Upcycled Bench Planter

Those that know me personally know that I'm a pack rat. So when my husband and I were cleaning out our rental property after tenants left and I found our old bench just thrown in the backyard, my husband rolled his eyes. He knew what I would say next. :-)

In usual form he gave me an argument for throwing it out, but I just couldn't. I have had this bench for a really long time and it was really nice once. Sure, it was in bad shape now after the tenants just left it to rot in the backyard, but I knew I could do something with it.

The metal had fallen out and the wood was really bad. Honestly, even if I could refinish it I wasn't sure where I'd put it. Do I really need a bench? Sure...I'll find a spot for it.

After some thought I decided to make it a planter for our front garden. So off to Lowe's we went to get new wood, some flowers, potting soil and containers to hold the flowers.

My husband started by cutting the wood to size and replacing each plank.

We purposely left two planks out so that the planters would fit. You'll notice we went with a much thinner width wood because it was less expensive. Since no one is going to be sitting on it, we figured it would be ok.

While my husband worked on the bench, I planted the flowers in the containers.

This was a very quick project, for the most part. The only part that took some extra care was carving out the top wood piece to fit the metal insert, which my husband cut by hand. He's so talented. :-)

Here is the bench with all the wood replaced and the metal insert attached.

The next step was to put on a quick coat of stain to somewhat protect the wood. I would love to have it weather but not rot.

Final step is obviously to put in the planters, which fit perfectly (thank goodness!), and put it in place in our gargen.

A little closer look.



And then the rain down pour started right after the last photo. :)