Flower Planters from Free Pallets

We’re going to establish some clear expectations right from the bat. Do not, I repeat DO NOT, click away from this post because you think you aren’t good at working with wood! I promise you that you are not any worse than I am and I did this entire project pretty much entirely by myself! On top of that, I didn’t really have any plans I was working off of! And I still managed to produce a pair of these flower planters from free pallets that look this pretty!

It started when we had a new display case delivered to our bakery. It was delivered covered in thin wood strips and sitting on pallets. My husband was going to throw it all away, but I figured this was a perfect time for me to practice my wood skills while we had some free wood!

This pile of pallets with the free ones from the display case (the lighter colored wood) has been sitting in our driveway for way too long. Do you hear me, Mr. Turtle, WAY TOO LONG!!

So I looked at where the nail holes were and figured out based off of that, what I wanted my dimensions to be. I cut 16 pieces that were 17″ long and then made 4 “squares” out of them. I used my Ryobi nail gun and got this step done in about 15 minutes (from measuring to cutting to nailing them together)! I also used a little wood glue before I nailed them.

Each planter box is going to need 2 of these squares, one for the bottom base and one for the top.

Cut some of the ugliest pieces of wood to fit along 2 of the squares at random intervals. Don’t get too OCD about this part. This is going to be the inside bottom of your planter that the container rests on and nobody will ever see it!

Then I cut the rest of my pallet into 16″ strips that I used for my sides.

Lay 2 of the squares on their sides, spread wood glue and then start placing your side pieces in place and nail them down.

Here is what it looks like from the bottom, so you can see how to place that bottom square.

Just keep working your way around each square until you have it finished!

At this point, we were out of the pallets, so we went to our scrap wood section of our garage and pieced together some pieces for the trim. I used Krylon Pistachio for my colored trim and Minwax Dark Walnut for the stain. I stained the whole box first then nailed on the already-painted trim pieces. The top trim is the only place where we mitered the edges and the only place where I had to call my husband for help!

Not only did they come together so fast I felt like Speedy Gonzales, but they’re so preeettty too!

Then I went to a local Amish farm and found these mums for only $4.50 each!! They’re HUGE and that’s a pretty good price, right?? I mean, if I don’t kill them in the next week, that’s a good price, right?!

Can we talk about this front porch for a second? Yes, I love my flower boxes, but I would LOVE white trim instead of this awful builder’s beige-ish color! So what do I do?? I know I could just paint the sidelight trim and window frame, but then my metal screen door and trim would still be this color. Do I have to get a whole new screen door?? Because, umm, yeah… I don’t think my husband would go for that just to change the color! I also want a new welcome mat, a new light, new house numbers and I’m thinking about painting the cement itself!!

What to do, what to do??

For right now, I think I’ll just enjoy that one project is checked off my list!