DIY Wooden Planter on Wheels {Tutorial}

Today Jessica from Four Generations One Roof is sharing how you can get a beautiful Wooden Planter on Wheels with out spending hundreds, by making your own!!  If you don’t know Jessica, she and her husband and children share a home with her parents and grandparents!  How cool is that?!  Jess has a fabulous eye for decorating and DIY so and  I’m letting her take the reins here on TidyMom while we’re moving to our new house!

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be joining you today here at TidyMom! I am Jessica and I blog over at Four Generations One Roof. We are a crew of four generations all living together (going on 5 years now) under one roof and our blog is where we share our insane living arrangement, our DIY home renovations, project tutorials, room makeovers, crafts and whatever else goes on in our home. I was thrilled when Cheryl asked me if I would like to share one of our DIY home projects. This past weekend, my dad and I created a wooden outdoor planter on wheels special for you!

My dad, grandfather and I do many of our home projects together. We live in New England so May is the month where we clean up the yard, patio and deck and remove all the outdoor furniture and planters from our shed. I am a visual person and when I am building something, I need to “see” the steps so I decided to create a visual tutorial for you. Don’t be scared, you can do this! First, decide if your planter will be an indoor or outdoor planter. Our’s is an outdoor planter so we needed to use pressure treated wood. If you are making a planter for indoors, you can use pine or any other type of wood that is suitable for indoor use.

How to make an Outdoor Wooden Planter on Wheels

Step 1: Cut your base (bottom of your planter). We cut (2) 11″ x 36″ pieces of 2″ x 6″ pressure treated wood. I wanted the base to be a little thicker then the sides so we used 2″ thick pressure treated wood for the base only. The rest of the planter (sides and top) is 1″ thick pressure treated wood. (below are the pieces of wood we used to make the planter)

NOTE: This planter is made out of scrap wood that we had left over from a previous project. When you are purchasing your pressure treated wood (any local home improvement store), you can use any thickness but I would recommend at least 1 inch thickness. Keep in mind, because we used scrap wood, we ended up needing to cleat the base together. You will most likely be able to eliminate this step as you will simply purchase the wood at the desired width, unless of course, you need to use up scrap wood like us! Next, we placed our two pieces of 11″{width} x 36″ {length} base pieces side-by-side.

Step 2: Next we cut three pieces of 1″ x 8″ at 11″ long as cleats. The cleats are what will hold your planter together. Space them accordingly (as shown below) and screw them to your base. Keep in mind that you need to stagger your screws (as shown below) so that you do not split the wood. A little tip I learned from my dad! NOTE: We could have used our biscuit machine in place of cleats but not every home owner has a biscuit machine so this method is the easiest and quickest that anyone can do! 

Step 3: Flip your base over so the cleat-ed part is face down. Next we made side cleats (legs) in order to have something to nail the sides of the planter to. We cut four pieces of 1″ x 8″ at 12 inches long as the cleats. We used a finish gun with 1 3/4″ galvanized finish nails (they won’t rust) to adhere the cleats to the base and then reinforced with screws. You will need to nail and screw the cleats on an angle. See below how we essentially made legs. NOTE: be sure to use nails and screws that will not rust when constructing anything for outdoors.

Step 4: Next we cut four pieces for our sides at 37 1/4″ (longer sides) as well as four pieces at 11″ long (smaller sides) and screwed them to the cleats. This creates the sides of your planter.

You may need to use a hammer to tap the boards into place once you have adhered with your finish nails. We completed the planter by reinforcing with screws.

This is where my dad got annoyed with me. He thought we were finished but I wanted to trim out the top and sides to give the planter a more finished look. I’m all about aesthetics, he is not!

Step 5: We created the top by cutting four pieces at a 45 degree angle. If you do not have a miter saw (chop saw) to cut your angles, most home improvement stores (Lowes and Home Depot) will cut all the wood for you. Just be sure to bring your exact measurements with you.

Nail and screw the top trim pieces to your planter. We left a 1″ over hang on the outside.

We also cut 2″ strips to add a trim detail to each side and along the bottom. I filled all the holes with spackle and used paintable exterior caulking to fill in the gaps and seams.

After about an hour of sanding, here is the finished product.

Here is the planter painted in a bright white exterior paint filled with blooming flowers. The opening at the top fits two 10″ round planters or a 36″ window box. You will need to drill holes in the bottom of the planter for drainage.

I also decided to add wheels (purchased at Home Depot) to the base to make the planter movable.

If you choose to add wheels, make sure you get the ones that are outdoor/rust proof. These wheels are for a max capacity of 125 lbs. I didn’t need that much weight capacity but I wanted be able to see the wheels so these worked perfectly. Making your own wooden planter can save you hundreds of dollars. In fact, the one I found online that looks exactly like this, was $498!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are inspired to create your own. My dad and I had a blast making this for you! We hope you will come visit us and the rest of our family at Four Generations One Roof where we have many more project tutorials, room makeovers and home stories.

Thank you to Cheryl for having us today!

Four Generations One Roof:  Jessica Bruno:

We are a crew of four generations all living together under one roof and I just happen to be the ring leader of our little o’l blog. We are multigenerational family ranging in ages from 5 to 85 living, dreaming and DIY “ing” together. If you love Do-It-Yourself projects, room makeovers, project tutorials or just want to hear about the bits of chaos (some good and some not so good) of what it’s like having four generations all living under one roof, then follow along, you have come to the right place!

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