Indoor Herb Garden IKEA Hack

 Don't ask me how I came up with this project... it's a long story. Basically, my dog Charlie can jump really high and will eat anything, so I needed to make a wall-mounted planter that I could place out of his reach. So the Vurm indoor herb garden planter was born!

I already had the IKEA Vurm on hand; it is actually a wine bottle holder, but it turns out that the wider white wine bottles don't fit, and I'm a big white wine fan. So I took the Vurm right off the wall and it sat collecting dust on a shelf for a few months.

But then, the other night, it hit me - why not mount it horizontally and try sticking some pint glasses in there? And then plant some basil and cilantro in the glasses to make an indoor herb garden? And why not label each glass with chalkboard paint? Well, I tried it and it worked.

 1. Collect your materials:

IKEA Vurm
4 herb plants
4 pint glasses
A few handfuls of small rocks
Latex paint in any color
Americana Clear Chalkboard Coating
White chalk
Paintbrush
Paper towels
Wax paper
2. Dip the bottom of each glass into the latex paint, creating a 1" tall coating of paint. Let the excess paint drip off.

3. Set each glass onto a paper towel to remove the rest of the excess paint.

4. Set the glasses on the wax paper to dry. Move them around on the paper after an hour so they don't get completely stuck. Let them dry for a couple more hours.

 5. Next, use a paintbrush to put a layer of the Clear Chalkboard Coating on the painted area of the glass. Do the same for the remaining three glasses. Let this coat dry for one hour, then add another coat. Now let the glasses dry completely overnight.

6. Condition the chalkboard coating by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk over it.

7. Now wipe off the excess chalk with a dry paper towel.

8. Fill each glass with rocks, so that they are each almost half full. This will help extra water drain from the soil.

 9. Now, transfer the herbs to the glasses. You may need to remove some of the dirt from the side of the plant so it fits in the glass. Try not to damage the roots when doing this.

10. It's time to mount the Vurm on the wall, horizontally instead of vertically. Use a pencil or pen to mark the placement of the Vurm mounting hardware, and use a drill or screwdriver to screw them into the wall. Be sure to attach at least one side to a stud so that it will stay mounted securely to your wall.

11. Hang up the Vurm, and tighten the screws. Now put your plants into the open spaces in the Vurm. And you're done!