houseplants that needed to stay indoors.
I was more than happy to bring them home with me, but our two cats kept munching on the leaves, leaving big holes behind. So as I got to thinking how I could hang them and keep them out of harm’s way, I got the idea to use macrame plant hangers!
Because Marc works for QVC, we get a great discount, and I quickly popped these into my cart.
Now that I knew how I wanted to protect the plants from our hungry cats, the next step was to figure out where to hang them.
Finding a Place for the Plants
Marc and I have been focusing on our dining room now that the QVC season has quieted down. This past weekend, we finally finished painting the rest of the walls, and now it’s starting to look like a finished space!
For some background information, we only painted one wall because I needed a background to do airings when it was too cold to go outside (QVC’s season starts in January). We only had time to do one wall, so the rest of the dining room walls sat unfinished until we could get back to finishing them. It was pretty comical to see one half of the room looking amazing, and the other half with a bunch of paint sample squares painted all over them!
There were two corners in the ceiling of the dining room, and two more in our little eat-in area that would accommodate our macrame plant hangers perfectly!
Now that we knew where the plant hangers would go, it was time to find some plant pots!
Finding the Right Plant Pots
While I waited for them the macrame hangers to arrive, I went shopping for pots that could hang inside. I landed on a set of four that look like this:
Now these are pretty darn cute, but they didn’t blend well with our wall colors in the dining room and eat-in nook. I knew I could easily make them fit in using Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in my favorite color, Mora.
Milk Painting the Pots in Mora
Mora is one of my absolute favorite colors in the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line.
My desk that I’m typing at right now is refinished in Mora, as a matter of fact.
This soft shade of blue/green was the perfect compliment to our wall colors – Hailstorm Gray (left) and Oceanic Climate (right) by Behr.
Milk Painting the Ceramic Pots
Because the pots were porous, it would take no time at all to give them a Mora makeover.
I mixed up three tablespoons of Mora Milk Paint and combined it with the same amount of water. Believe it or not, three tablespoons was more than enough to put two coats of Milk Paint on all four pots!
Here’s a look at the first coat versus the second.
Each coat took about an hour to fully dry. The paint kind of pooled up in the honeycomb squares, so it took a little longer than usual.
Distressing the Milk Painted Pots
I thought the original color of the pots was actually pretty, despite the fact it didn’t match our wall colors.
To let a little bit of it peek out, I distressed the pots with 320 grit sandpaper.
This revealed a little bit of that teal, which was actually a nice compliment to the pale blue/green of the Mora Milk Paint.
Once the pots were distressed, I dusted them off and decided to leave them raw (aka without a topcoat).
You can leave Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint raw on projects that won’t see a lot of wear and tear. Picture frames, pots and mirrors are all good examples. Now you can leave it raw on furniture if you want. Be aware that that it will show oils from your hands, any water spills, grease spots or smudges.
Hanging the Macrame Plant Hangers and Mora Milk Painted Pots
With Marc’s help, we measured out and drilled ceiling anchors for each plant hanger. It took some finesse to repot the plants and get them situated in their new macrame hangers.
After about an hour, here’s what they looked like:
Now I have to confess something to you. Photographing this little nook in our kitchen is super hard. There’s really harsh light that comes in from the slider door off to the left. It casts some really deep shadows and bright highlights. Plus, our kitchen island is right where I’d need to put my tripod to get a good shot. So, with that said, this is the best I could do!
Now the houseplants are split and hanging safely out of cat range. They look pretty happy, wouldn’t you say?
I especially like how Mora plays so well with our wall color (Hailstorm Gray).
The pops of teal are just the detail the pots needed to stand out a little bit from the wall.
So how are your houseplants looking these days? Do they need a new hanging home like ours?
