Turn Your Old Towel Rod Into a Handy Plant Holder

If you don’t live in the humid parts of America, you’ll likely need to give your indoor plants a little extra moisture, especially during the dry winter months when your heating system sucks the humidity out of the air. Instead of shelling out for a fancy humidifier, you can use simple DIY remedies like putting your plants on a tray of wet pebbles. And if you’ve got an old towel rack you’re thinking of replacing, you can give it new life as a plant shelf! The humidity from your bathroom will help keep those thirsty plants happy, and you can tuck all sorts of greenery into the bars and shelves.

Bathrooms are often a bit on the dim side, but the moisture from your showers will be perfect for low-light, high-humidity plants like bamboo palm, spiderwort, or pothos. Just make sure your old towel rack can handle the extra weight of ceramic pots and soil – you’ll want to use some sturdy drywall anchors to be safe.

Of course, this DIY plant shelf idea won’t work with every towel rack. Something with a nice flat grate will be perfect for setting down some pots. But if your towel rack is more of a single curved bar, you’ll have a tougher time adding plants. You could try hanging some containers from the bar, but your options will be pretty limited – especially if you still need to use the rack for actual towels.

And while the bathroom humidity can be great for plants, you have to watch out for mold, too. Modern bathrooms tend to have powerful exhaust fans to vent moisture, so the humidity level might not be high enough. Make sure to keep an eye on your potted plants to make sure the soil isn’t getting moldy. If you can strike the right balance, though, turning an old towel rack into a plant shelf is a cool way to add some greenery to your daily routine.