DIY Planter Boxes with Pallet Wood

Back in the Spring, we picked up a couple 14.9" square plastic garden planters from Home Depot. While they were a good deal and looked nice, they were lacking height and just didn’t have the look we wanted on our front porch..  

14.9 in. Warm Copper Leonardo Square Plastic Planter

Since we've been hoarding some dismantled pallet wood since last Fall, I figured it was time to put it to good use and a planter box project seemed like the perfect way to get rid of some of our stockpile.

I had a good idea of what I wanted and I found the plans for the project on Ana White's site:
Planter Box Plans. I didn't add up the cost of these boxes, because we had most of the wood and only needed a few pieces, but I'd say they were definitely less than $10 a box. 

1. Cut all your wood to size and lay out your sides.  We altered our dimensions to fit our HD planters so they would slip in for a snug fit.  We laid out all the sides to take measurements and make sure everything would be square once assembled.
2. Glue, clamp, and nail the cross pieces to the pallet wood side planks.
3. Drill pocket holes.
4 & 5 Insert your pocket hole screws and attach the legs to your sides.

We made the legs flush with the top of our sides and made a simple frame for the top.  This allowed the lip of our HD planters to sit firmly on top.  *Not visible: there is a shelf inside these planter boxes to hold the bottom of our HD planters.

Once assembled, grab a lovely assistant, paint, and brushes and finish your project! :)

{Watson did get a bit of white paint on him, haha}  

Something I didn't do, but wish I did: fill in the cracks with wood filler.  There were a couple places that really could have used it, but I was in a rush and decided to skip it.  They turned out great, but could have been even better had I taken an extra 30 minutes.   On an off weekend, we are going to use wood filler in the seams, sand them down, and do a second coat of white paint.