A couple of 12 months in the past, I noticed a planter desk at HomeGoods that caught my eye. However our deck was underneath development and it wasn’t 100% my model, so I snapped a pic to avoid wasting for future reference. Quick ahead to this 12 months and we now have an exquisite new again deck and I lastly had the proper spot for it, so we bought to constructing my good DIY Rustic Two Tier Herb Planter!
Right here is the inspiration piece from HomeGoods. It’s tremendous cute! I simply wished mine to have a little bit extra character. Prefer it had been sitting outdoors for years and had the proper weathered end on it. Tremendous simple, proper? Learn on to seek out out :-p
I’m going to preface this by saying there are most likely 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
- metallic braces
- off-white creamy paint
- gel stain
Step 1
Reduce your boards to size. We made ours 5′ lengthy. Dan wished to run them via the planer however our planer solely matches a 12″ huge board. So he glued two boards collectively, clamped them and allow them to dry. As soon as dry he ran them via 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 in your pots. I used pots from Petitis Backyard Heart which is an area nursery. You need to use any pot you need – simply be sure to get the fitting 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 chunk 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 fairly exact circle!
Repeat for all 8 pots.
Step 3
Safe the boards. Connect the metallic braces beneath to provide your boards extra stability and power. Be sure you place them in between the circles!
Step 4
Reduce out the holes utilizing a jigsaw. You need to use a big drill bit to drill a gap wherever contained in the circle to provide you a spot to start out with the noticed.
Step 5
Constructing the legs is the place issues bought a little bit difficult for us. I wasn’t fairly certain how I wished the legs to connect to the desk, however Dan got here up with an concept that I actually appreciated. He recommended notching out small sections of the 2x4s to permit for the opposite boards to sit down proper in them. I’m an excellent visible particular person so till he really made one, I wasn’t fairly certain 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 peak so it doesn’t lower all over the wooden. Then you definately merely hold transferring the information over by about 1/4″ increments to slowly chip away at it.
The underside notches brought about a little bit extra bother as a result of he couldn’t use the desk noticed. So he used a mix of the router and the trusty whizzbanger.
The cuts aren’t good, however like I mentioned, I wished 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 assist as effectively.
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 effectively and it simply didn’t look good.
So I did some brainstorming and remembered a way I had seen just lately the place you paint the furnishings with a lightweight coloured paint, after which apply a darkish wax over it and it offers the looks of fake oak wooden.
I attempted a small check spot first and wasn’t offered. 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 operating 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 technique. I simply did as a result of that was my unique plan! You can begin by simply portray your wooden a lightweight beige/mushroom coloration. After 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 don’t know what coloration it’s!
Step 9
After the paint dries take an previous rag and dip it in your gel stain. I used my devoted 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 seems to be actually darkish and ugly. As a result of it can at first ha. Simply hold wiping and wiping. You need it to be a really skinny layer.
I repeated this twice to get the specified coloration I wished. You could possibly do much less or extra relying on what you want! The secret’s simply to be sure to apply forwards and backwards 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 little bit trick I discovered. Place a number of espresso filters within the backside of every pot earlier than including soil. It permits the vegetation to nonetheless drain, but it surely helps hold the moisture in and helps hold all of the soiled soil water from operating throughout your deck. To date it appears to be working effectively!
I bought basil, thyme, oregano, dill, curry, lettuce, child tomatoes, rosemary and sage.
Step 12
Water and luxuriate in! The underside row will get about 5 hours of solar a day which ought to be ample, however I can all the time rotate a few of the pots if I have to!
I LOVE how this turned out. It seems to be so stunning on our deck and nearly matches our decking, which was by no means my intent. I assumed for certain this could be a darkish stained piece, however what began as a staining catastrophe, was one thing extra stunning than I ever imagined!
We did additionally find yourself attaching extra 2x4s underneath the center part on the back and front for added assist. As soon as the pots had been in, the center was sinking a bit so this helped hold 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?
