A few weeks ago my husband and I took a long weekend vacation to Arizona.  It was partially for him to run a half marathon but the more important reason was to visit family.  My grandmother lives in Tucson during the winter and my aunt lives there year round.  We had such a great time during our visit and when I left I not only missed them but I also missed the amazing scenery and the warm weather.  I’m ready for spring weather so this week I decided to bring a little bit of Arizona to my home in Ohio by making a DIY rustic barn wood planter with a few cacti in it.  It’s a super simple project that only took me about 15 minutes to build and the box cost under $7 in materials.

Before I get into how I made the planter, just take a look at some of these views from our trip to Arizona.  It really is a beautiful state.

Ok, now on to the reason you are probably reading this.  Barn wood isn’t the easiest thing to come across so I actually designed this planter using one of the natural barn wood bundles that you can buy from Hobby Lobby.  I used the 48″ Natural Barn wood Bundle which comes with two boards.  The MSRP is $10.99 but you can always download a 40% off coupon so be sure to take advantage of that.  With 40% off, the barn wood bundle is less than $7.00!

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Materials

48″ Natural Barn wood Bundle

Wood Glue

Plastic Bag

Hot Glue

Plants (3 small cacti)

Cactus and Succulent Soil Mix

Small Rock Assortment

Grocery bag

Tools

Miter Saw 

Tape Measure

Clamps

Hot Glue Gun

Directions

Step 1 – Cut boards to length

The 48″ Natural Barn wood Bundle comes with two boards.  You’ll need both of them but there will be some left over on the second board.  To fit the three small cacti, I made the following cuts:

1. Bottom board – 16″
2. Sides – two of them at 3-7/8″
3. Front and back – two of them at 17-1/16″

Step 2. Glue the boards together

Use wood glue to attach the boards and make a box.

Below you can see where I have already glued the short side pieces to the bottom.  I then applied a bead of glue to the perimeter of the front and back boards where they will meet the bottom and side pieces.

Step 3 – Clamp it up

I tend to use an excessive amount of clamps but I don’t think you can ever have too many right? I used as many as I could fit to properly hold the glued pieces in place.  Then, I let the box sit overnight to allow plenty of time for the glue to dry.  For added security you could add some brad nails but since the glue provides a very strong hold I think it’s perfectly fine without the nails. It’s not like this thing is going to get any wear and tear.  It’ll just sit on my shelf untouched until I kill the plants and have to replace them.

Step 4 – Waterproof the inside

This step sounds way fancier than it actually is.  I just took a bag from a grocery store and folded it to a size that fit nicely inside of the box.

To make sure that the bag didn’t shift after I put the plants and soil in, I added a few beads of hot glue to keep it in place.

Step 6 – Add Plants

That’s it for the box build!  It’s super simple and literally took me about 15 minutes to build (not including the time I waited for the glue to dry).  Once the box is built, you can add the plants of your choice.  I went with three cacti and added some small rocks on top for some extra pizzazz.  You may notice that the cactus in the middle isn’t exactly centered.  Well, I tried my best but these buggers kept pricking me so when I realized that they were off a bit I just accepted the fact since I didn’t want to deal with the pain of planting cactus anymore.

Here it is in the final resting place.  I have a book shelf in the hallway that connects my master bedroom to the closet and bathroom that needed a little something for the top shelf and this fits perfectly.  If you’re interested in the feather art, it is available for free download as well.

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Are you a cactus lover like me?  With the amount of travel that I do for my day job, any plant that doesn’t need watered every week is a winner in my book!

<3 Hannah