Need advice on a future tank/orchidarium project

[ValorieBoyer]

Ok, newbie with an ambitious project in mind here that I'd love some advice/help planning. My husband and I bought a house built in 1973 that came with an indoor planter right in front of you when you walk in the front door. It's HUGE. (See attached photos with all of our tools and construction crap on it hehehe)Unfortunately, while it has tons of natural light from all sides it's also not water tight (there were rotted floor boards all around it from where the water seeped out from it), so we're just going to cap it off and use it as a sort of counter top. We do love the idea of some sort of greenery there...and my miniature orchids would love a proper home, where I can maintain the temperature, light, humidity, etc to make them happy and thrive. (I'll build another area for my larger orchids, but I want to showcase my minis)

I was thinking I could build a much shorter and longer version of this plan I found on etsy and then fit it up with a fan, a mini heater, humidifier, etc. I would extend the cap at the top so when I hang long growlights along it and hinge one or both sides of the top so I can open them upwards to reach down inside, and possibly also hinge the sides for when I need to open it up completely for a deep clean. What do you guys think? Too ambitious? Any flaws or cons you can think of? We're not expecting to move into the house itself for a few months yet and even after that I probably won't have the free time to play with this for a few months more, but I'd like to know if the idea is a solid one or not first before continuing to daydream about it.

[ValorieBoyer]

While working on the house again today I took a moment to measure the planter that we're going to cap and use as a counter top. Roughly, because I suck at math and measurements in general (yay for an artistic job) it's 3 feet wide, 12 feet long, 3 feet tall (great height for reaching into any resulting orchidarium and messing around with orchids!), and is just under 4 feet from the hanging pendant lights. That should give me plenty of room to play with when designing out the one or two orchid cases to display there. I've downloaded SketchUp, a 3d program, and am currently wrangling my mac into upgrading it's OS for me to mess around with designs.

[Vanda lover]

I think it is a fantastic idea! I wish I had something like that to work with. It's going to be really beautiful.

[catherinecarney]

Great idea--and I'm jealous! Hmmmm, I'm redoing the living/dining room floors this winter, maybe I can add something similar....

There are many build logs on some of the vivarium sites that might help since the people who do dart frogs seem to favor using mini-orchids in their vivs. The setups I've seen have ranged from simpe to high tech and some are quite naturalistic....One thing that seems to come out of all of the logs is that even with plenty of research and pre-planning there are still adjustments along the way, so don't be afraid to try this!

Good luck and I hope we get to see you develop your dream orchid space!

Catherine