Ikea Greenhouse Cabinet

I recently discovered Robin Schouten on Instagram and immediately fell in love with her indoor greenhouse setup using Ikea glass cabinetry. I had been wanting a greenhouse for awhile, but never found a cabinet that worked with my space or that wasn't made of wood. I had slowly been purging the house of all Ikea things, but I honestly couldn't pass this up.

The Ikea Milsbo cabinet comes in black (anthracite) as well as white, and retails for $229 CAD before tax.

SETUP --

Setup was a bit more complicated than most of the Ikea furniture I have assembled in the past, primarily because of how much glass there is. It's definitely a 2 person job, and I would recommend having lots of blankets and soft surfaces around for all those delicate glass corners. Overall, it's pretty straight-forward and it took my husband and I about an hour and 15 minutes to put together (we ran into a few hiccups getting the glass to fit securely and almost divorced mid-assembly).

PROS --

The price! It's hard to find any kind of cabinetry at this price point, and is actually very good quality too.

Adjustable shelves. It comes with three glass shelves, although I only installed two of them so that I could place my larger aroids up top.

Magnetic close doors which have the ability to lock as well.

CONS --

Not wire friendly. The only holes in this cabinet are two tiny holes up top that really only allow for Ikea lighting to work discreetly with it. It would've been awesome if there were slots in the corners to snake wires down the shelf invisibly, so for now it's looking a bit messy until I can drill some larger holes and replace all of my white electrical wiring/cords with black.

EQUIPMENT --

Everything I use in the greenhouse is linked on my homepage under the "PLANT ESSENTIALS" section. Availability of product depends where you live, as I've been able to get things from both the USA and Canada.

Lights. I use two ACEPLE 20W grow light panels side by side. They are full spectrum warm red/orange lights and work just as well as my blue/red lights. I'd prefer to use 40W lights, but the greenhouse does get a good amount of bright natural sunlight from our large east facing windows as well, so I know the plants are getting adequate light. I plan to install a second panel of lights under the second shelf to give the plants on the bottom half of the cabinet light as well.

Humidifier. Since the space is small, I knew I didn't need a big fancy humidifier to get humidity levels high inside of the greenhouse, so I settled for a mini USB one. It has two settings and can run on continuous mist for 5 hours and intermittent mist for 10 hours. It has been able to keep the greenhouse at a high of 100% humidity (obviously I don't keep it that way), but am able to keep a steady 75% humidity with the door cracked open just a bit.

Fan. Keeping proper airflow inside of the cabinet is crucial. I wanted something that would blend well with the cabinet design and not look so much like a fan. The USB powered desktop fan I chose is quiet (you can't hear it with the doors closed) and is able to be adjusted at different angles. I'll eventually be getting a second fan for the bottom half of the cabinet.

Hygrometer. A hygrometer is a great way to analyze the conditions in the greenhouse and experiment with how different setups affect the environment inside of it. I primarily use it to make sure that the temperature never drops below 70 degrees and to try and keep humidity at around 65%.

FINAL REVIEW --

Overall, I love this cabinet. In just a short period of time, this has performed really well and I've noticed rapid growth with everything I have put inside of it. It's kind of become the focal point of our apartment too. If you've been looking for the perfect indoor greenhouse, I highly recommend this one!