From Shipping Crate To Planter!

Nita
by Nita
3 Materials
6 Hours
Easy

Saw these great crates on a local marketplace site and picked up two of them for free! They are packing crates for sheets of glass & make a perfect sturdy frame for a garden project I’m working on. I’m guessing that any local glass store, or maybe even Michael’s has these crates in their garbage pile too.

Using them, along with some old fencing, pieces of flashing & wide scrap wood I was sure I could transform them into a great planter for my garden.

After removing shipping labels & rubber packing strips it was ready to work on. There was already a sturdy bottom shelf which made the crate bottom heavy ( perfect!) and would be great for storage- or more plants.

I replaced any nails that had come unfastened & removed staples & sharp edges, so the sides would be secure.

Not wanting to enclose the entire frame I measured the distance between the top two horizontal pieces of wood. Then measured the inside dimensions & cut scrap wood to use as an upper shelf. If I didn’t have this solid piece of wood I would have used fence pieces.

After measuring the ends of the crate, I cut a piece of flashing to size and stamped a design onto it and nailed it to the end.

I cut 12 lengths of fencing to use as sides.

Forgot to take a pix ( sorry) but I also cut 3 pieces of fencing to lay across the short side, inside of the crate that would secure the new top shelf.

Then I cut & secured more flashing pieces to cover the space between the wood. They easily slid behind the wood pieces already attached.

After securing the top shelf I glued and stapled a heavy duty line to the bottom & sides.

Then stained the entire planter. Having learned the hard way I would suggest staining the entire project before adding the top shelf- it would be much easier to get into the books & crannies.

And Ta Da! It’s done! Love the way it turned out and it cost me nothing but time & scrap pieces I had laying around! Now I have to tackle the second one so I can fill them up with my herbs & use as side pieces for a small gazebo I’m making!

Thanx for looking! Maybe I’ll post the entire finished gazebo project when it’s done!

Suggested materials:
  • Fence slats   (Originally Lowe’s)
  • Flashing   (Leftover from building house)
  • Mini Wax Stain   (Leftover from other projects)
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  • Wendy Wendy on Jun 17, 2019

    How lovely! I'd love to see the finished planter with the plants inside!

  • Nita Nita on Jun 21, 2019

    Thanx! When I finish the gazebo part of the project & incorporate the planters with herbs, I will.

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