Concrete Planter ( on a Budget)

What I wanted to make from concrete was a planter. However, the common approaches of using melamine to make a mold proved to be much too expensive as the prices of wood are continually increasing. So, I decided to make a concrete planter with the most minimal of items, cardboard and duct tape. There is also a easily made wooden holder for the planter.

Fast Setting Concrete

Duct Tape

Cardboard

Caulking (Optional)

Square Wooden Dowels

Wood Glue

To make the mold, there are two templates that should be cut from the carboard. The first is the inner box. That is the template that looks like a plus sign in the picture. The sides simply go together as walls and a bottom. The cardboard can simply be cut with anything from scissors, a knife and straight edge, or even a bandsaw (go wild). Then, cover the entire box with duct tape to make it waterproof. Afterwards, put it on the larger net. Make sure there is at the least, 3/4in for the walls. Then, for the larger box, only one edge is cut on all of the sides. That way, when the box is formed, there is some overlap to make it stronger. Also, if you want, you can put silicone caulking to reduce further leaking.

To make the concrete, I like to do it by eye. Simply put a guess as to the amount of concrete that will fit in the mold. Then, add water to mix it until its somewhere between the texture of peanut butter and cake batter. I did this with just a random stick and an empty yogurt box. Don't worry about the residue, you can wash it all off immediately after you finish. Once you pour the mold in the box, tap the sides of the box to make sure there are no bubbled. Then when the concrete has finished setting, take the tape off the edges and the walls should come right off and the planter should come right out.

To make the base, you can use some square dowels. These are usually available at any hardware store for under 4-5 dollars. First, cut the base pieces. As seen in the first picture, there is a small divot in each of the pieces so they can fit in each other. This is called a half lap joint. Then proceed to make each of the legs. As seen in the final picture, the legs each also have a divot in them to fit the base. All the divots can be made in a variety of ways from just a saw and chisel, to a bandsaw to just sandpaper. Anything works. Finally, put all the pieces together and add a spot of glue to hold everything in place.

The final pictures with the plants look great. I chose against filling in the bubbles in the concrete but you can do if that's what floats your boat. Just make sure to sand it down smooth to the surface. Additionally, you can use sandpaper to round the edges to give a more appealing look to the planter.

Thanks for reading ! Please share pictures if you do make the planter!