Building A Planter from Scrap Wood

I told you guys a little while back about our first venture in to having a garden. I had this beautiful idea in my mind - lovely, flourishing herbs in a planter custom built by my man on our new patio. When we built this planter box, it was Easter weekend and we were at my parents house. The herbs were still holding on by a thread at this point, so we were hoping they would pull through and our vision would come to fruition (or herbition --?? I tried.).

We are saving pennies, but still wanted this idea to come to life, so The Mister scrounged up scrap wood from my dads garage as I helped my mom and brother organize an area of it. He managed to find all of the pieces to build it! Pretty amazing, huh?? So here he is to tell you guys about this endeavor! Take it away, honey -

We decided on a box shaped planter with legs. This style would be easy to build and give us plenty of room for plants. So we gathered a few pieces of scrap wood that would form a box. It is usually a good idea to find a design you like and buy the wood in long lengths that can be cut to size. We built this on a Saturday at our family's house, so we didn't plan much. We designed this planter based on what materials were available to use.

After cutting a few pieces of the wood to form the sides and bottom, I like to lay out the pieces to make sure they fit.

Keep in mind we were still in the design process and still laying out pieces to see what was our best option.

It is pretty simple: Measure, mark, and cut. Don't forget to check your measurements.

When using one long piece, leave about 1/8" between cuts to make up for the material that is wasted by each cut.

Above, you see that I am cutting 3' legs out of a 12' 3/4" piece of 2x2. Its really 1.5"x1.5".

Sometimes its better to measure for each cut.

Safety glasses don't look cool, but being safe is cool. Trust me.

Cutting out a rough corner to make room for the legs.

Screws are the fastest and most secure way to put most projects together, which gives you more time to spend with the ones you love. Lola likes working on projects with us. She's a good shop dog.

Remember it doesn't have to be perfect, just sturdy.

One leg at a time.

After attaching the legs, it's a good idea to stand the planter up and see if its level or not. One leg was shorter on this project. This is nothing a little sandpaper can't fix.

I had a screw go through one side of this piece. I repositioned and a new screw went in just fine.

Notice the fact that I'm not wearing safety glasses? Don't do this. Wear impact resistant glasses when using tools. I was switching back and forth between my glasses and the safety glasses every time I used the drill or the saw, but I forgot a few times when I was using the drill.

Using 2 screws to secure the leg braces was a great idea, but it is really easy to crack the wood if you aren't careful.

Measuring to find the center where I would attach the center brace.

Sanding the legs to level the planter.

The project is almost complete. The only thing left to do is paint or stain the wood.

Isn't it so nice to hear from the love of my life? He is a wonderful, handsome man indeed. There aren't any specific dimensions on this particular post because this was literally scrapped together on the fly - very little planning and whatnot before hand. But, The Mister did say he was willing to write up a "How To Build A Planter Box" with a more step-by-step tutorial. If you're interested. Make a request in the comment box. Ready to show you guys the next phase to this project - in an upcoming post titled "Green Thumb Part 2."