The 11 Perfect Plant Shelf Ideas For Windows

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If your windows are starting to look a little too bare and you're wanting ways to spice them up, there's a pretty easy and eco-friendly solution: add more plants. Plants can help to purify the air in your home. They also add color and interest, and caring for them can be a calming pastime that makes every new leaf and bloom feel exhilarating. Plus, they're beautiful decor that you can appreciate from the inside and outside of the home. If you don't have a natural, built-in windowsill (or if that windowsill is already too full of plants and you need more space), you can add different shelving like clear shelves, DIY wooden ones, and pre-made hanging shelves to fill your windows with greenery. 

Before getting into the shelving ideas, you should first consider what kinds of plants you're going to place in your windows. There are plenty of ways to find the best plants for every room of your home, but you should start by identifying the direction that your window is facing. In high-sun areas like south-facing windows, you must select resilient plants that need a lot of sunlight; good plants for south-facing windows include cacti and succulents. On the other hand, lower-light windows like north-facing ones can handle other plants like orchids, ferns, and ZZ plants. If your plants cannot handle full sun, you could consider getting shelves that pull them back from the direct window area (some options for that are listed below as well). 

If you're someone who loves picking a plant based on its aesthetic and doesn't want to be limited to specific lighting requirements, or you have a backlog of plants needing different shelving options, the OtGalk 3-Tier Rotating Window Plant Shelf is a great option. The shelf retails for around $30 on Amazon and installs onto the side of a window. With its rotating shelves, you can opt to have as many of the three tiers in direct sunlight as you want, while protecting the lower-light plants by spinning them in toward the wall. 

To allow the plants and their pots to shine and let even more light through, you can opt for transparent hanging shelves like the Acfunique Plant Shelf. While being a brilliant solution for fitting numerous plants on one window, this is also a great way to dim some of the light if your windows are a little too exposed during the day, without needing to close the blinds entirely. 

To add a unique and colorful flair, you can opt to hang plant trays on your windows. The Seedor Hanging Tray for Plants on Etsy shows a simple green tray that offers an extra pop of color to the setup. You can make your own version by finding a lightweight tray, drilling small holes into the corners, and using a reliable type of wire or string to hang all four corners onto the same post. You can tie those strings around a curtain rod to make things extra easy. 

Don't want to get out that hammer and nails or worry about suctioned shelves falling over and spilling soil? You can always go the route of finding standalone furniture that elevates your plants without requiring shelf installation. The IKEA SATSUMAS Plant Stand is a choice that can act as a second windowsill for you and offers two different layers of plant storage. Another benefit of having a separate shelf is that you can move it around based on seasons to protect your sensitive plants from getting too much summer sun. 

For a more classic and rustic look, you can opt for some simple rope and wood plank shelves that attach to the wall just above your window frame and have as many tiers as are needed. The Nuanchu Decorative Window Shelf for Plants is a sturdy way to give your plants some elevation. Depending on the width of the shelves you've selected, you can also treat these as ways to store other light accessories to complement your plants, for example, using crystals and paperback books. 

While it's not too costly to snag one of the pre-made shelving options, you can also invest in your own DIY project for this, especially if you want the shelves to fit perfectly with your unique window dimensions. Find simple wooden planks, cut them down to match the length of your window, and sand them, then stain them if you want. Use IKEA SANDSHULT Brackets to hold up your plant shelf, fastening everything into place with 3-inch wood screws. From there, load up your shelves with plants and enjoy the new pop of greenery. 

For your DIY project, you can also opt to create a shelf that spans the entire window. This is a larger undertaking and, of course, will block more sunlight from the window itself. That being said, it's probably a better idea to opt for one that is in an area that does not provide your home with a lot of natural sunlight anyway. Once you've chosen the right window, you can use wooden planks from your local hardware store to build your own window shelf, making sure it's tightly drilled to the perimeter of the window. 

If you don't think you have the room (or spare window space) for a full shelf, you can opt for a less-invasive plant display with some hanging planters, like the Umbra Hanging Planter. With this selection, you can simply fasten brackets into your wall to hang the upper bar the way you would with a curtain rod, then use the dangling plant pots to display your favorites. The downside here is that you're limited to a specific pot aesthetic and size, but getting a premade hanger is otherwise an easy and fun way to go. 

You can add in some handy extra window space with a window sill extender, like the Maxiulan Window Sill Extender Plate. In this case, the design is made to be installed in minutes with no tools or glue required: you simply fasten the large wooden shelf onto your windowsill with self-adhesive pads and magnetic suction. Then, you'll have a way larger windowsill or shelf that can store plants, soft beds for cats, and more without needing to even get out your toolbox. 

Window propagation stick-ons make for a great option for anyone who doesn't have large enough windows for entire plants. There are plenty of pretty plants that only need a little bit of water to propagate, providing you with numerous options for which species you are going to grow. Clear containers, like the ones in the Baderke Plastic Window Propagation Station, allow you to watch the roots grow and see when the clippings are ready for planting. 

Give your windowsills a little extra height and dimension with some simple wooden stacking shelves. With this option, you can layer the shelving and have multiple tiers of plants without even taking up much vertical space. While you can certainly find shelves to buy online, you can also make them yourself by cutting and staining small wood planks and inserting nails to affix them together at a 90-degree angle. Make shelves of all different sizes and then decorate with plants and other window-ready decor items.