DIY Rustic Two Tier Herb Planter

A couple of yr in the past, I noticed a planter desk at HomeGoods that caught my eye. However our deck was beneath development and it wasn’t 100% my fashion, so I snapped a pic to avoid wasting for future reference. Quick ahead to this yr and we’ve a fantastic new again deck and I lastly had the proper spot for it, so we bought to constructing my excellent DIY Rustic Two Tier Herb Planter!

Right here is the inspiration piece from HomeGoods. It’s tremendous cute! I simply needed mine to have a bit of extra character. Prefer it had been sitting outdoors for years and had the proper weathered end on it. Tremendous straightforward, proper? Learn on to seek out out :-p

I’m going to preface this by saying there are in all probability plenty of methods you could possibly construct this desk however this was our course of – it didn’t go 100% easily however the imperfections add much more character 🙂

HOW TO BUILD A TWO TIER HERB PLANTER

SUPPLIES

• 6 1x6x6 pre-treated boards 
• 4 2x4s
• steel braces
• off-white creamy paint
• gel stain

Step 1

Reduce your boards to size. We made ours 5′ lengthy. Dan needed to run them by way of the planer however our planer solely suits a 12″ huge board. So he glued two boards collectively, clamped them and allow them to dry. As soon as dry he ran them by way of the planer after which glued the third board on, clamped and let dry.

Step 2

Now that you’ve got your 3 boards glued collectively, you need to draw out the holes to your pots. I used pots from Petitis Backyard Middle which is an area nursery. You should utilize any pot you need – simply ensure you get the suitable diameter from beneath the rim.

To attract your circles, measure out your spacing and discover the middle of your first pot. Nail a nail into that spot. Use a pencil to make a mark on all 4 sides on the size of the diameter. Then tie a bit of string across the nail and your pencil and transfer your pencil across the nail ensuring it hits all 4 of your marks. This could provide you with a reasonably exact circle!

Repeat for all 8 pots.

Step 3

Safe the boards. Connect the steel braces beneath to provide your boards extra stability and energy. Be sure to place them in between the circles!

Step 4

Reduce out the holes utilizing a jigsaw. You should utilize a big drill bit to drill a gap anyplace contained in the circle to provide you a spot to begin with the noticed.

Step 5

Constructing the legs is the place issues bought a bit of tough for us. I wasn’t fairly positive how I needed the legs to connect to the desk, however Dan got here up with an concept that I actually favored. He instructed notching out small sections of the 2x4s to permit for the opposite boards to take a seat proper in them. I’m a brilliant visible individual so till he really made one, I wasn’t fairly positive what it was going to appear like, however I trusted him!

For the tops of the legs, that is what you need:

To create these cuts you may both use a router or the desk noticed. If utilizing the desk noticed, you’ll set your blade to the right top so it doesn’t lower throughout the wooden. Then you definitely merely maintain transferring the information over by about 1/4″ increments to slowly chip away at it.

The underside notches triggered a bit of extra bother as a result of he couldn’t use the desk noticed. So he used a mixture of the router and the trusty whizzbanger.

The cuts aren’t excellent, however like I stated, I needed this to be rustic and weathered so I didn’t see them as errors, however simply added character 😉

Step 6

Assemble your desk! The boards ought to match good and comfortable in your notches after which we used some screws for added help as nicely.

Now that the desk is constructed, it was my flip to step in and end it up. From the beginning I had the imaginative and prescient of staining it darkish in my favourite gel stain. However since we had been utilizing wooden that isn’t precisely furnishings grade, the stain didn’t take nicely and it simply didn’t look good.

So I did some brainstorming and remembered a way I had seen lately the place you paint the furnishings with a lightweight coloured paint, after which apply a darkish wax over it and it provides the looks of fake oak wooden.

I attempted a small take a look at spot first and wasn’t bought. So as an alternative of utilizing the darkish wax, I used my gel stain on prime of the paint. I nonetheless was uncertain however I used to be working out of different concepts so I made a decision to only go for it.

Step 8

It’s not essential to stain your desk first for this methodology. I simply did as a result of that was my authentic plan! You can begin by simply portray your wooden a lightweight beige/mushroom shade. Once I bought samples of island paint colours for our kitchen, there was one jar they didn’t put a label on and naturally that’s the jar I used. So I do not know what shade it’s!

Step 9

After the paint dries take an outdated rag and dip it in your gel stain. I used my trustworthy Varathane Darkish Walnut Gel Stain. Dab off the surplus onto a paper towel or scrap piece of wooden and begin wiping it in your desk within the path of the grain. Don’t freak out if it appears actually darkish and ugly. As a result of it’ll at first ha. Simply maintain wiping and wiping. You need it to be a really skinny layer.

I repeated this twice to get the specified shade I needed. You would do much less or extra relying on what you want! The hot button is simply to ensure you apply backwards and forwards with the grain as a result of the traces created with the gel stain are going to be the brand new fake grain.

Step 10

Seal it up! I used Varathane’s Spar Urethane for exterior.

Step 11

Plant all of your herbs! Since these pots are sitting above the bottom and might’t have a drain plate beneath them, I  did a bit of trick I realized. Place just a few espresso filters within the backside of every pot earlier than including soil. It permits the vegetation to nonetheless drain, however it helps maintain the moisture in and helps maintain all of the soiled soil water from working throughout your deck. Thus far it appears to be working nicely!

I bought basil, thyme, oregano, dill, curry, lettuce, child tomatoes, rosemary and sage.

Step 12

Water and revel in! The underside row will get about 5 hours of solar a day which needs to be enough, however I can all the time rotate among the pots if I must!

I LOVE how this turned out. It appears so stunning on our deck and virtually matches our decking, which was by no means my intent. I believed for positive this might be a darkish stained piece, however what began as a staining catastrophe, changed into one thing extra stunning than I ever imagined!

We did additionally find yourself attaching extra 2x4s beneath the center part on the back and front for added help. As soon as the pots had been in, the center was sinking a bit so this helped maintain it straight!

And now I can’t wait to make all of the scrumptious summer time recipes utilizing my contemporary herbs! What do you suppose? Would you construct this DIY Two Tier Herb Planter?