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DIY Large Planter Box

Sometimes your Christmas decor can be so much more than JUST Christmas decor! Just as you can use this DIY large planter box long after the holiday season! Christmas trees in planters on the front porch are perfect because they look so good, yet when the winter season comes to an end, you can use them as real planter boxes for flowers or herbs! No need to store a large planter box until next year, you can use it year round!

DIY Planter Box for Chirstmas tree on porch by front door

You can never have too many planters if you ask me! And if you agree, I have another DIY planter box that you can make out of scrap wood you can check out, and I have the plans for both sizes of these DIY planter boxes, or if you want a raised bed planter for your garden with a trellis I have plans for that too!

DIY Planter Box made of cedar fence pickets on the porch next to the front door

I just love the warmth that wood planters add to any home! They are elegant and timeless, one of the cheapest curb appeal items you can build, especially when you use cedar fence pickets to build them, and they look so good!

DIY Planter Box - by the front door with black and white stripe rug and a Hi sisal rug on top

The great thing about this DIY planter box is that it only cost 20 bucks to build! I mean, what else can you build that looks this great for this cheap?! So you want to get the plans to build one…or two…or three or four for your front porch! 😏

I am still working on the downloadable plans to build one, it is hard to make compound angles all align….for me anyway! LOL! But, in the meantime, if you can’t wait, use the tutorial below to build yourself one! It is still thorough enough to get it built! The plans will be right here once they are finished!

DIY LARGE PLANTER BOX PLANS

Gathering Supplies to Build the DIY Large Planter Box

***NOTE: Amazon links below are AFFILIATE LINKS! Affiliate links are links that when you click them and make a purchase, I make a small percentage of that purchase at no extra cost to you! It is one of the small ways I make a little money off of this blog to keep the plans coming to you for free! I ALWAYS appreciate it when you make a purchase after clicking one of my links!!

Materials to build the DIY planter box

Cut List for the DIY Planter Box

  • 4 – 2×2 @ 21″ mitered at 5 degrees off square and beveled at 5 degrees off square, both ends, parallel
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 18″ longest end (bottom) – mitered at 5 degrees off square AND beveled at 45 degrees off square (bottom board)
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 17 1/2″ longest end – mitered at 5 degrees off square AND beveled at 45 degrees off square (second from the bottom board)
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 17″ longest end – mitered at 5 degrees off square AND beveled at 45 degrees off square (third from bottom)
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 16 1/2″ longest end – mitered at 5 degrees off square AND beveled at 45 degrees off square (fourth from bottom)
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 16″ longest end – mitered at 5 degrees off square AND beveled at 45 degrees off square (fifth from bottom)
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 15 1/2″ longest end – mitered at 5 degrees off square AND beveled at 45 degrees off square (top board)
  • 4 – 1×4 fence pickets @ 15″ longest end with bevel on both ends at 5 degrees off square (no miter) ends not parallel (inside ‘shelf’)

Building the DIY Planter Box

Step 1

Cut the 2x2s for the frame of the planter box. They are going to be both mitered and beveled at the same time. You will set your saw miter to 5 degrees (off square) and your saw bevel to 5 degrees (off square).

miter

setting the miter to build the DIY planter box

bevel

setting the bevel to build the DIY planter box

Now you can cut the 2x2s @ 21″!

Cut 2x2s to build the diy large planter box

Step 2

Start cutting and attaching your fence pickets. Leave the miter set at 5 degrees off square but change the bevel to 45 degrees off square!

setting up the saw to cut the boards for the planter box

Make sure before you start attaching the fence pickets, that both the 2x2s are leaning the same way… backward and inward toward each other! Hope that makes sense!

Also, to get the bottom board started, I used a small scrap piece of fence picket cut with the same bevel and miter to make sure the board is lined up correctly on the 2×2!

girl working on building the planter box

Once you have it lined up perfectly to make that pretty mitered corner, gently pick up the fence picket and put wood glue onto the 2x2s and set the fence picket back down into place, and brad nail it!

gluing down the boards to make the planter box
brad nailing the bottom board to build the planter box

Measure the top of that fence picket to know what to cut the next board at. It should be the same or pretty close to what I have listed in the cut list for the second from the bottom board, but I will tell you because of some mistakes I made, some of the sizes were off! 😬🤪

measuring the board on the planter box as I was building it

Don’t mind that board that is eaten up at the bottom, it was going to be the back! Lol!

I added the next board the same way, of course, glue and brad nail it…and then decided I wanted to build both sides as I went and cut the other boards to have them ready!

adding boards to the frame of the planter box
building the other side of the diy large planter box

Just keep adding the boards all the way up making sure that they are lined up perfectly!

DIY large planter box building the sides of the planter
brad nailing a board to the side of the planter box
adding boards to the sides to make the diy planter box
finishing up the sides of the planter box so i could attach them

Step 3

Attach the two sides together to create the planter box!

Stand up the two sides and attach them together the same way you attached the rest, wood glue and brad nails!

attaching the two sides of the planter box together

Continue adding boards all the way up the front and back just as you did the sides!

building the large planter box
building the planter box
continuing to build the large planter box
diy planter box completed sitting on the ground

It surely needs a good sanding! Lol!

Step 4

Add a shelf, I am not sure that’s what you would call it, but add some boards to hold the tree up or if you are actually placing dirt in it, save yourself from having to fill the whole planter and just fill the top part!

I cut them at a bevel of 5 degrees off square and 15″ long. Brad nail them in place from the outside of the planter! I used scrap 1×6 fence pickets so that I only had to cut two, but you can use 1×4 fence pickets or grab a 1×6 if you’d rather.

adding supports to the planter box

Make sure and use a level to make sure they are sitting level!

What do ya know, it is DONE! I mean, how easy was that?! Simplest project EVER! 😉

Since I was just using it for a Christmas tree, I didn’t add a liner but when I replace the tree with a real plant I will just use a contractor trash bag and then fill it with dirt! Now just decorate all around it!

DIY Large Planter Box

She’s pretty good looking!😍

DIY planter box plans

Well, what do you think? Are these planter boxes something you would want to build? I want to build a couple more! If you build one, I’d love to see it so make sure to tag me @theinspiredworkshop!

Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season! See ya soon!

Cara - The Inspired Workshop signature says XOXO, Cara

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DIY Large PLanter Box Collage of different angles
Collage of DIY Large Planter box all styled up
DIY Large Planter box collage of styled photos
DIY Large Planter Box

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