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by Amber

A Better Looking Indoor Garden

Not everyone has a basement or spare room to put the average grow box or grow tent in. Some people might be fine with a tent in their living room, but it won’t do a thing for your interior decor. There is a way to have both – an indoor garden and a sense of style preservation. In fact, you could pull this off to fit right into any decorating style.

Garden ArmoireWould you think this armoire is an indoor garden box? It is.

If I lived in the UK, then a trip to visit a certain hydroponics shop in Lincolnshire would be long overdue. They convert armoires into grow boxes. It’s such an excellent idea they can’t make them fast enough to keep up with demand. Scouting around for someone who does this in the US unearths only one place in Oklahoma that might have gone out of business, which is too bad because they show a wide array of cabinet styles and design flavors. Some people have even turned old dressers like the one above into grow rooms. Any style of wood furniture that has a cabinet will work.

It’s really no different than building your own indoor garden box with plywood or recycled lumber. In fact, you can find used armoires all week long on Craigslist that will work in just about any decor style that exists. There are people who are doing just that. You would want a solid wood piece though, because particle board or MDF is definitely not going to hold up well with moisture inside the cabinet. So what if it’s beat up – paint it or refinish it.  You won’t want a brand new expensive armoire, because you’re going to have to cut holes in it for venting and refit the inside. It’s probably smart to line it with sealed plastic sheeting to waterproof the inner surfaces, as well as line it with highly reflective mylar or mirrors to have better cost-effective growing and light energy for your plants.

Here’s what HG’s inner cabinet looks like. One thing to note – a TV armoire will have less depth than a clothing armoire. Naturally, this means you will have less growing space inside the cabinet. If you’ve got the floor space, you should be able to have a bit bigger garden in a bedroom armoire than one designed as an entertainment center.

A good size armoire will have enough space for a germination chamber, your nutrient reservoir, the growing space, lighting, and all the other equipment you need for environmental control. Other cool cabinets would work as long as they’re big and roomy – like an antique wardrobe or huge old kitchen cupboard. Naturally, you wouldn’t want to convert a priceless antique, but there are plenty of them out there that are damaged that can be repaired and turned into a grow box relatively cheaply if you’re handy with woodworking, or know someone who is.

The shabby chic indoor garden? Why not. Retro. Vintage. Oriental. Mod. Industrial. Whatever you like. Make it work for you and it won’t matter where you have enough space to put a garden that will grow food for you year around.

By the way, if the perfect armoire for your taste or budget has drawers, it might be possible to turn the face wood into a door without ruining the looks of the piece. It depends on how handy you are, and whether it would compromise the structural integrity.

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Author

The garden played a starring role from spring through fall in the house Amber was raised in. She has decades of experience growing plants from seeds and cuttings in the plot and pots.