Give your plant babies room to grow with these cute and functional greenhouse shelving ideas.
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Amazing Greenhouse Shelving Buy and DIY Ideas for Organized Plant Storage
Updated on Feb. 18, 2025
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Vintage Greenhouse Shelving Cubbies
These cubby shelves add storage and vintage style to this beautiful greenhouse from @thehouseonlilac. She scored the find at a local flea market!
The small cubbies can hold plants, potting tools, extra pots and more. Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to find vintage cubbies, but this similar shelf unit can help you achieve the same look.
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Heavy-Duty DIY Greenhouse Shelving
When @familymeetsfarm was planning her greenhouse shelves, she knew she wanted something heavy-duty that could hold a lot of weight. “While seedlings will be small, they will be heavy with soil and water; so we added in supports to keep [the shelves] nice and strong,” she says.
The shelves were built with durable pressure-treated wood. The two shelving units combined can hold 74 growing trays! And don’t you love the chandelier?
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Greenhouse Window Shelving
Shelves are mounted directly onto the recycled windows in this charming greenhouse from @nansenmalin. Window shelves make great use of the small space and give the plants plenty of direct sunlight, keeping them warm and happy!
These shelves were a DIY project. But we also love this window shelf from Etsy that comes with a special clamp that secures the shelf to a window sill. whichever option you pick, your plants will thank you for it.
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Wire Mesh Greenhouse Shelving
These greenhouse shelves by @modernminihomestead are framed with wood, and each tier is topped with hardware cloth (aka galvanized steel wire mesh). The wire mesh allows the sun to shine through and reach all the plants and keeps soil and water from puddling on the shelves.
Heavy-duty staples secure the mesh to the wood, and the multiple wood supports on each shelf prevent sagging. And there’s another chandelier! Who said greenhouses can’t be fancy?
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Cut-Out Greenhouse Shelving
This succulent shelf by @jesskkramer provides a functional and super-stylish statement piece for her greenhouse. The cute little plant pots fit snugly in the aesthetically pleasing circular cut-outs, keeping them from falling and breaking.
Here’s an easy way to build your own: Use a hole saw blade and a drill to cut holes sized to fit your pots into wood shelves. This way you can accommodate pots of any size without breaking the bank.
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Collapsible Greenhouse Shelving on Wheels
Although we love a good DIY project, sometimes it’s nice to add storage with a quick and easy store-bought solution.
For her tunnel tent greenhouse, @jagcagdesign chose this metal shelf on wheels that conveniently folds flat for easy storage. It can easily be moved around when the greenhouse needs to be rearranged. She placed a large basket on the bottom shelf to hold gardening tools.
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Organic Live-Edge Greenhouse Shelving
This greenhouse/shop captured by @msmitch08 is admittedly more retail space and less functional greenhouse. But we can’t help but be inspired by the beautiful live-edge wood storage benches and shelves.
The natural look pairs well with the plant life and lends itself perfectly for a greenhouse setting. Check out these live edge shelves, available in three sizes.
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Affordable Greenhouse With Shelving Included
If you haven’t chosen a greenhouse yet, why not buy one that includes shelves?
This walk-in polyethylene greenhouse comes with two metal shelf units that fit perfectly and require no measuring or time and money spent searching for the right shelves. One five-star Amazon reviewer writes: “I love, love, love that it came with shelves and they are also surprisingly sturdy!”
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Stair-Style Greenhouse Shelving
In their large commercial greenhouse, @greenlandgarden uses these metal stair-style shelves to store and display their plants. The tiered design allows access to the plants for easy watering.
These particular shelves have lasted for many years and recently received a new coat of paint. Here’s a similar but smaller scale stair style shelf that would fit nicely in a personal greenhouse.
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Simple Greenhouse Shelving Solution
This gorgeous greenhouse from @farmgirlshenanigans includes plenty of clever storage while offering a nice, airy space to tend to her plants. The two simple wall-mounted shelves use the limited wall space perfectly. The built-in shelves underneath the potting benches hold extra pots and other gardening supplies.
And there’s chandelier number three!
FAQ
Is it a better idea to buy or build greenhouse shelving?
It depends on your time, budget, aesthetic preference, skill set and the local availability of materials. A ready-made metal shelving unit may be all you need, but building your own can help you make the most of your space.
You can also find a happy medium, says Katie Russo, content operations manager at Bootstrap Farmer. “Build your own simple shelves along the length of your greenhouse to hold seedlings and plant starts. Then, add a sturdy metal shelf to hold tropical and fragile plants in larger pots that will live in the space year-round.”
Are greenhouses expensive to keep warm?
They can be, depending on your climate and how warm you want it to stay. To keep costs down, focus on:
- Good insulation;
- Positioning your greenhouse for maximum sunlight;
- Closing it at night to lock in the warmth;
- Using frost blankets and layering plastic;
- Choosing cold-tolerant crops, like hardy greens and root vegetables; and
- Creating thermal mass by filling the space with water barrels to keep temperatures more stable.
“A well-sized electric or propane heater works for more significant heating needs, but alternatives like geothermal or underfloor heating are worth considering,” says Russo. “Just skip the wood heater in structures like hoop houses with plastic—high temps and fire risks aren’t a good mix.
About the Experts
- Katie Russo is content operations manager at Bootstrap Farmer, a leading greenhouse and farming supply company. A proponent of sustainable farming, she used to work as a full-time greenhouse grower and now manages a native tree farm with her husband.
- Manny Barra is the community garden coordinator for the City of Oakland and a master gardener at TeachMe.To. He is passionate about sustainable gardening, soil health, aquaponics and community food systems.
