I’ve had these Flora Grubb Thigmatrope Satellite Fleet air plant holders on my mental wish list since the first time I saw them online. This is the most clever, ingenious, slightly rustic, simple, elegant, artistic way to display air plants on a wall. At fifteen bucks a pop, I didn’t immediately order seven of them. I went through my usual internal dialogue–

Fifteen dollars? Each?! I wonder if I could make them. No. Who do I know who could make these for me? Elliot. Who do I know who would actually do it? No one. They really are clever. And somebody did already make them. Fifteen dollars really isn’t so bad and they’ll last forever. And here they are. And I’m only going to get three for now.

During my first visit to Flora Grubb on Friday, I decided that if I was going to buy anything, it should be a few of these, with an air plant for each. Perusing the air plants is half the fun.  

BEFORE

In fact, there was a man in front of me in line who was already being rung up and when he saw the three air plants I had agonized over and finally selected, he turned to me saying,”Where did you get those?” and asked to get out of line. He came back with several red Tillandsias after seeing a red one I had picked out.

What I love about the Thigmatrope besides its simple design is that it allows the plants to face you head on, magically suspended on your wall. The effect is really quite striking. The design also allows you to easily remove the plants for their weekly bath.

Thigmatropes, sans air plants

Voila!

AFTER