Our Quarantine Project: DIY Recycled Window Greenhouse
By: Chelsea Goodson
Tags: Quarantine, DIY Projects, DIY, Greenhouse, Covid 19

What do you do when you’re stuck at home for days, even weeks on end — build a greenhouse, of course! Well, that’s what we decided to do at least! When Quarantine was starting to settle in and we realized we were going to be stuck at home for awhile, we thought it was time to start a project that we had been talking about for the past several years!

The conversation started casually and lead me to scrolling to Pinterest for some inspiration. I’ve always had this idea of utilizing old windows in my mind, but wasn’t quite sure if we would be able to find any that were just right. A few scrolls through Facebook Marketplace later and we were now 10+ vintage windows richer and ready to start figuring out our plan. If you couldn’t already tell, things escalated very, very quickly. Once we had the windows all picked up, Scott started sketching out a plan on where to place them — they’re were all a bit different, so we knew the style would be a bit mismatched, but really that was what we were going for (eclectic, if you will).

Once we had an idea of dimensions and how much space the windows would take up, we needed to figure where we were going to get the wood from to make up the structure of the greenhouse. All along, we had hoped to be able to use recycled materials in our building and lucky for us, my folks had a bunch of old wood tucked away. The wood itself was in need of a bit of a clean-up, but it was nothing that a bucket of white paint couldn’t fix. This is where we we really started going — painting for a full weekend plus some!

We paused for the next work week and started back at the weekend, this time starting to piece the wood together to create a frame. I’ll never forgot the moment when Scott got the first piece of the pitched roof up — right then it all felt real and something we totally could do. From here things started moving quickly — we painted some more and got the frame, including a few windows in the front, all in place that second weekend. On the first evening that the whole frame was put together, I posted this photo and got the sweetest words of encouragement and excitement for our project. I felt like we we were doing something good while all was falling down in the world and it truly felt like we were adding to the brightness that so many, including myself, needed.

A few more days went by and my boys spent some time working on our soon to be green space during the weekend (Ace mostly watched Paw Patrol and Scott did the heavy lifting). The back and side windows were adding in, along with a stone flooring (another area were able to reuse some stone my parents previously had). Things felt even more real now and the weather was still perfect! Ace had so much fun pretending to use the drill and helping us move in and out the flooring (we previously had picked a large terra-cotta stone, but it was much too thick and really didn’t fit the space).

A week or so went by and I may have started decorating early! Scott installed a few shelves and I brought in a few plants we had in our home that were ready for a new space. We continued to work on painting areas we missed or that needed a little touch up. Scott worked more on the backside to get the windows and framing just right and I may have gotten a little sunburn (it was mid-April by then). The roof came last and was just about the only new material we used, a see-through roofing that would let the sun shine in during the days and the star peek through at night.

Lucky for us, we opted to start the greenhouse in mid-March before the crazy temps decided to hit Arizona. We popped up our market tent and set up a pack and play for Ace to play under the shade and got to work! We painted coats and coats of white pain to cover up the previous red, shiny lacquer that covered much of the wood we were using. We got paint on our clothes and later pulled out the aprons — not sure why we didn’t think of that before but you live and your learn.

Each day the space felt even more put together and then all of a sudden it really came to life! The greenhouse was full of flowers and cacti and the light shining in left the most beautiful glow (even a rainbow). The big work was done and now the tinkered began! My birthday was just a few days away and my friends and family knew exactly what to get me — pots and plants to fill our space even more! Ace even serenaded me with a harmonica solo on my birthday, which felt like the perfect way to celebrate my 32nd year and that the greenhouse was finally complete.

This project was a labor of love, but it’s one that I would do over and over again. We had so much fun as a family painting, building and prepping this special place. During the early days of quarantine where nothing felt right, this space brought us all so much joy and something to look forward to and for that I’ll forever be grateful for.

I’m sure I missed a few odds and ends here and there (like the color white paint we used — whoops, it’s a mixture of all the white paint we had on hand), but let me know if you have any questions on anything I’ll be sure to share more! Thanks for coming along on this journey with us — I hope it’s brought you some joy, just like it has for us!

-Chels, Scott & Ace

PS If you’re curious to see how the greenhouse was built, here’s a 15 second synopsis!