Dresser Drawer Planter Box

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. For me, it represents newness of life and growth. One of my favorite things to do is to get outside and get started on my garden. Inside, my children enjoy growing small plants in containers along the windowsills. My daughter has a collection of plants overgrowing their small containers. She enjoys watering them every day and watching them grow. To celebrate her plants' graduation to the outdoors I wanted to do something special for her. I decided to make a planter box to transplant her precious plants. In the spirit of environmental conservation I decided to upcycle an old dresser drawer that was originally destined for the land fill. This project is very quick, cheap, and requires close to no tools to make. Follow along and I'll show you what I did.

To make the dresser drawer planter box I used the following:

• Used dresser drawer
• Hammer
• Medium sized nail
• Cardboard
• Soil
• Plants
• Paint (I used Chalk Paint)
• Sticky back paper

I used a hammer and a medium sized nail to hammer a few drainage holes in the bottom of the box. Alternatively you can use a screw and drill. Make sure the holes don't exceed 1/4" in diameter as this would allow too much soil to escape.

I used chalk paint to decorate the planter box; I went with a star spangled theme. First, I painted the box blue. Then I cut out my own star designs on sticky back paper. I cut out the stars and stuck them to the box where I then painted white starts around the box. Allow the box to dry before starting on the next step.

*Note: Member Drewlozano4321 brings up a good point about preventing rot in the comments, and I'd like to expound on my reply here. To prevent rot use an outdoor oil based primer before painting the box. Also, some woods are naturally rot resistant such as black locust, teak, ipe, redwood, bald cypress, red cedar, loblolly pine, and European larch. Check out what's local and cost effective

I'm adding worms to the soil so I placed a piece of cardboard at the bottom of the box. This will prevent the worms from escaping the bottom of the box. Then I added soil to the box. I used soil from my compost pit and my own garden.

Finally, add your desired plants to your new planter box and place in a spot with plenty of sun. These boxes are decorative, and aesthetically pleasing; I placed mine on my front porch for everyone to enjoy. Best of all, my daughter loves her plants' new home outside.