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The Accent Piece

The Accent Piece is a blog about simplifying projects for the home like DIY furniture builds, painting projects, home decor, and tips on new home construction.

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by Suzie July 19, 2012

How to Build a Raised Wooden Garden Planter Box with Legs

In this post, I’m going to show you how I built a raised garden planter box with legs out of reclaimed wood.

The other day, Jon spotted an old cedar-planked dog house that someone was throwing away. So he loaded it up and came home with it. Consider my husband officially on the I-aint-ashamed-of-picking-up-other-people’s-trash train.

After it was home, he disassembled it (and even saved the old screws so we could reuse them) and we were left with this wonderful, heaping pile of…potential.

We decided that our front porch needed an upgrade It has remained fairly untouched since we moved in a year and a half ago. Sad, I know. So we decided to try our hand at building box planters for either side of the front door.

It was my goal to avoid purchasing anything to complete the planters; to create them with only things that we have on hand. We dug in to the deep, dark depths of our scrap wood pile to create these planters and we luckily had enough scrap wood to avoid buying anything. I’ll chalk that up to a win!

We started by deciding on the dimensions for the planters, which ended up being about 1.5’w x 1’d x 1’h (not including the legs). We didn’t put deep thought in to the dimensions…it was simply what worked best with we had on hand.

With our dimensions in mind, we created 8 total panels (since we were building two) and attached them as seen below, using wood glue and the recycled screws that we had on hand. We used our miter saw which was immensely helpful. For tips on how to use a miter saw for beginners, check out this post!

Like I mentioned before, we wanted to use what we had on hand to make these planter boxes, so we used all kinds of scrap wood as the braces on the inside of the panels. We kinda went all MacGyver-crazy on these things. But hey, free is free.

Here are all of the panels assembled; 4 front and back panels, and 4 side panels.

Next, we took 2×2 scraps to create the legs and attached them to the front and back panels.

Then we attached the side panels to the legs (that were already attached to the front and back panels).

As for the bottom, we added a 1×2 scrap to the bottom of both insides of the panels so that boards could rest on top of them.

The gaps in the boards allow for proper drainage.

We also framed out the top by using the miter saw to cut four boards at 45 degree angles. Once it was assembled, we were left with these unfinished-looking corners.  TIP: to make your miter saw more efficient, make a mobile miter saw stand for it!

Next, we used some left over lattice from these Rast Hack tables and trimmed out the edges.

We lined the insides with weed-blocker fabric that was left over from a prior gardening project and loaded it up with garden soil.

After a couple coats of white paint, we were able to grace our front porch with these free box planters…

Here’s to hoping the plants remain untouched by the deer that seem to skip on eating the weeds in our yard and go straight for the store-bought plants. Who knew deer have such expensive taste!?  For another front porch project, check out this wooden mosaic doormat.

Category: DIY Furniture, DIY Home Projects

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Darlene

    July 20, 2012 at 9:40 am

    Love It!! PINNED!!

    • The Accent Piece

      July 25, 2012 at 8:30 am

      Thanks, Darlene!
      -Suzie

  2. [email protected]

    July 24, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    Suzie I love it! You just gave me an idea for our balcony! What would you say to write a guest post about this for my blog? I host a guest blogger every Friday, so I’d be happy if you did.
    Love, Olga

  3. [email protected]

    July 24, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    They came out so great! I love them!

    • The Accent Piece

      July 25, 2012 at 8:29 am

      Thanks Ashley!
      -Suzie

  4. hikergirl

    July 24, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    Wow, I love it Suzie. It really brightens up your front porch. Good luck with those deer not eating your new plants! 🙂

    • The Accent Piece

      July 25, 2012 at 8:29 am

      So far so good! We’ll see if it lasts when the grass dies… 🙂

  5. [email protected]

    July 25, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    I LOVE this idea! I have a garage door that is begging for some sort of accent on each side and these would be PERFECT! Way to be so resourceful!

    • The Accent Piece

      August 1, 2012 at 9:50 pm

      Thanks!! Good luck…let me know how it goes!

  6. [email protected]

    August 3, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    Lovely idea. I am hosting a Giveaway to win a 50 dollar gift card to the store HomeGoods. It would be great if you stopped by and entered. Thanks Anu

  7. Nicholas Decker

    March 26, 2013 at 8:10 am

    Very nice stuff. I have lost an hour on your blog already! I was looking for a photoshop tutorial on door mats… and ended up on your doormat part duex. Have traveled through quite a bit of your pages now. Thanks for good stuff. I favorited and will be back!

  8. Sonja

    June 2, 2013 at 11:52 am

    Hi! My husband did a similar stand for me after a deck project! I can’t stand not to try and repurpose good items. What I did was put a small plastic trash can inside that fit snuggly, then put some empty somewhat crushed coke cans in the bottom, then filled with dirt! I put a small banana plant in it last summer. It worked great! Also built like a gnome home site in the top so it wouldn’t look so empty. Keep posting!!!

  9. Carla Wright

    November 26, 2013 at 8:32 am

    I’m going to try this out as soon as the spring hits! Love this idea for outside of my row home 🙂

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Trackbacks

  1. Centsational Girl » Blog Archive » BOTB 7.22.12 says:
    July 22, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    […] your own elevated box planters just like the Accent Piece – impressive that they did it with scrap wood from a […]

  2. The Accent Piece — Guest Post | Sawdust & Paper Scraps says:
    August 8, 2012 at 8:14 am

    […] that a neighbor was getting rid of. I’ve been wanting some planters for the front porch so we made these guys. I think they add just a little charm to the front porch…and it doesn’t hurt that they […]

  3. Centsational Girl » Blog Archive » Buy or DIY: Outdoor Square Planters says:
    March 13, 2013 at 12:17 pm

    […] planter by infarrantly creative / pottery barn inspired reclaimed wood planter by the money pit / white planters by the accent piece / scrap wood planter by the book of jimmy / recycled wood planter by zelo photo […]

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Welcome!

Hi, I’m Suzie! I’m a self-taught woodworker, DIY enthusiast, house-to-home transformer, endlessly curious maker, mom and wife. Building and making is my passion. Creating a home with my own two hands is my jam!
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