Hello-Hello! Day 3 of 13 Days of a Woodworker Christmas is here, an I hope I can keep up with the first two awesome projects. If you missed them, check out the projects My Love 2 Create and The Handyman’s Daughter shared on Day 1 and Day 2.
Here is my project… a pair of vintage storage inspired DIY Porch Planters for Christmas trees.
The build is very easy as there are only a few different measurements, after that its repeated and before you know it the build is over.
The Materials (Per Box)
(5) 5/8″ x 5-1/2″ x 6′ Pine Dog Ear Fence Picket
(1 B0x) 1-1/4″ 18 gauge brad nail for pneumatic nails
Paint: Masion Blanche – A La Mode
Wood Filler
The Cuts
All of the pine dog ear fence picket boards – 16 1/2 inches.
Front face and back face of planter
4 cuts of 1″ x 4″ at 24 inches (legs)
2 cuts of 1″ x 4″ at 20 inches (top cross member)
2 cuts of 1″ x 4″ at 13 inches (lower cross member)
Side faces of planter
4 cuts of 1″ x 4″ at 16 1/2 inches (top and bottom cross members)
Front and Back Face Builds
Take a picket board and place it on the workbench. Laying over top of the picket place the top cross member, flush across the the top and center of both boards. Once centered and flush, nail it in place with the pneumatic nail gun.
Next, take one leg, keeping the outside of the leg flush with the side of the top cross member and using a roofing square to check everything is square and nail it in place. Do the same on the other side. Slide another picket below the top picket, and check for flush with the top picket board, and nail it in place. Repeat these steps until you have 4 stacked pickets. Fit the lower cross member 4 inches from the bottom, and nail it into place. Do the same thing once more for the back side of the box.
For the front legs, I measured 2 inches from the outside and place a mark on the bottom of the leg. Draw a straight line to the bottom of the cross member. Take a multi-tool like Ryobi JobPlus and cut the line.
Side Faces
Prop up the front and back faces you built in the previous steps, take the 16 1/2 inch side cross member, keeping the side flush with the legs, and nail them into place. Repeat this for the lower cross member. Slide the picket board behind the cross members, bring it all the way to the bottom. Aligning it with the front face and back face lowest picket board and nail it into place. Stack the rest of the three and nail them into place. Repeat these steps on the opposite side. For the cross board, take the scrap from the previous cuts and place them diagonally the side, fit all of the scrapes and nail them into place, placing wood filler at the seams to hide them when your ready to paint. The last step is placing to pickets at the bottom of the box and nail them into place.
The Paint Job
First stain the entire piece with Dark Walnut by Minwax. Once the entire piece is covered wipe the entire piece with a towel thoroughly. Leave it to dry for at least 30 minutes. When your ready for paint, its okay that the entire piece isn’t cured or completely dry, it’ll mix with the paint a bit to give it the dirty rustic look that we are trying to achieve. Get creative and paint away, using a mix of dry brushing and full fledged painting.
Well that is it. I hope you enjoyed and if you are keeping up with the 13 Days of a Woodworker Christmas you are probably looking for my bonus hashtag for an extra chance to win the give away. If you have no idea click the graphic below to learn more! Here it is: #vintagestorage. Good luck. Find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, thanks and keep checking out the rest of the amazing projects we have coming up!
Here you will follow Mr. and Mrs. LMB on their journey with redoing their 1800's farmhouse, taking on new hobbies, and sharing their day to day adventures.
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These are gorgeous! I love the stain and paint combination, too! Will definitely be making these for our front porch, maybe with a platform inside so I can rotate container gardens through seasonally! Cheers!
You are awesome and I thank you so much for this incredible plan! Blessings, Val
Is there a bottom board or would you be using a plastic planter inside?
For our use we just have 2 scrap pieces of the rough pine boards underneath, to hold up the faux Christmas Trees. If we were to put real plants in it, I would recommend either building a little insert to put inside and drill holes to all for proper drainage, or maybe a plastic tote, and again drill a few small holes for proper drainage. Ive done the plastic liner things before, but those usually don’t end up to good for me. Thanks for reading.
@craftmandrive …love, love your planters! My hunka-hunka man will be making me some of these 😉 Dale Baker … On planters that we have used before, I use 2″ inch wood or whatever we have as scrapes (pvc stuff sometimes) slats across the bottom leaving about a 1″ gap between each slat. Line it with these amazing hefty plastic bags. Just fold the excess on top back down (like you would packing a sea bag) You can hide the rim of the bag on top at soil level with mulch after planting. I find use large nails and puncturing the bottom of the bags for drainage works better than using scissors to cut holes (they slowly rip but not when just punctured). I’ve experimented with both and can’t give you rhyme nor reason as to why…go fig?!The bags always outlast the planters. We use untreated wood and after about 7-10 years pending on where you live, the planters (wood) we have need to be replaced. I work the planters hard every season. We use the bags for so many things around our property (killing weeds in our garden, warming the soil around strawberry plants in the late winter/early spring), insulating the outside of our beehives in winter, etc.) I’m a recycle nut (did it way before it became “cool”) and work these babies (bags) until there is no life left.
I have no affiliation with Lowes, just left the link for convenience and we only use Lowes because of their patriotism and loyalty to the US military.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Contractor-s-Choice-50-Count-42-Gallon-Outdoor-Construction-Trash-Bags/3283632
Why for the front legs,do I measure 2 inches from the outside and place a mark on the bottom of the leg draw a line
and cut the line.
Great Question. Two reasons, one if you want the tapper look at the bottom. I only put that on the front legs. The second reason is for placement of the horizontal board across the bottom. I hope this helps, thanks for reading.
Thanks for including the plans and measurements for these! I need a set of four for my two sets of double doors! You guys always have the best ideas!