How to Make a Planter From an Old Drawer!

Operation Garage Cleanout continues!

I had another drawer in the garage that needed to be transformed and my daughter needed a big square planter for some sedum plants she was given. So, we made a planter!


This is the drawer before. It's the smaller match to the drawer I used to make a footstool. If you missed that post you can check it out here: How to Make a Footstool From an Old Drawer.


She wanted little feet on her planter so we used what was left of the table legs that I used for the footstool and attached them in the same manner.

There were only two table legs and one end was square and the other round. She decided mixing them up and having one round and one square on the front and again on the back would be cute. (Great minds think alike because that's what I did on the footstool too!) 😊


Then she decided that leaving the wood finish on the drawer and painting a chevron design would be cute. So, we taped off the design. This was another "no spend" project so we used some masking tape I had on hand.

Note: if you decide to try this painter's tape would work better than the masking tape we used. The masking tape bubbled up a little bit and the paint lines weren't as crisp as they should have been.


This is my daughter, Sydney, painting her planter drawer.



While the drawer was drying we painted the handle with Lagoon spray paint.


After two coats of paint, we pulled off the tape to reveal our new patterned drawer.

You can see how the lines are not as nice as they would have been with painter's tape. We did clean them up with a razor blade though and it's hard to tell unless you are really inspecting our work!


We then stapled some plastic around the inside of the drawer to protect the wood when it is watered.


Then we added some rocks in the bottom for drainage.


And then we added the potting soil.

The "flat" of sedum plants was a gift from one of her friends after he saw her admiring them at the store.


Then we just planted it! We decided to leave it in the square shape since we figured that they will spread out and fill in on their own. We did loosen up the roots though so they will grow in a normal fashion instead of continuing in their square form!


She was really happy with how it turned out and now she has a cute little planter on her apartment patio!


I donated the little cracked gnome and terracotta bunny to her patio decor.



We also planted a tomato plant for her patio...


...and some "cat grass" for her kitty 😺