For some reason I have gotten really focused on my home’s curb appeal. Even though it’s December. Not the best timing, but I was able to squeeze in one last project before having to call it quits outside until spring.
When you pull up to my house, one of the first things you see is the garage. We were able to change our shutters which really helped, but I have a few more ideas for making that wall more appealing. The next was creating a flower box!
I know it doesn’t look massive when you see it on the wall, but this is a 5ft box! I plan on having long draping flowers in the spring to break up this wall, but with December weather, all I’ve got for now that stands a chance is pansies lol
This whole project took about 40 minutes to build. Honestly, if it had been first story flower boxes we would have been set.
I basically used 5 foot boards to make the box. The only thing I didn’t account for with my measurements was putting the end pieces on added some length to each side, so my third board, needed to be just a bit longer, so I adjusted accordingly.
Knowing how my board were going to sit on the brackets I had bought, I was okay using a nail gun to construct this without fear of the board sagging.
Not that you will be able to see from the second story and the fact I painted it black, but I decided to add just a little trim to the front of the box to make it more polished looking.
I ended up deciding to use spray paint on this box. I guess we will see with time how it hold up in the sun, but it certainly made it easy to paint really quickly! My hope is that it won’t peel off like some hand-painted things do! Or at least will take longer? Fingers crossed.
Next up was attaching the brackets. This was the hardest part, but again, if I wasn’t balancing on a ladder this wouldn’t have been difficult. We were figuring out where the studs were, and with where they lined up with where the box was going, we opted to do side by side so that it had as many touch points in a stud as possible.
We used 3 and 3/4 inch exterior wood screws. I predrilled as much as I could, but even still it took some elbow grease to get them in. I can tell you with certainty that box isn’t going anywhere.
It’s so funny to see the box against the window. I’m telling you, it’s huge, but against the house, it just looks proportional. Which is just fine, but I’m glad I didn’t go with the standard premade 2.5-3 ft ones!
I spent way too much time researching how people prepped their flower boxes. Basically you can find something to support anything you want online. I was hoping to not have to drill holes in the underside of the box, because my fear is that when the dirt was watered or it rained it would have dirt drips going down the side of the house.
So I opted to try this, knowing I can always add the drainage holes later if need be. With it’s location and the jut of my roof, I think I will be just fine. And hopefully can just focus on watering flowers out the window for a while LOL
Aaron was able to find me non-biodegradable packing peanuts (harder than you would think, which is actually a good thing. The US is transitioning away from using them, but these were from a package from the UK that came to his store.)
The next layer I did was just with pond rock. The logic being, as long as I don’t overwater or we don’t get ridiculous rain, the peanuts and rocks act as an irrigation of sorts, but the peanuts are lighter and don’t weight down the box too bad. Again, we hope.
Then I added in my super discounted pansies because there are very few other crazies working on the outside of their house right now. However, I wasn’t going to wait until spring to show you guys what I had been able to make, so for now, I’ll leave you with my plans, and you best believe come spring, it’s happening!
