- Brandy, Shawn, are you ready for the reveal?
- Wow.
- Oh my gosh. - This is amazing.
- Wow, Christopher. - I love that.
[Christopher laughing] - I like the wallpaper.
- I love it!
[inspirational music]
[Christopher knocking]
- Hi, I'm Christopher. - [Brandy] Hi!
- I'm Christopher Griffin, AKA plant queen.
I'm a houseplant expert with over 200 green girls,
and I've got one afternoon to help Brandy and Shawn
transform their mudroom into a lush indoor jungle.
Are you Brandy and Shawn?
- [In Unison] Yes.
- I'm Brandy, this is my husband, Shawn,
and this is our mudroom.
I've always wanted to turn the space
into a spot for our growing plant collection.
I feel like it has a ton of potential,
but I don't really know where to start.
- [Christopher] I made it.
- Come on in.
- Oh, thank you.
- So this is our mudroom.
- Oh, la, la, I love this space.
It's so cute.
Tell me a little bit about the room, how you use it,
what's working, what's not.
- Well, we definitely still need it
to function as a mudroom.
We still need ample space for the little ones
to come get their shoes on and off.
But at the same time, it kind of feels like
a waste of space and that we can do more,
would love to be able to bring some outside inside
and really make it feel lush in here.
- And Shawn, how about you?
What are you hoping to learn from this experience?
- Honestly, to keep my plants alive?
[Christopher laughing]
So coming from the city, you know,
I want to make it feel like a jungle, honestly.
my mom she's from the island,
so it was just cool to keep this going.
And I heard you're the guy
and I just want to make sure I can keep these plants alive.
- Oh, darling, I am the queen for the job.
[laughter]
- Brandy, Shawn, are you all ready?
- Super excited. - Let's do it.
- It's gonna be a transformation.
I have a lot of work to do, but honey,
this space shall be green when I'm done with it.
- All right. - Let's go.
Excited. [Christopher laughs]
[upbeat percussion music]
- Now in the case of Brandy and Shawn's mudroom,
this is the first wall that you see when you walk in.
So darling, we are going to make sure that folks know
that they're stepping into a little jungle.
I am a queen that loves some patterns, all right?
And so the first thing that we're going to do
with this space is add a lovely accent wall
to bring some energy, life, and some pizzazz to the room.
Okay, honey.
[funky music]
So along with this wallpaper,
we are going to be installing some shelves
to add some plant to the scene.
One of the fabulous things about this particular wallpaper
is the colors are muted that allows the plant to stand out.
It was the perfect combination of patterns, life and energy
while not outshining the lusciousness of our green girls.
[easy listening music]
So the first thing that I like to do
before greening up any space
is doing an environmental assessment.
Now, an environmental assessment includes three components.
You're looking at the direction of the windows for sunlight,
temperature and humidity levels.
It's really easy to figure out
the direction of your windows.
You can just whip out the compass app on your phone,
point it in the direction of the windows.
And it will let you know if it's north,
east, west, or south-facing.
Now, in Brandy and Shawn's case,
they have windows that are facing northeast,
which means they're not going to get
a lot of direct sunlight,
but they're going to have a lot of ambient light,
especially in the morning hours.
And north-facing windows, even though they have a bad rap,
you can work with those, with that ambient light,
as long as you match the windows
and that north-facing sunlight to plants
that can tolerate lower light condition.
That includes the ZZ plant, the snake plant,
the Golden Pothos, the Satin Pothos.
So we're going to pop them up on that wall
and get that accent wall serving
on all its lusciousness styling.
So when it comes to temperature and humidity levels,
their average humidity levels were around 35%.
We're going to try to get that up a little bit higher,
getting it to about 45 to 55% humidity.
And in regards to temperature,
we want to get that up a little bit more above 70 degrees
so that we can mimic that natural habitat
that our green girls thrive in.
[upbeat music]
With this mudroom, Shawn and Brandy really want to make sure
that they optimize the floor space
so that their little ones can run around,
change their shoes.
So what are we going to do?
Darling, we're going to go vertical.
We're going to utilize those walls.
And the first thing that we're going to do
is install some WallyGrows.
Now when you're mounting any planter onto a wall,
you want to make sure that that planter is secure.
So that's either making sure that you're driving it now
into a stud, get you a stud finder, darling,
or you have a dry wall anchor
to ensure that that planter is not going anywhere
when you water that queen
and the planter gets a little heavier.
So while Monica and Paula are working in the mud room,
I'm going to be getting our green girls
ready in their new homes.
So we're going to have this lovely Pothos.
And the reason that we're going with the Pothos
for the mud room is that it is very forgiving
when it comes to lower light condition.
So the first thing that we want to do
is get her out of this nursery pot.
It is not meant to be a permanent home for this green girl.
They're often jam packed into these nursery pot.
You want to make sure that we're giving her
all the room that she needs to grow,
thrive and spreads those luscious roots.
And I think she's ready to come out.
I'm coming out.
Hey, all right.
And then what you want to do is
you want to massage this old soil
and this may take some time, but enjoy the process.
Honey, let your hands get dirty.
And now you can see, look at those roots.
So healthy, so wonderful and so crucial
to the growth of our green girl.
I'm going to take our lovely WallyGrow.
And I just want to create a bed of soil
as a little foundation at the bottom of the planter.
I love, love, love WallyGrows because they're sustainable,
made from 100% recycled plastic,
and they're engineered in a way that allows for the soil
to be aerated and reduces the chances of over-watering.
Place her in there.
Ooh, look at that, honey.
So what I'm going to do is
now take some of this delicious soil
and I'm going to begin to cover her roots.
Just gently press down,
making sure she's nice and secure in her new little home.
So you want to water this planter from the back
and the water will slowly release itself into the soil.
By the time the water reaches the front,
it will diffuse and will not leak out of the planter.
It was a little vine adjustment to make sure
that she's looking good to go.
And there you go, darling,
you have successfully re-potted
your green girl into her new home.
[upbeat music]
This particular green girl may not be as long,
but we want to make sure that we're giving
our green girl the room to grow.
Now, Brandy and Shawn could leave these leaves
and let them hang, or they could allow them to trail up.
Either way, it's going to serve those luscious looks, honey.
[happy music]
[anticipating music]
So if you remember when we did the environmental assessment
in Brandy and Shawn's mudroom,
we noticed that the windows are facing north-east,
which means that they're not getting
a lot of right direct light.
In order to bring some more sunshine into the space,
darling, we've taken down those blinds
and added some sheer curtain.
This is going to liven up the space
and bring in that delicious sunshine
that our green girls love and deserve.
And to supplement those spaces
that may not necessarily have a lot of light exposure,
we're adding some LED grow lights.
They're very adjustable
and you can clip them on to pretty much anything,
allowing you to move them around the space
and give your green girls the light they need,
depending on where they are in the room.
We have some LED purple, red, and blue Grow light.
Red lights are great for flowering
and violet and blue are great for that foliage growth.
[music fades]
[easy listening music]
Brandy and Shawn wanted to make sure
that they had a little propagation situation
happening in their mudroom.
So I'm a queen that listens, okay.
Now propagation is basically when you're taking
a mother plant and you are taking a cutting
and you're going to grow a whole new other plant.
It's a wonderful, cost efficient way to green up your space
with the green girls you already have, darling.
So what do you need?
You have a cute little propagation station right here.
We have a Pothos.
That is one of my favorite green girls to propagate
because it's so easy to propagate.
You also want to make sure you get yourself
a handy dandy pair of shear, okay.
And then you want to make sure
that you have some fresh water.
What you're looking for on the plant is a plant node.
A plant node is what's going to eventually turn
into a root system that allows that plant
to self-sustain itself.
So what you're going to do is cut half an inch
below the node, bam, right there.
Now, what I typically do is that I'll remove the leaf
closest to the node,
then I want to make sure it's submerged in water,
because we want to make sure that we allow this node
the room to grow in all its lusciousness, darling.
Now you don't want this water to be too hot or too cold.
You want it to be a nice tepid room temperature
because you don't want to put this vine
into any more shock than it's going through already.
And then boop, eventually these roots are going to grow
to about two, three, four inches.
You can then place that vine into some potting soil
and look what you just did at no cost to yourself.
You just created yourself,
a new green girl to add to your collection, honey.
[easy listening music]
[upbeat music]
When we did the environmental assessment in the mud room,
we noticed that the humidity levels were really, really low.
We need to make sure that those humidity levels
are 45 to 50%.
The humidifier is going to be a lovely addition
to the mudroom because it's going to add the humidity
that our green girls love and enjoy,
mimicking the natural habitat
that our green girls come from.
Most of the plants that we bring into our homes
are tropical plants,
which means they enjoy that ultra scene, honey.
[percussion music]
A lovely staghorn, one of my favorite ferns
and it's one of the heartier ferns
that I can actually care for, so I'm quite sure
Brandy and Shawn ain't going to have no issue
making sure this green girl thrives.
We're going to have to place
this lovely, lovely snake plant.
One of my favorite snake plants,
I have about five of them in my humble abode.
Wanna add this right here in this corner
for a little floor decor and honey, she's looking lush.
[percussion music]
Brandy, Shawn, are you ready for the reveal?
- Wow.
- Oh my gosh.~ - This is amazing.
- Wow, Christopher. - I love it.
I like the wallpaper. [Christopher laughing]
- I love it!
I actually want to hang out here
instead of just take off my shoes.
[laughter]
- So some of the things that I really, really love
about this room is the color scheme.
The gold trimmings of like the curtain rods,
the mirror, the shelf, and it fits in with the side table
that y'all have in that space,
as well as the selection of green girls in the space.
So I know that we changed a lot in this room.
- It's a lot. [all laughing]
- But do not fret,
We have provided you with all the tools you need for success
to make sure your green girls are growing and thriving.
- What more could we ask for?
- We have your humidifier.
We have some gardening tools, including the shears.
We have some gloves.
We have a little gardening aprons,
so you don't get your outfit dirty.
All right, gotta stay fresh and clean.
- I actually think I'm most excited about the wall planters.
Like I don't think I can mess that one up.
Shawn's the real plant dud here,
but I think I can manage those guys.
I also love the golden green color scheme.
It just feels more refined.
I'm so happy. It feels finished.
And this feels like a place
I might want to take a phone call or read a book
instead of just going in and out of it with my shoes.
- Yeah.
I like the fact that you guys listened to what we said.
So I love the chair, love the shoe rack.
I love all the tools.
That's pretty much, I'm going to get my hands dirty.
So that's pretty awesome.
And all the plants selection,
you know, these are plants that I've researched,
but now I have the means to take care of them,
actually grow them, so I'm excited.
This is awesome.
- Welcome to the jungle.
Thank you, thank you for taking out the time.
This was awesome.
[Christopher squealing] [Brandy laughing]
- Come on, y'all, hug now.
[laughing]
[slow music]