Monday, May 27, 2013

Flower Box Railing

I scoured the internet, looking for a picture of a flower box railing - not a flower box on top of a railing, or hanging from the railing. Not a box on the deck with a planter on top. Last summer we visited friends who had flower boxes that functioned as the deck railing - but I couldn't find the pictures I took of theirs.
So this weekend my husband and I built our own... and we love it!



We built it out of pieces of green treated lumber that we already had, so the only things we bought were the liners to plant the flowers in, and the flowers. After deciding on the height (22 inches high) We started by cutting two 4x4 posts. We notched them to slide on to the existing decking, and then my husband used lag bolts to fasten them to the 2x6 deck joist. Next we cut two 2x4s and screwed them to the posts, one on each side, and flush with the top of the posts. We used a level to make sure everything came out level. We built the flower box out of 1x6 lumber, using our finishing nail gun to fasten the pieces together. After that we used the table saw to rip a piece of 1x6 board into 1.25 inch strips for the top. We cut the ends at a 45 degree angle to make it look more finished. Those pieces also got nailed on with the gun. Craig screwed the box to the 2x4s and posts. We added a piece of 1x4 under the box on the open end to cover up the ends of the 2x4s and the post. Then we sanded the whole thing and it was done. It will get a coat of sealer when we do the deck this summer.
We decided to buy liners to plant the flowers in so that they can be taken out to dump out the dirt. Unfortunately, the hardware store only had one liner so I could only get half of the flowers planted. They should have more liners on Wednesday. I can't wait to see if full of flowers!

1 comment:

Carrie said...

What a cool idea!