How to hack an Ikea glass cabinet to make a greenhouse!

Looking for Ikea greenhouse cabinet ideas? I recently did an Ikea greenhouse hack using the Fabrikor cabinet, and it turned out fantastic. Check out how I decided on the Fabrikor and how I manage lighting, humidity, and organization.

Ikea greenhouse cabinet hack using the Fabrikor

Today I’m sharing my birthday present to myself: an Ikea greenhouse cabinet hack using the beautiful Fabrikor! I have long admired Ikea greenhouse cabinets and all of the different ways people personalize them. (Check out the Ikea Greenhouse Cabinet Instagram page for a ton of inspiration.)

So I decided to treat myself to this present when I realized that some of my humidity-loving plants would be better suited to a more moist environment. As a bonus, a closed cabinet also allows me to keep plants away from my kitties and daughter (though she loves to unlock the cabinet to “check” on the plants).

Until this cabinet, I had most of my plants in this area on my DIY tiered plant stand. But as the air indoors got drier with the changing of the seasons, I realized I hated filling up the humidifier every day.

So I decided to prioritize my humidity-loving plants and put them in the cabinet. (You’ll see my dry-air-loving snake plants on top—it’s perfect!)

So I’m going to walk you through the different Ikea glass cabinet choices, as well as which one I chose and why. Then I’ll talk a bit about adding lighting, monitoring the temperature and humidity, and more. Enjoy!

Ikea glass cabinet choices for greenhouse hacking

I considered all of the different Ikea glass cabinets for my Ikea greenhouse hack. Any of these would have worked for a greenhouse cabinet, in my opinion. My decision to choose the smaller version of the Fabrikor was based on space and the design.

Fabrikor cabinet, 31 7/8″ x 44 1/2″
Fabrikor cabinet, 22 1/2″ x 59″
Milsbo cabinet, 28 3/4″ x 68 7/8″
Milsbo cabinet, 39 3/4 x 39 3/8″
Klingsbo, 17 3/4 x 70 7/8″
Detolf, 16 3/4 x 64 1/8″

It’s worth noting that when comparing the cabinets, the smaller versions of the Fabrikor and the Milsbo seem pretty small, but I found that was only compared to the bigger versions.

Once I got my tape measure out and measured my space, I realized that the smaller version of the Fabrikor would have lots of room for plants. Another reason I chose the Fabrikor was that the Milsbo is frequently out of stock.

It wasn’t even an option for me at my Ikea, but I still think I would have gone with the Fabrikor based on size and color choices. The Klingsbo and Detolf were options, but I didn’t love the look of either of them. Fabrikor it was!

Setting up my Ikea Fabrikor greenhouse cabinet

This cabinet was very easy to put together. It might surprise you that despite being a DIY blog, I often ask my husband to handle Ikea furniture. That’s because the instructions are often pretty tedious, and I don’t have a lot of patience. 🙂 But I put this one together myself in about 30 minutes or so.

One thing I really like about the Fabrikor cabinet is that the shelves are adjustable and glass. (The others could also have this benefit, I don’t really remember.)

That way I could easily adjust the shelving positions based on the size of the plants I have to put in the cabinet. And being made of tempered glass means that the light can pass through.

adjustable shelves in the fabrikor cabinet

Adding grow lights to the greenhouse cabinet

I decided to just reuse the two strip grow lights I had from my tiered plant stand. These worked perfectly for the top two shelves of the greenhouse cabinet. (That means I stuck one on the bottom of the top of the cabinet and then one on the bottom of the top shelf.)

These two strip grow lights are also connected to one another, which means fewer cables. Yay! Other things I like about these grow lights:

Full spectrum light
Light enough to stay up without screws; I used double sided mounting tape
Auto on/off with a timer; mine currently turns on in the morning, runs for 8 hours, and then turns off
Brightness levels can be adjusted at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% levels; I do 100% since it’s the main light source

I have an additional single strip grow light to add on the bottom of the middle shelf if I need to, but I haven’t added it yet. And I have an additional single hanging grow light nearby hanging from the ceiling, but I don’t think it really affects this grow cabinet too much. The biggest source of light is natural light from the windows.

This is the sunniest spot in our home, so it gets decent bright indirect daytime light. Since the light is coming from one side only, I have already found that I’ll need to rotate a few of the plants to encourage even growth.

Monitoring temperatures and humidity

This is my first foray into indoor cabinet greenhouse growing, so I invested in a little digital thermometer and humidity gauge. It works like a charm. First I set it out in our kitchen for 24 hours to see what our normal household humidity was.

It was 40%—a bit higher than what I thought it would be considering it was November. Then I locked it in the greenhouse cabinet for 24 hours. Thanks to the ambient humidity from the plants, the humidity level went up to 65%.

After watering plants and misting some of the more humidity-loving ones, the humidity level can get up to 75%. Some of my more sensitive propagations still have a small bag over them while they are rooting (looking at you, scindapsus pictus and treubii).

Depending on how high the humidity gets and how moist the soil is, I will occasionally open the cabinet to let some fresh air in. Air circulation is a good thing!

I’m excited to see how the humidity levels rise in the spring and summer when the house is naturally more humid. Right now it’s cold here and we’re got the heating system on most days, so the air is dry.

temperature and humidity gauge in an indoor ikea greenhouse

Other customizations

I used my drill and a regular drill bit—the largest one I had—to drill a hole in the back corner of the cabinet’s bottom. Then I fished the strip grow light cord down through that and plugged it in.

If I ever need to add a little fan or anything in here, I will also have enough room for that cord too. It’s the little things!

hole in the greenhouse cabinet for lighting cord

Here are some of the plants I have in this cabinet:

Pin my greenhouse cabinet hack!

image collage of plants inside an Ikea Fabrikor cabinet

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Brittany Goldwyn

Brittany is a seasoned DIY home and garden expert, running a creative brand since 2014 that inspires others with approachable plant care guides, woodworking tutorials, and decor projects. Her work has been recognized by major publications, and she routinely collaborates with fellow DIY industry leaders—but her favorite thing to do is inspire you!

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