Home Project: Your patio is something to be enjoyed each summer, and this elegant planter will make your space even more enjoyable.
Planter Box
Illustration by Mike Del Rizzo
You can fill it with earth and plant your favourite annuals, or use it to show off an already potted plant.
The construction is simple yet the design is very flexible. The planter essentially consists of three boxes nestled together. We made our planter to fit a 10" diameter pot; however by simply lengthening the sides, you can make it into a larger square or even a long rectangle. By painting it instead of staining it, we were able to use less expensive pine and didn't need to be as precise with construction. Two 1" x 6" x 6' pine boards and an 8' long piece of moulding are all we needed. You can select any moulding that suits your taste.
• Use a table saw or mitre saw to cut the side pieces (A, B, C, D) for the three boxes. The three boxes nestle inside each other. If you use stock that is other than 3⁄4" thick, you will need to make the top box first, then measure and cut the sides for the second box, then do the same for the third box. This will ensure the boxes fit snugly together.
• Assemble the four sides of the top box. Apply glue at the joints, making sure the joints are flush. Then nail the pieces together with three 11⁄2" spiral finishing nails at each joint.
Glue and nail all four corners
• Assemble the middle and bottom boxes using the same method. Make sure you test fit these two boxes together before gluing up, so that you end up with a snug fit.
• Nestle the middle box into the top box and offset it by 4" from the top. Using 11⁄4" nails, tack each side together from the inside with 2 nails per side. Repeat with the bottom layer.
Nail all of the layers together from the inside
• Cut out the two base supports (E) and the two pieces (F, G) that will form the actual base. Nail the base supports to the inside of the bottom layer 1⁄2" up from the bottom, centered on opposite sides. The base is installed after the box is completely assembled, with a gap between the two base pieces for drainage.
• Measure and cut the moulding pieces at 45º to fit around the top edge of the planter like a picture frame.
• Glue and clamp the moulding pieces onto the top edge of the planter box. Once the glue is dry, remove the clamps and nail them in place with 11⁄4" nails.
• Use a nail set to indent all nails on the exterior of the planter, and then fill the nail holes with exterior wood filler. Use the wood filler to fill any gaps in the moulding.
Assemble moulding around the top of the planter
• Sand the entire planter box with progressive grits of sandpaper, starting at #80 and finishing with #220 grit.
• Paint the interior and exterior of the planter with an exterior grade latex wood primer, and then apply two finish coats of exterior latex paint. While we used a classic white, you can choose a colour to match any theme. Sand lightly with #220 grit sandpaper between coats.
• Install the base, ensuring a gap between pieces F and G.
• If you choose to fill your planter with earth, use a plastic bag as a liner, with suitable holes in the bottom for drainage. Alternatively, simply place an already potted plant into the planter box. Use wood, bricks or gravel in the bottom of the planter to raise the pot to the right height. Be sure to protect the planter box from snow during the winter.
The Wood Look
If a painted planter box is not what you have in mind, you can make the planter out of a weather resistant wood such as western red cedar or redwood.
While you could leave these woods untreated, it's best to apply a weather resistant finish, such as Home Hardware's "CWFUV Exterior Wood Finish" or "Wood Shield Exterior & Marine Spar Varnish" finish.
Look for a finish that offers a high level of ultraviolet protection as well as mildew protection.
- CWM
Use of Canadian Woodworking's Website and It's Content
This website is presented with the understanding that:
The authors, editors and related web personnel are not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information on this website, nor for any errors or omissions;
This website is not engaged in rendering professional advice/services; and
Any and all content submitted by this website's users is in no way an expression of the beliefs or opinions of the owners, webmasters, authors and editors.
Canadian Woodworking disclaims all liability for any claim in relation to:
• any matters or factors outside of its control, including the availability or unavailability of the website and digital content due to the availability of the Internet, or telecommunications or other infrastructure systems; for any reasons including but not limited to power outages and maintenance.
The owners, webmasters, administrators, authors and editors, expressly disclaim all and any liability to any person, whether a user of this website or not, in respect of anything and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether whole or partial, upon the whole or any part of the contents of this website. Please exercise caution when working with any tools or machinery. Follow common safety rules and precautions as outlined in any manuals related to the equipment being used. If advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Use of Canadian Woodworking site and Forum
By posting on this site and forum, the poster grants to Canadian Woodworking Magazine/Website the unrestricted rights to use of the content of the post for any purpose, including, but not limited to, publishing the posted material, including images, in print or electronic form in a future issue or issues of Canadian Woodworking magazine or related Canadian Woodworking products, and to use the post for promotional purposes without further compensation, as well as the right to use the poster's name in a credit along with the post.
CanadianWoodworking never shares, sells or rents your information to any third party without your permission.
This statement explains how we collect information from you and what we do with that information.
What this Privacy Policy Covers
This Privacy Policy covers CanadianWoodworking.com's treatment of personally identifiable information that CanadianWoodworking.com collects when you are on the CanadianWoodworking.com site, and when you use CanadianWoodworking.com's services. This policy also covers CanadianWoodworking.com's treatment of any personally identifiable information that CanadianWoodworking.com's business partners share with CanadianWoodworking.com.
This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that CanadianWoodworking.com does not own or control, or to people that CanadianWoodworking.com does not employ or manage.
Information Requests and Use
CanadianWoodworking.com collects personally identifiable information when you use certain CanadianWoodworking.com services, when you visit CanadianWoodworking.com pages, and when you enter promotions or sweepstakes. CanadianWoodworking.com may also receive personally identifiable information from our business partners.
Personally identifying information is information that can be used to identify who you are such as: name, mailing address, email address. To enter certain areas of the site, you will be required to register and provide information about yourself. This information is for the purposes of Canadian Woodworking and helps us to tailor the site to best meet the needs of our audience.
CanadianWoodworking.com also automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser including your IP address, CanadianWoodworking.com cookie information and the page you requested.
CanadianWoodworking.com uses information for three general purposes: to customize the advertising and content you see, and to fulfill your requests for certain products and services.
Promotions
The personal information that we retain is what is provided by you voluntarily. We use it to send you information about Canadian Woodworking and its products or to correspond with you regarding your subscription. If you are a subscriber we need this information to be able to deliver you our product(s) and service your subscription.
By completing a form on this website, you will be able to receive email correspondence from Canadian Woodworking. These emails may include information on upcoming events or special offers for subscribers. If you do not wish to receive email correspondence please email [email protected] and ask to be removed from our email list. Every email that we send to you will include an "opt-out" from receiving future email correspondence.
Aggregate information is information that cannot identify you personally. We collect information on our subscribers that may be used in summary reports presented to our advertisers. This information helps them to better understand our audience and provide advertisements that are more likely to be of interest to you and your organization.
Our intention is always to gather information that will help us serve you better and never to gather information without your knowledge.
As with most websites, we do log web visits. This information, however, does not have a link to you personally. These logs help us understand the needs of our audience and the areas of our site that you do or do not find useful. When you simply browse our site, no personal information is being collected. We may disclose this non-personal information to third parties such as sponsors, clients or advertisers.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
CanadianWoodworking.com will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone.
CanadianWoodworking.com will send personally identifiable information about you to other companies or people when:
We have your consent to share the information;
We need to share your information to provide the product or service you have requested;
We need to send the information to companies who work on behalf of CanadianWoodworking.com to provide a product or service to you. (Unless we tell you differently, these companies do not have any right to use the personally identifiable information we provide to them beyond what is necessary to assist us.);
We respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process; or
We find that your actions on our web sites violate the CanadianWoodworking.com Terms of Service or any of our usage guidelines for specific products or services.
Cookies
CanadianWoodworking.com may set and access CanadianWoodworking.com cookies on your computer.
Cookies are small text files that most Web sites, including canadianwoodworking.com place on your computer. Cookies help us identify your interests. They also prevent you from having to register repeatedly on canadianwoodworking.com or from repeatedly seeing the same ads.
Canadianwoodworking.com is not able, and does not wish, to use cookies to track your activities on the Web outside of our site. And no cookie delivered by us will interfere with the operation of your computer.
In cases where there are links to other sites, Canadian Woodworking recommends that you review their organization's privacy policy, as once you have left our site you become subject to the privacy and security policies of the new site.
Third party advertising
If you submit your name through a form on our website to request information from an advertiser or third party, canadianwoodworking.com is not responsible for any marketing or other use of your name by that third party.
Security
In certain areas CanadianWoodworking.com uses industry-standard SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
CanadianWoodworking.com may amend this policy from time to time. By using this site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Canadian Woodworking reserves the right to make changes to this policy at any time. Please check back periodically to review any changes.
Questions or Suggestions
If you have questions or suggestions please contact us.
