Living Canvas FAQ — hanging and watering
Straight answers about the Living Canvas: what is in the box, hanging it on plaster or brick, watering 1.8 litres, pet-safe plants, delivery and returns.
What exactly do I get in the box?
A wooden board with a hanging slot, a recycled PVC pocket, one wall hook, the wall anchor and two canvas hooks per pocket. Soil and a plant are not included, which is deliberate: you buy those where you live so nothing green spends three days in a delivery van. The how to guide lays out every part with a photograph.
How big is the Living Canvas?
The Small board is 24 by 24 cm and the Long board is 48 by 24 cm, both 9 mm thick. The Medium pocket face is 18.5 by 20 cm and 6 cm deep, which holds 1.8 litres of substrate. Full dimensions sit on the product page.
Can I add more pockets later?
Yes. Every board has eyelets on a 6 cm grid and every pocket hangs on it, so a board takes more than it ships with. Three sizes are sold on their own: the Medium (18.5 × 20 cm, 1.8 litres), the Small (12.5 × 12 cm) and the Mini (6.5 × 12 cm, for succulents and cuttings). Hang the new one in a free run of eyelets, plant it, water it. The board does not change.
Will it work in a rented flat?
Yes, and it leaves one screw hole when you take it down. The board hangs on one anchored hook like a shelf or a heavy picture, with no adhesive and no residue, so filling one hole returns the wall to how you found it. The sustainability page explains why we chose hooks over adhesive strips.
Can I hang more than one next to each other?
Yes, and most of our own photographs are two or three in a column. Leave about 10 cm between boards so each plant has room to trail without tangling into its neighbour. Columns read best on a narrow wall, rows above a sideboard or a sofa.
Does it work in an office, a hotel or a restaurant?
Yes, and we supply those projects directly. The same canvas scales to a reception wall or a restaurant banquette, and the wholesale page sets out what we need to quote a project and comes back within two working days.
Can I use it outdoors or on a balcony?
Yes on a sheltered balcony, and the pocket is the part best suited to it, because PVC banner was built to survive months of weather on a lamppost. Keep the wooden board out of standing rain and direct all day sun, and choose a plant that suits your climate rather than an indoor species.
Is it suitable as a gift?
Yes, and the hardware format makes it an easier gift than a live plant. Nothing wilts while it waits under a tree, and the person receiving it chooses the plant themselves. Gift cards are the other option if you would rather they pick the board size.
How does the Living Canvas hang on the wall?
A slot near the top of the board sits over one hook fixed into the wall with an anchor. Set the hook level at the height you want, hang the board, then hook the pocket onto the front of the board. The how to guide walks through all seven steps with a checklist you can tick off.
What tools do I need?
A drill (or a nail and a hammer, on a wall that takes one), a screwdriver and a spirit level. That is the whole list, and the hooks and the anchor are already in the box.
What wall surfaces does it work on?
Any wall you can drill: plaster, drywall, brick, concrete or wood. The anchor does the work, so match it to the wall rather than to the screw. Tap the wall first, because hollow needs a drywall anchor and solid takes the standard plug.
How high should I hang it?
Eye level or a little above, because trailing plants grow downward. Hang it higher and you give the plant more wall to fill; hang it lower and a trailing species will reach the furniture within a season.
How much does it weigh once it is planted?
The board and pocket are light, and the substrate and water are what the anchors have to carry. Use the anchor suited to your wall type and the load is the same order as a heavy framed picture. If your wall is old plaster or hollow board, put the hooks into a stud where you can.
Can I move it after hanging it?
Yes, the board lifts straight off its hooks. Nothing is bonded to the wall, so moving it to another wall means two new hooks and filling the old holes.
Can I hang it without drilling?
We do not recommend it. A filled pocket holds 1.8 litres of wet substrate, and adhesive strips are rated for dry, static loads rather than something that gains weight every time you water it. One anchored hook is the honest solution.
How often do I water it?
Check with a finger and water when the top few centimetres are dry, rather than on a schedule. The pocket holds 1.8 litres of substrate, far more than a small pot, so it dries out more slowly and forgives a missed week. Each of the twenty-five plants in the plant care guide has its own rhythm.
Will it drip onto the floor or stain the wall?
Not if you water into the substrate rather than through it. Pour slowly and stop when the substrate is evenly damp instead of flooding it, exactly as you would with a pot that has no saucer. The pocket carries the water, so nothing needs to run out of the bottom for the plant to drink.
What if I overwater it?
Let it dry out fully before the next drink, and check the plant for yellowing from the base. Overwatering is the most common way to lose an indoor plant, which is why the fixes in each plant care guide start there.
Will it cause mould or a smell?
Not with normal watering, because mould needs substrate that never dries. Let the top of the substrate dry between waterings, keep the canvas out of a sealed windowless room, and choose a plant that suits the light you have. A sour smell means the substrate has stayed wet too long, so let it dry and water less.
Can I put it in a bathroom or a kitchen?
Yes, and ferns in particular prefer it. Shower humidity does the work you would otherwise do by hand. Keep it away from direct spray and off the splashback, and away from the front of a kettle.
What happens when I go on holiday?
Two weeks is fine for most plants in this pocket, and a month suits the drought tolerant ones. Water it thoroughly before you leave and move it out of direct sun. A snake plant or a ZZ plant will not notice you were gone.
Does it need a drip tray or drainage?
No, because you water to damp rather than to runoff. Watering slowly until the substrate is evenly moist means there is nothing to catch, and it is also better for the plant than a weekly flood.
Which plants work best in it?
Anything that suits a pot of about 1.8 litres, and trailing species make the most of the shape. The plant care guide covers twenty-five we recommend, each with a full care page, filterable by light level and pet safety.
Does it come with a plant?
No, the canvas ships as hardware. You buy the plant and the substrate locally, which means nothing living travels in a box and you choose exactly what grows on your wall.
Which plants are safe around cats and dogs?
Nine of the twenty-five we recommend are non toxic to both: spider plant, Boston fern, peperomia, hoya, prayer plant, calathea, Chinese money plant, cast iron plant and rosemary. Maidenhair fern and string of hearts are often sold as pet safe, but the ASPCA has no entry for either. Filter the plant care guide by pet safe and every card left on screen is safe to hang within reach.
Will it survive in a room with little light?
Yes, with the right species. A pothos, a ZZ plant or a snake plant all hold up in a dim corner, they simply grow more slowly. Variegated plants lose their pattern in deep shade, so keep those within two metres of a window.
Can I use a grow light instead of a window?
Yes, an ordinary LED grow light works, positioned within about half a metre. In a windowless room this is the difference between a plant that survives and one that grows, and it matters most for the brighter species like string of hearts.
What soil should I use?
Ordinary houseplant potting mix, and a handful of perlite for anything that dislikes wet feet. There is no proprietary cartridge and no refill to buy from us, which is the point.
How do I replant it?
Lift the pocket off its hooks, tip the old substrate out, and plant the new one at the same depth. It takes about twenty minutes and a trip to a garden centre, not a spare part order.
What if my plant dies?
Write to us before you replace anything, because most failures are a watering rhythm rather than a lost plant. The pocket takes any new plant that suits 1.8 litres, so a bad season costs a plant instead of a canvas.
What is the pocket made of?
Recycled PVC, cut in Barcelona from advertising banners the city has taken down. Demano has recut those banners since 1999, and each pocket carries a fragment of a printed poster, so no two are identical. The sustainability page tells the full material story.
Can I choose the colour or the print?
You choose the pocket tone at checkout, but not the print fragment. Each pocket is cut from a different part of a different banner, which is what makes yours unrepeatable and why we cannot photograph the exact one you will receive.
How do I clean it?
Wipe the board with a dry cloth and the pocket with a damp one. Skip household cleaners on the PVC, and dust the leaves once a month, because dust on a leaf blocks the light the plant is trying to use.
How long will it last?
The PVC was engineered to hold its colour through months of outdoor weather, so indoors it long outlives the plant in it. We have committed to keeping this design in production for ten years so a replacement pocket still fits a board bought today.
Can I buy a replacement pocket on its own?
Write to us and we will sort one out. A published spare parts list with prices is one of our 2027 targets, and until then a single email gets you the part rather than a whole new canvas.
Is it recyclable at the end of its life?
The parts separate with a screwdriver, so wood, PVC and steel each reach the right stream. The PVC itself is a composite and hard to recycle conventionally, which is exactly why keeping it in use for years beats a recycling logo.
How long does delivery take?
Two working days to pack, then two to twelve working days in transit depending on where you are: Spain is the quickest and North America the longest. The shipping page lists the exact window and price for every country we ship to. Transit times are the courier's, so they are estimates rather than guarantees.
Where do you ship to?
Fifteen countries from Barcelona: Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The shipping page carries the price and the delivery time for each one. Because nothing living travels with the canvas, there are no live plant import rules to work around.
Can I return it?
Yes, within 60 days of delivery, which goes well beyond the statutory 14 day EU withdrawal period. Send back the board and pocket clean and dry, and keep your plant and soil, since they were never ours. The returns page has the procedure.
What is covered by the warranty?
The statutory legal guarantee under Dutch and EU law covers the board, the pocket, the hooks and the fixings. It costs nothing, cannot be signed away, and the warranty page explains how to claim.
Which payment methods can I use?
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, iDEAL, Bancontact, Klarna, Bizum and PayPal, depending on your country. Everything is handled by Stripe, so we never see your card details.
Can I change or cancel my order?
Yes, up until it is dispatched. Reply to your order confirmation and we will edit it; once it is with the courier, treat it as a return.