This new houseplant store in West Hollywood is part retail, part therapy
Growing up in a verdant, plant-filled home in Massachusetts had a lasting effect on Eliza Blank when she moved to a tiny brick-facing apartment in New York. “I craved greenery,” says the 33-year-old. “Every time I went shopping for plants in the basement of Home Depot, I would find myself longing for a dedicated plant store.”
Capitalizing on renewed interest in houseplants, Blank’s wish became a reality in 2012 when she opened the Sill, an online direct-to-consumer plant store that delivers succulents, tillandsia and fiddle leaf figs to your doorstep.
The retailer moved beyond online sales in 2014 when it opened its first bricks-and-mortar store in New York and a second in 2017. This week, following nearly $5 million in sales last year, the Sill opened its third showroom. The sun-drenched space in West Hollywood feels like a tropical rainforest.
Inspired by the hundreds of questions the brand receives every week from anxious plant parents (the company recently hired a full-time expert to address social media inquiries), the store will feature a plant care bar and potting table where customers can pull up a stool and discuss their plants.
“I want people to lock eyes with a salesperson the minute they walk into the store,” says Blank. “We are open to having conversations.”
It’s likely those conversations will involve the lineup of core plants that inundate the store: haworthia, echeveria, jade, bird’s nest fern, staghorn fern, ZZ plant, snake plant, pothos, philodendron, alocasia, peperomia monstera, parlor palm, money tree and calathea.
Plants are helpfully displayed according to lighting, water and pet needs and start at $5. The store will sell the Sill’s own line of midcentury-inspired ceramic planters in “millennial” colors (yellow, coral and sage), beginning at $19 as well as misters, watering cans, potting mix, lava rocks and cactus mix.
With weekly workshops on everything from DIY terrariums to plant embroidery kicking off next month, the store’s emphasis seems to be on community.
“People pull out their phones and show us their plants as well as their homes and pets,” Blank says. “We are selling plants for people, not events.”
The Sill
Where: 8125 W. Third St., West Hollywood
When: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Info: thesill.com
