Last spring Gardenista spotlighted the Blueberry Café, a combination shop, restaurant, and wedding venue in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands of South Africa. The unusual setup had been given a makeover by Anatomy Design, and one of my favorite new details is the cafe's hanging plant baskets suspended from a glass atrium. Modeled on vintage vegetable baskets, the planters manage to be playful and whimsical without feeling twee. They've got me plotting a DIY version, and I've rounded up the goods to re-create the look.
Above: Hanging wire planters at the Blueberry Café. Photographs by Samantha Maber.
Above: For starters, a 12-inch Traditional Coco Basket comes with a molded coco fiber liner that can easily be removed; $5.93 at Home Depot.
Above: To re-create the coppery shine of the wall-mounted planters and copper lights hanging throughout the store, I'd use a metallic spray paint. An 11-ounce bottle of Rust-Oleum's Metallic Spray, Copper is $11.27.
Above: I prefer the clean lines of the wire hangers used in the Blueberry Café design, so I'd remove the chains from my hanging basket and replace them with 20-Gauge Hobby Wire; $14.12 at Tool King.
Above: To complete the clean look, I'd use aluminum wire Crimping Sleeves to secure the wires to the basket; 50 for $6.84 on Amazon.
Above: The multipurpose Leatherman Super Tool is handy to have around for all sorts of craft projects, and it includes a wire crimper tool; $69.99 at Amazon.
Above: The cafe's hanging wire planters hold what appear to be small astilbe starts still in their nursery pots. Two of my favorite astilbes are the Astilbearendsii Peaches and Cream and Astilbechinensis Serenade; both $8.95 (and seasonally available) at Bluestone Perennials.
What do you think? A passable hack or a DIY project with potential to go haywire?
Not convinced that metallic spray paint would do the trick? See Izabella's recent Remodelista DIY: The $7 Pendant Light Redo featuring a faux brass finish.
Prefer not to go the DIY route? Browse our featured Hanging Planters on Gardenista.
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