Cedar Planter Boxes

Today I'm going to do a quick post on a DIY project that I completed recently with my dad. We built some cedar planter boxes for our balcony to replace some old ones that we had to toss. It took me about three days over two weekends to complete the project. Lets see what I did shall we.

First let me show you the old boxes.

The original planter boxes that we had came from the previous owners of the house and they were looking pretty rough last year. They were rotted out at the bottom and basically it was time for them to go. We took advantage of the dumpster bin in our driveway last year that was there for our home renovation and tosed the boxes over the railing into the bin to get rid of them.

The old ones were very large and clunky and took up a lot of space on the balcony. The tops were made with 2x6's to give you an idea of how big and chunky they were. I wanted the new ones to be a little sleeker and long enough to cover most of the balcony, with some spaces between for our dog and cat to look through. They like to look out at our front yard and the street below. When the flower pots are put in the boxes give so much more privacy when we sit up there. We also like to be able to see people walking on the street without them being able to see us.

I didn't take a whole lot of progress shots of the project but the design was a simple rectangle box and was very straight forward. I chose to build them using 5'-0 x 6" cedar fence boards. Cedar is a good weather and mold resistant wood and it looks a lot nicer than pressure treated wood. We like a natural wood look and I don't plan on painting these so cedar seemed like the right choice. Cedar is more expensive then pressure treated but the project was small enough for the price to be reasonable.

I basically just built a simple box using pressure treated 2x4's for the inside legs and then screwed the cedar fence boards to the front and sides to complete the box. That's it! I didn't cut the fence board length so these planters are 5'-0 long each. I used deck screws to avoid them rusting away. In hindsight I do kind of wish that I would have found a way to hide the screws but they don't look too bad and they do sort of look like an intentional design feature, so I think they are okay. One risk in the size being so long is that they may warp and bow a little over time. An option would be to put another brace inside in the middle to hold everything together a little more securely. I opted out of this for now but may add them in later if necessary. Or I may just regret the decision not too. We'll see.

It took me the better part of an entire day with the help of my dad to build the three boxes to this stage.

Next I rip cut a few boards to create a picture frame top to hide the 2x4 legs and to finish them off. The top piece will protect the boards a little from the elements as well. I fastened them with galvanized nails to avoid them rusting out.

I also put a trim piece along the edges to hide the unfinished joint. Again it would have been nice if the trim covered the screws, but oh well. I used pine trim here which admittedly is a bit of an experiment. Pine isn't known for being overly weather and mold resistant so I'm anticipating those pieces to be a weak point and to rot out faster than the cedar. I did seal them though so I'm hoping that helps slow down their deterioration.

Left untreated the cedar would eventually turn weathered and gray from the sun and rain so I sanded them down just a little and sealed them with a water based varnish. The varnish made the grain and color pop a bit too which made the wood look even better. I varnished them outside and wore a respirator the whole time. Strangely, I ended up being very nauseous later in the day so I don't know if it was the varnish fumes, the lack of oxygen from the respirator or just me overheating in the sun that day.

We have been getting really good weather lately and it's getting a lot warmer out but its still a little too early to put the flower pots out. There's always a risk of getting a night of frost at this time of year. Nonetheless I took a photo with the pots in them to give you an idea of how they will sit. In a week or two we will move the flower in there permanently for the summer.

What do you think? Would you do anything differently? Do you have any building tips for me? Let me know in the comments.