Easy Flower Box From Fence Cedar

by Jim Cox

3 Materials

30 Minutes

Easy

After I broke a clay pot, I wanted a custom flower box for my front deck, something easy and cheap. This came together quickly too.

Here are a couple of 72" fence pickets from Lowe's (ignore the wood on the right, that's for another barn door). The end is 'dog eared' so the useable lenghth for me is 70". Two pickets will make a 35" flower box (or less if needed) with wood to spare. These were $3 each

I measured the width of the cedar (which will become the height of the flower box) to get an idea of how deep I could make it. I had an idea to offset the front and back... see below.

Here are three pieces about 35" long each, two ends, and a center support

First I stapled the back to the bottom. I buy my staples $10/pack on Amazon, I used less than $1 worth on this project

Then the front, and finally the sides. Here's an end view. Using the standard width of the pickets for the bottom meant I didn't have to cut anything but 'height' on the sides to minimize complexity.

I reduced the depth to reduce weight on my deck railing. The offset simply makes it look bigger than it is. The color of the cedar will be a good contrast to the brown my deck is already painted.

I stapled in a smaller center support to keep the front from bowing out once soil and water is added. It's not as tall as the sides as not to be visible

I didn't want to use screws (simply for the look) and always hope to minimize damage to my deck railings, so I found these hooks for $1.28 at Lowe's

Next I selected a drill bit that would clear the hook, but not any bigger than necessary

I drilled two holes in the back, one at each end. The 1x4 scrap underneath is to keep from damaging the bit when it goes thru

I pre-drilled the deck railing for the hooks with a 1/8" bit, and used a pair of vice grips to install them. I tested often to make sure the hooks would hold the flower box secure and up close, but not too tight as not to be able to install/remove

Here's the left end view of the flower box. The center support is visible upper right.

And finally with some bedding plants.

If anyone has ideas to improve, I'd love to have your input icon

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3 of 14 comments

Yolande on Apr 11, 2020

Love this idea! Definitely a weekend warrior project for the hubby and I! Thanks!!

Like Reply
Lee Sorenson on Mar 26, 2021

Awesome creation, ease of assembly, very economical and the variety of places to display are all great. Thank you sir.🙂👍😶

Like Reply
- Jim Cox on Mar 29, 2021
  
  High praise! Thx! : )
  
  Like