Introduction: Hanging Plant Headboard

About: Hi! I'm a slightly feral mountain hermit that likes to be helpful. I do community management at Instructables & Tinkercad. 🙌 Want to hear me chat about making? Search "CLAMP Podcast" on YouTube or your favorit…

Now that my partner and I own a house, I've been filling it with houseplants. Our living room and my office have officially hit max plant capacity, so I really had to stop putting off getting my "plant headboard" hung!

Our bedroom is fairly large with tall ceilings and I wanted to find something that could fill the space without darkening it. The headboards I checked out were expensive and boring and I didn't really feel like building another. I had an idea to create a "living" wall, but that amount of soil and water above our heads seemed like a bad idea. Instead, I went with the idea of hanging plants above the bed from a wooden rod.

And so I ordered an eight foot closet rod and some hanging brackets, and promptly let them sit in my office for about a year. Whoops.

BUT I DID IT. I DID THE THING TODAY. And now I'll show you how to install a hanging plant headboard and add a little color and life to your bedroom. :D

Step 1: Tools + Materials

Here's what I used to hang the closet rod:

  • 8 foot closet rod
  • 2 x closet rod brackets
  • cabinet screws
  • rare earth magnet (for finding studs)
  • drill + drill bits
  • pencil
  • painter's tape
  • level
  • tape measure + quilting ruler
  • stepstool

More than anything, you'll want an hour or so to get it hung right. The closet rod should be screwed firmly into studs and level as you can get it, which can take a little time. :)

Step 2: Get Marking and Find Your Studs

I put small pieces of painter's tape at every foot up the sides of the wall to help me visualize where the rod would hang from. Six feet seemed too low to hang it, so I added another six inches.

Then I measured in from the corners of the walls. My wall is 12 feet wide and the rod is 8 feet long, so I had originally wanted to place the hanging brackets in three feet from every corner.

But then the battle of the studs began. I don't know what's going on in this wall but it is not the normal studs at 16 or 24 inches apart! Curse this stupid wall for real.

I used a rare earth magnet to find the studs and the horizontal tape across the wall to mark the drilling spots and keep things level.

If nothing else, mark a level horizontal line across your wall and then mark all the studs you can find. Hopefully you'll find a pair that make things look even enough. :D

Step 3: Hang the Closet Rod Brackets

I used painter's tape and the level to make sure the brackets didn't go up crooked or wonky in any way.

I drilled small pilot holes for the cabinet screws for the top bracket holes, hung the brackets, and then put in the bottom screws.

(Gotta remind you again: make sure you're hanging these in studs! Plants are heavy - wet plants are even more heavy. And considering they'll be above your head, you really don't want the rod ripping out of the wall.)

Step 4: Check the Closet Rod for Levelness

This is the last step!! YESSSSS

Place your level on the top of the closet rod and see how you went. I was very relieved to see it worked out. :D

Step 5: Add Plants and Enjoy!

Last but not least, hang some plants! I've chosen a philodendron brasil, a marble queen photos, a neon pothos, and a pearls and jade pothos.

The plant pots I have these hanging in are my favorite, too - so let me plug them really quick. These planters have a small reservoir for water and a rubber plug on the bottom of the pot.

It's so wonderful to be able to water them thoroughly and not have to worry about drips. Instead, water them, wait a while, and then unplug the bottom of the pot over a glass and the excess water will drain super quick.

Once I make some more plant hangers I'll be adding some smaller hoya and spiderwort plants, I think. All I know for now is that I absolutely love my new plant headboard. :D