Ceiling Planter Boxes Give This Space All the Drama With Little Greenery Upkeep

Suspended greenery isn’t news—you’ve probably had a hanging fern or two in a macramé planter. But Chelsea Kravitz of Flourish Bakery in Glen Head, New York, aimed for something more permanent when shaping up the designs for her 15-foot-high, all-white space. The outcome? More than 100 feet of ceiling planter boxes.

 “I wasn’t planning to turn the top half of my bakeshop into a full-on jungle canopy,” Kravitz says, “but greenery can always be eye level. What’s the fun in that?” Plus incorporating plants way up helps with balancing the lofty room’s scale; a gallery wall on its own wasn’t going to cut it. 

Tapping friend and fabricator Chris Zeppieri to collaborate on the white wood structures was a no-brainer for Kravitz. So was building three more, suspended 18 inches from the ceiling by sturdy steel frames, around the new skylights directly above diners. They’re hard to miss, providing a cheerful surplus of natural light for both plants and customers.

Installing self-watering and self-draining planters was off the table in Kravitz’s budget, so they turned to plan B: lining all the skylight planters with an acrylic catchall interior, and the wall planters with garden boxes to prevent the wood below from rotting. 

Just as important, she needed to amass low-maintenance plants that could thrive with only weekly watering sessions and wouldn’t require repotting for years. We’re talking about cacti and succulents for the skylight zones, and pothos and climbing monstera for the indirectly lit planters that line the perimeter of the space. 

The bright room is swathed in typical ’90s-Florida colors—you’ll find pockets of pink, like a bubblegum espresso machine in one corner, and mint accents in the tile grout and the handmade dinnerware that you can even shop on the way out.

When arriving, visitors curve around a pastry-studded checkout bar—with glossy white countertops that perfectly reflect the light and greenery above—and one by one they each look up. The fact that it smells like sweet cardamom buns and fresh coffee there daily is just a bonus.