Hanging Hexagon Planter

Happy President’s Day!  I am super happy to be invited to participate in a fun challenge today and to share my Hanging Hexagon Planter!

A great group of bloggers did this Home Depot Gift Challenge last year where they would pick an item and all come up with a project using that item, which was, of course, from Home Depot.  Sadly this is the last time the challenge will be happening, but there are still some awesome projects to check out!  The item that was chosen for this challenge was “Chain”.

I have been LONG wanting a hanging planter for this corner of my room…and so I decided that since the item I needed to use for this challenge was chain, then it could hang my planter.

I had a few other ideas for using chains, one was similar to my Spooky Halloween Sign, and I still might make it someday, but I really wanted a planter so I went with it.

I wanted an open design, and something unique, so I decided to make it a hexagon shape.  I cut out a hexagon on my circut and used my husband’s overhead projector so I could trace it onto a scrap piece of plywood.

Once I had it traced I took it outside to be cut out.  Here is where I kind of goofed up a bit, I decided that the shape I had traced was a little too wide and I wanted it thinner.  So I got lazy and instead of cutting a new shape and retracing, I eyeballed it and cut it thinner.  (gasp)

Hello?!  Sometimes I don’t think very clearly when I am cutting in the freezing cold of winter and my stubborn side takes over.  I also had broken my scrolling blade for my jigsaw on a previous project (that I will hopefully post soon) and had to use this massive unbendable blade that is much harder to cut with… So yeah.  Not a perfect hexagon,  and you know what?  I am ok with it, at least I was, until I started editing photos…then my perfectionist side started kicking in and….

After I cut my less than perfect hexagon I started playing with scraps of plywood to see how I was going to hang a plant in it…no previous planning on this project, I was winging it. 🙂  I ended up placing this piece like so, and it was the winner, cause it looked the best.

I went back out to pretty it up a bit by cutting off the square edges, just set my miter saw at 45 degrees and chopped them off.

Then I got fancy with a paint can lid and used it to trace my circle for holding my pot.  I must have forgotten to take a photo of me jigsawing out the circle, but obviously I did.  (and it turned out better than the hexagon…I might add.)

Look how perfect that fancy plastic dollar store pot fits too.  Me and my cheap old self couldn’t bear to spend over a dollar on this project, and I actually got three pots for that dollar too.  Aw-some.

In order to try and hide the ugliness of my plastic pot I grabbed some silver metallic spray paint from my stash and gave it a few coats, I choose this color because I thought it would look nice with my choice of chain.

Now maybe this is cheating because I didn’t buy this chain at Home Depot, but I know they have nice chain there because I look at it frequently. 🙂  I actually got this box of chain several years back on one of my free craig’s list finds and I couldn’t pass it up.  The black one I actually spray painted and used it to hang my Rustic DIY Halloween Sign, and my Spooky Halloween Sign Chain also came from this box, and my Kid Street Sign chain.  I. Love. Free.

Since I was planning on just attaching this with a screw on each side I went ahead and “notched” out a little bit on each side so It could “sit” better in the hexagon.  I just used my miter saw to gently eat away a small section.  Not the prettiest method, but quick and easy, plus it is underneath so you can’t see it anyway.

It actually worked perfect, and made the board snap into place in the hexagon perfectly.  Then I predrilled a hole and attached a screw into each side to secure it.

Now for how I attached the chain!  I wanted a wrapped look so I pulled open the last link in the chain with pliers.  Then I wrapped it around the top of my hexagon and looped it into a link from the other side (top left).  Then I closed up the link with the pliers (top right).  To make sure my chain didn’t slide around I pre drilled and screwed a small screw into a link on each side of the hexagon (bottom).

And it worked quite nicely!

To attach it to the ceiling, I used an eye screw into a stud and this cool “S” shaped thing that was in my chain box.  Done.

I stained it with the same mix I made for my Shoe Cubby Dresser top.  This shot also shows you where I added a screw from the side right into the plant holder, since I forgot a photo of that too. Oops!

I am really loving it in my room, despite it’s imperfections.

I can’t wait for this plant to grow over the sides too, I will be super pretty.

This lonely corner is now happy…

And so am I!

Not a bad little planter for a $1, plus I used up some scraps which is always a bonus!  Is this a project you would tackle?

Don’t forget to check out the other awesome chain projects!  Just click on the images below to go to each one and send them some love!

Hugs,
Mindi