Decorate Dead Wall Space & Grow New Plants For Free With A Beautiful DIY

Decorating your house by infusing your personality, style, and taste is one way to make it into a home — your home. But filling dead spaces like the area under the stairs, a long hallway, or a vaulted wall can stump even the most talented interior designers. Luckily, there are many DIY ideas to take advantage of dead spaces in your home. If you have such an area that you don't know what to do with and you love plants, you're in luck. Fill your problem area with an eye-catching piece that is easy to build and will bring literal life to the space — a plant propagation station. Using a couple of boards, some plant propagation test tubes, and plants that propagate in water that you probably already have in your home, you can fill that dead space in a jiffy.

To complete this clever project, you'll need a miter saw, drill, brad nailer, wood glue, paint or stain, a sander, two 1x3 boards, test tubes, and houseplants. If you don't already have the test tubes, check out the 15-piece set of acrylic Worldity Clear Test Tubes for Plants on Amazon. To make your shelf pop, paint it to match the accent color in your space. Alternatively, if you want your plants as the focus, match the paint color to your wall or pick a stain that matches your furniture. Also ensure your plants can thrive in the light you have available in that space. Pothos and spider plants are good choices that will tolerate either bright indirect light or low light. 

To begin, decide how long you want your propagation shelf to be and cut the two boards to the same size. Next, mark where you will drill your holes along one of the boards. That's where you will drop in the test tubes. Dawson DIY chose his hole spaces to be 4 inches apart, but you could adjust this spacing depending on the look you want and your board lengths. 

You'll then need to choose the right paddle bit for your drill that will fit your test tubes. Test them out by drilling holes into a spare board until you find the right size that will hold your tubes without them falling through. Then, drill your holes along the board and sand it smooth. Grab your second board, add a line of wood glue on the 1-inch side, and attach your drilled board to form a shelf. Nail the boards where they are glued together to secure the bond.

Finish off your stylish propagation station by staining or painting the wood to fit your taste. Now, hang your new shelf by screwing it into the studs, ensuring it's level. Drop your test tubes into the holes and carefully fill them with water. The final step is to bring life to your station by taking cuttings from your houseplants and popping them into the test tubes. Use a sharp blade when cutting so you don't damage your original plant. If desired, you can switch up your look periodically by simply swapping out the cuttings. If you don't have enough cuttings, you could also fill test tubes with fresh flowers.