Old Drawers into Porch Planters
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Hello! Today I am sharing a repurposed project, old drawers into porch planters. I have seen drawers used for planters several times and loved them….so, here is my version.
This project makes me super happy, and I am so glad I get to see them on my porch every day! Let me show you how you can turn your own repurposed drawers into planters.
I started with these cute drawers I picked up on our city’s clean up day for free. I had been wanting to do some type of planter for my front porch and these already had a cute color on the front. The spindles were $1 at the Restore, I have had them for quite a while.
Using scrap wood, I cut apron pieces to fit the bottom of the drawer and drilled pocket holes (with Kreg Jig) on each end. Here I am attaching the short sides first.
I got busy and forgot to take more pictures, but you can see I was building a frame or base. I did both short sides first and then attached them together with the long apron pieces. I used Gorilla wood glue before I screwed them together.
Here I am dry fitting the base for the shorter planter. I used scrap wood for this, you can see one part had holes drilled in it, I had to fill them in.
After the bases were built I tried the drawers on top and they fit! Now to make a shelf for the bottom…
I had these pieces of wood left over from my Master closet drawer fronts. They were perfect for slats. I taped them together and cut them all at once. The two ends needed to be shortened so I cut them with my jigsaw.
For the short planter I used free 5 gallon paint sticks from the Home Depot, that I had on hand. Then I glued and nailed them onto the bases with my New Ryobi Air Strike Nail Gun!! I got it for Mother’s day! Best. Gift. Ever.
After looking at them together I was sad I didn’t make the shorter one a little taller, oh well. To help it out I gave it some feet using my Gorilla Super glue. The feet are wooden drawer knobs.
To finish I stapled he drawers to the bases, and then drilled some holes for draining.
*Update 9-27-17, For a longer life span of your drawer planters I suggest replacing the bottom of your drawer wood with cedar, or at least reinforcing it with cedar underneath. If you add a liner before you add soil they will last longer, but given the nature of the drawer bottoms in a normal drawer they won’t last forever! The bottoms on these drawers lasted about 2 1/2 years before I needed to replace them!
The drawer fronts were taped off so I could spray paint the bottoms in Rustoleum’s Satin Green Apple. I sprayed them upside down first then right side up. It took one can, and was SO much faster than painting by hand!
Make sure to add a liner to your drawers before adding soil and plants!
Here they are ready for flowers…
And I think I am in love! I can’t tell you how excited I am to have these on my porch!
They are sure to brighten anyone’s day.
I love that I could use the bottom shelves for plants as well.
For the bottom shelf on the tall planter I used my tapered crate that I made.
I didn’t have anything that fit on the small planter so I made this little wooden planter on the bottom in less than 10 minutes (thanks to my new nail gun) and it is perfect!
That is it! A fun way to repurpose your old drawers! Have you done any drawer repurposing?
Hugs,
Mindi
See more Drawer Project Ideas here
I did something similar but did not paint the wood. My drawers ended up warping and falling apart from the moisture in the soil. Did you find this happen after time???
Hi Kay! If you add liners before you put in the soil, they will not warp as quickly, after about 2 1/2 years I decided to replace the wood on the bottom of my drawers because they were sagging. I suppose if you replaced the wood on the bottom with something like cedar when you build these in the first place, then you will have a much longer life span. The drawer wood isn’t made for moisture, so yes it will eventually give out. It was just the bottoms of my drawers that had a problem, and they actually lasted quite a while! I am so sorry to hear yours have fallen apart, hopefully you can replace it with cedar and that will fix it! Good Luck!
Have lost track of who between you makes what. Could be on here for hours looking at all projects. So many incredible re-do’s, it blows me away. Now to get hubs busy, won’t let me touch his tools but reneges on making things I show him.
Have couple drawers to make something with, took them out of 6 drawer dresser we made into tv stand in the Spring. Am loving tv stand but those drawers are bugging me to make something with them, soon. Will get them out tomorrow when hubs goes for lab work at VA hospital. Get them sanded, ready to re-use before hubs gets home if I can find them. Also have project with shutter and doilies to get started. Hopefully won’t be so blasted hot on deck tomorrow.
Seeing so many incredible projects on your blog has inspired me to get off my duff, get busy. Have barely done anything this summer, had creative block. Too hot to be on deck working on projects this summer, no garage, carport or basement to work in. My tolerance for heat is limited to sitting in water with cooler next to me.
Enjoy rest of week.
Gail:
I have received your emails for some time, but recently they have stopped. I have tried to sign up again numerous times, but never get the verification email. I have checked spam and it hasn’t gone there. Can you sign me up? I hate missing out on what you are doing.
Thanks
Lynda,
I have attempted to add your email address to my subscription list. Let me know whether or not you receive the confirmation email. Just so you know, I only send emails out on Wednesdays. Perhaps you are getting them, but not as often as you’re use to.
gail
YOU do a great job I love to see things redone and used again.Thanks Debra Priddy Shelbyville lndiana
tres belles creation. je les adore.
Cute of course!
These are adorable!
They would make cute occasional tables too !
Patricia
I love love LOVE this! I am inspired!
Wow! Love these. Thanks for the inspiration!
Ok…whatever Mindi…you are like amazing! So adorable! Soo adorable! Seriously…one of my favorite projects!
So cheery and cute Gail – what an awesome reuse!
Thanks Krista, but my friend Mindi is the genius behind this project! 🙂
i love these!!!!
Thanks again for sharing another great idea. I love these planters – and here I would have probably thrown the drawers out! I also love the colors and would have probably painted them all the same color until I saw this. The two different colors make them stand out as even more special. You do great work. Thanks for the inspiration.
These are wonderful! I have 3 drawers I have been pondering what to do with and thanks to you now I have a plan and I love your idea of using the knobs on the bottom. Too cool. I have a lot of old door knobs to do something with, any ideas? I have some wood pieces I could put some on to hang stuff on but that’s about all I can think of! Thanks and I love your creations.
Very resourceful, and super cute!! 🙂
Your drawer planters are adorable, and I’m in love with the colors. What a pretty pop of color on your porch. I can see why they make you so happy!
Love these. Great project and by adding the shelf you get double flowers. Thanks for the great idea and instructions. Happy weekend.
Susan
Thank you so much for your posts. I love everything you make and all your detailed instructions. I can’t wait to start one off these projects. You’re amazing 🙂
Kristii
They are beautiful! What a great job you did on these!!