We’ve given you suggestions for making your own wooden, concrete, flower and vegetable planter boxes but what about repurposing a humble wooden pallet?
Upcycle an old pallet into something beautiful. Image credit @paaaigesplants
Pallets are everywhere, in fact, there are more pallets in Europe than people! These ubiquitous storage structures are usually made from pine or oak, soft and hard woods, and sometimes a mixture of both.
Pallets are cheap and easy to get hold of, you’ve most likely taken delivery of paving slabs or building supplies that were attached to a pallet and there are almost always people trying to get rid of them on local social media pages and free ads.
Pallets are pretty robust structures as they’re designed to support heavy loads. Left untreated, they will last for around 5 years but if painted or varnished, you can extend their life for many more years. Let’s take a look at some easy DIY pallet planter box ideas:
How to make wooden planters from pallets
There are a few different pallet planter box ideas below and it’s handy to have the following tools to hand to build them.
What you will need
- Wooden pallet
- A saw (hand or circular)
- Eye protection
- Hammer and nails
- Wood glue
- Weed membrane or plastic liner
- Staple gun
- Tape measure
- Crowbar (for removing pallet planks)
- Sandpaper or a sander
- Paint and varnish of your choice
1. Wall-mounted pallet planter
Pallets are plant shelves waiting to happen and we love this simple wall-mounted, DIY pallet planter box. To make a similar planter, you’ll need one pallet.
You can cut an existing pallet down to fit your wall space if you don’t want to mount an entire pallet, they can be pretty heavy, especially when you add soil into the mix.
You can also lean a pallet against a wall or fence if you don’t want to drill any holes.
Fill a colourful pallet wall planter with beautiful blooms. Image credit: @holyislandgin
If you turn your pallet over, you’ll see there are usually 3 supporting batons underneath, you can use these to create your planter troughs or, if you want more shelves, you can turn the pallet the other way round, removing any planks you don’t need.
Now is the time to paint or stain your pallet, try choosing a colour to match existing furniture, go bright or paint it a bold, dark colour to stand out against a fence.
If you’re using the supporting batons to make your planting troughs. All you need to do is cut a length of weed membrane that’s the same width as your pallet and just over 4 times the depth of the plank.
Fold the weed membrane fabric in half and simply staple the top of one edge along the inside length of the pallet baton. Do exactly the same on the other side so you’re left with a hanging fabric base in which you will place your plants.
If you want more than 3 shelves, you’ll need to nail the planks you’ve removed from the front of the pallet to the back, taking care to line them up. No one wants a wonky shelf! You can nail the planks into the supporting batons. Create your fabric trough liners in the same way as above.
Here’s a handy tutorial that shows you how to make a pallet wood planter box.
2. Pallet box planter
Image credit: @pinebarrenpalletworks
This beautiful pallet planter wouldn’t look out of place in a modern, urban garden. With its clean lines and neat boxes, it just needs some striking palms and trailing plants to bring it to life.
You can make a similar pallet panel by turning a large pallet sideways, carefully removing all the planks and then nailing them closely together. You may need to get hold of some additional planks if you don’t have any spare pallets to hand. When done, sand it thoroughly to remove any staining, paint and splinters. Try varnishing the pallet or use an exterior wood dye to achieve the finish you’d like.
You can use spare pallet planks to make the small pallet planter boxes. Cut a length for the bottom of the box and cut 4 sides to fit. Glue the pieces in place and add nails when the glue has set for extra stability. Sand the boxes to remove any sharp edges or splinters, then screw the boxes onto the pallet panel.
3. Pallet herb planter box
Create a useful herb planter box from pallets. Image credit: @allie_wilson_home
Another clever vertical pallet planter idea, we love this dark pallet with painted herb names. The pallet’s supporting batons have been turned into shelves to hold potted herbs.
Use a pallet plank or wood offcut to make a base for the pots to sit in. You can simply nail this to the bottom of the pallet’s supporting batons. Don’t forget to line the base of the pallet shelf with plastic to stop it from rotting.
4. Trough pallet planter
This wooden pallet planter box looks gorgeous filled with cottage garden flowers. Image credit: @amagardener
For a more rustic take on a pallet wood planter box, you can create a trough planter.
You’ll need to break a pallet apart to make this planter so have your crowbar at the ready! The size of the planter box you can make will depend on the size and amount of pallets you have.
Here’s a handy guide to building a DIY pallet planter, along with useful pallet planter box plans to help you visualise exactly what you need to do.
5. Easy Pallet Planter
This sweet pallet planter is a great starting point if you’re new to DIY.
It was created by chopping a pallet down, fixing the two sides to each other with pallet offcuts and nailing spare planks over the gaps between the pallet planks on each side.
Image credit: @kiwimummycowgirl
Plastic lining can then be stapled to the inside of the planter to form the bottom of your planter, or you can nail extra planks to the bottom if you prefer a sturdier base.
Don’t forget to paint your pallet planter or leave it a natural colour for a more rustic look.
When you’ve created your wood pallet planter box, take a look at some other garden pallet projects that you can get stuck into. You could kit out your whole garden in stylish, inexpensive and easy to make pallet furniture!
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