How to Build a Modern Herb Garden Planter

A few weeks ago I shared how to make DIY Outdoor Bar Shelves. I had a little bit of leftover wood that I didn’t want to throw away. Something fun could have been made with those pieces. I decided to build a modern Herb Garden Planter with what was left and it turned out even better then I could have ever imagined.

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Here is how I built my Modern Herb Garden.

The first step was to measure out how large I wanted my planter to be. I knew that I wanted it to be a long rectangle that was only as deep as a window sill. It also needed to be long enough to fit all 4 of our herb plants giving them plenty of room for growing. Once we measured out the shape of the planter we cut the boards to length using a miter saw and then I used the electric nail gun to nail the 4 sides and bottom together.

I wasn’t too worried about how the outside looked because my vision was to add a modern detail pattern along the outside of the planter.

Decorating My Planter

I wanted the planter to look modern so I chose to create a linier pattern and to keep it the natural wood. I grabbed a few trim pieces from the hardware store and cut them to match the height of my planter box.

Then I sanded all the wood down. I used my electric sander for the box and then hand sanded the detail pieces. This step removes any of the yellow tint in the wood and since I didn’t plan to paint it, it was a necessary step to get that natural looking wood color. Check out the difference between sanding and not sanding.

Attaching the Trim to the the Box

When it was time to add the trim, I grabbed an extra piece to use as the spacer. I turned it on its side so the space between each detail piece with thin and even. Wood glue seemed to be the best way to attach each trim piece to the box. This was a little bit of a tedious step, but totally doable outside on a beautiful day. I would have normally used our electric nail gun to do this step, but the nails would have been sticking through the inside of the planter and I didn’t want the nail hole to show on the outside since I was leaving it the natural wood.

Finally, don’t forget to drill holes through the bottom of your planter to allow water to drain out.

We planted Thyme, Basil, Rosemary and Sage in our planter. Duncan got a kick out of smelling all the different herbs. Here are a few of my favorite tools that helped make this DIY Project easy and fast!

Love this DIY Project? Check out my blog posts on How To Upcycle and Old Pot with Dirt and How to Makeover a Kids Outdoor Playhouse Make sure you are following me on Instagram for step by step videos and to watch the process on all my DIY Home Projects.

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