Plant Box by ferm LIVING: One Planter Frame in Five Formats

The ferm LIVING Plant Box is a simple idea: a long, shallow container lifted on slender metal legs. What makes the series worth a closer look is how that one idea has been stretched into different shapes, from a windowsill trough to a two-level console, and how each format changes what the piece does in a room.

This guide walks through the formats, their exact dimensions and materials, and where each one earns its floor space.

The original: a container on legs

The original Plant Box measures 60 x 65 x 25 cm and weighs 9.3 kg. It is made from powder coated steel, and the design rests on a single contrast: a clean rectangular box set against legs thin enough to almost disappear.

The 25 cm depth is the detail that matters most in practice. It is narrow enough to slide in front of a window, along a hallway wall or behind a sofa without eating into the room, yet the 60 cm width gives you room for a row of three or four pots or one generous trailing plant. The powder coating makes it suitable for outdoor use as well as indoors, so the same piece can move to a balcony in summer and back inside when the weather turns.

It comes in seven colours: Cashmere, Black, Tea Green, Dark Chocolate, Light Grey, Straw and Bright Blue. Cashmere and Light Grey recede against pale walls and let foliage carry the colour. Black draws a sharper outline, which suits a graphic interior or a planting of strong architectural leaves. Tea Green, Straw and Bright Blue are the choices for anyone who wants the frame itself to be part of the composition.

A steel frame as a room divider

ferm LIVING describes the Plant Box as a gentle room divider, and that is the most interesting way to use it. An open plan living space often needs a boundary that marks a zone without closing it off.

At 65 cm high, the frame itself stays below eye level when you are standing. The planting does the rest. Fill it with tall, upright plants such as snake plants or a row of grasses and you get a soft screen that filters the view without stopping light. Use trailing plants and the effect is lower and looser, more a line drawn on the floor than a partition.

A few placements work particularly well:

• Between a dining table and a living area, set parallel to the table so it frames the eating zone.
• Behind a sofa that floats in the middle of a room, where its depth lines up neatly with the sofa back.
• At the edge of a home working corner, to separate the desk from the rest of the room without building anything.

Two or three Plant Boxes in a row make a longer divider, and the series is designed to be grouped. Mixing colours along the row, Cashmere beside Tea Green beside Straw, keeps a long line from feeling heavy. The box is not limited to plants either: it holds books and magazines just as well, so one section of a divider can become a low shelf.

The two-tier version: plants at different heights

The Plant Box Two-Tier takes the same language and adds a level. It measures 80 x 75 x 25 cm, weighs 12.4 kg and is made from powder coated, galvanised iron, in Light Grey, Cashmere and Black. The upper tray sits at console height and a lower shelf runs underneath, so the piece reads as a slim console table as much as a planter.

What the second tier gives you is staging. A single row of plants at one height can look like a display in a shop window. Split across two levels, the same plants start to look like a planted corner. Put the larger, upright specimens on the lower shelf, where they can grow up towards the tray, and keep smaller pots or trailing plants on top, where their stems can fall forward over the edge. The result is a layered arrangement that fills the vertical space between floor and windowsill.

The extra 20 cm of width over the original makes it a natural fit under a wide window or along a hallway wall. Away from plants, the tray and shelf hold cups, plates and bottles, or serve as balcony storage.

Small, Round, Large and the aluminium Lager

The Plant Box Small is the compact member of the family at 45 x 14 x 16.5 cm and 2.0 kg, in powder coated, galvanised iron in Cashmere or Black. With a height of only 14 cm it is a windowsill or tabletop piece rather than a floor piece, and it adapts well beyond plants: gloves in a hallway, fragrances in a bathroom, a small stack of books on a bedside.

The Plant Box Round keeps the clean lines but swaps the rectangle for a cylinder: Ø40 cm, 50 cm high and 6.3 kg, in powder coated steel in Light Grey, Cashmere or Black. A round form suits a corner or the end of a sofa, where a rectangle would leave awkward gaps. Topped with the ferm LIVING Wire Basket Top, it becomes a small side table with storage underneath.

The Plant Box Large scales the idea up to 77 x 45 x 34 cm and 11.2 kg. It is lower than the original and deeper, which suits bigger pots and a fuller planting where you want volume rather than height. Finally, the Lager Plant Box With Shelf brings the same 60 x 65 x 25 cm footprint in aluminium, at 8.9 kg, paired with a Lager Tray for Plant Box measuring 26 x 2 x 26 cm.

The formats side by side

In short: a floor divider points to the original or the Two-Tier, a windowsill to the Small, a corner to the Round.

Planting and living with it

The Plant Box is a container for pots rather than a planter you fill with soil, which keeps it light to move and easy to change. Choose pots that sit comfortably within the 25 cm depth of the rectangular formats; a pot that overhangs the edge breaks the clean line the design depends on. ferm LIVING suggests contrast in styling: delicate flowers in a fine vase, or a chunky clay pot against the thin frame. Our guide to Hourglass Pot sizes helps if you want to fill a row with the same ferm LIVING pot in one or two sizes.

Because the series is made to coordinate, it rewards a little planning. A Two-Tier under a window with a Round at the end of the sofa, or a pair of Plant Boxes in different colours flanking a doorway, ties a room together without anything matching too precisely. The colours are developed to carry across seasons, so a piece added later still sits with the first.

See the full ferm LIVING collection for the pots, vases and furniture that sit alongside the Plant Box series.