Turn your spare chair into a planter with a strange—but simple!—DIY
In most cities, turning unwanted furniture into a soggy home for plant life is as simple as tossing it into the backyard and letting nature take its course. If you live in a New York apartment, however, it's a potential DIY project.
Got an old, unused chair kicking around? "Just slice open the upholstery, pour some dirt inside, plant a few seeds, and move it by the window," as Curbed puts it. (We'd add that it might be wise to run a layer of plastic underneath the seat of the chair if you're worried about leakage.)
The idea comes from Rodrigo Bueno, an artist in Sao Paulo who's turned his studio into a space he calls "the jungle inside," according to Design Boom, and has been growing flora inside old furniture as part of the process. To describe the project, he quotes art critic and curator Agnaldo Farias, saying, "there is no death, but continuous transformation of states and chaining transmutations." (A perfect justification for a trip to the thrift store if ever we've heard one.)
If the whole thing sounds a little, er, damp for your tastes—or like an invitation for insects to set up shop—this origami wall planter is a drier-but-still-innovative alternative.
Related:
9 things I learned from my two-year DIY renovation
What Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh, and Virginia Woolf can teach New Yorkers about home decor
Green your apartment with a planter made of waterproof origami
