Today my friend Chris is sharing his free building plans and tutorial for building this perfectly adorable Adirondack chair planter. This is a fantastic scrap wood project and will add a touch of whimsy to your porch or patio.
Howdy, I’m Chris. A long time friend and extra set of hands for Shelly. You may recognize my hands in photos from other famous builds, like the DIY Paint Booth and Melted Crayon Desk.
I kicked Shelly out of her shop and built an Adirondack chair planter for a gift.
My mom had this Adirondack chair planter for years, exposed for 3 seasons of Canadian weather.
While the Adirondack chair planter was a neat design, it likely was never made for longevity in our weather.
One day, when Shelly was busy and trying to keep me occupied, she sent me out to the garage and told me to rebuild the chair planter for my mom.
This really was a simple build with the materials list consisting of one single 6’ fence board – cedar or pressure treated, ripped down to 1 ¼” strips. Alternatively, hit up your scrap wood pile – the lengths needed to build this planter are fairly short, so you likely have more than what you need already on-hand.
Cut list
- 12 @ 9 x 1 ¼
2 Arms
4 Verticals
6 Horizontal Sides
- 10 @ 10 x 1 ¼
6 Front and Rear Horizontals
3 Bottom Supports
1 Upper Rear
Back Pieces
- (2) 10 ¼ x 1 ¼
- (2) 9 ¾ x 1 ¼
I drew up some quick plans in Sketchup, labelling where I could.
Chair planter build
I started by assembling the sides first, since that’s the main structure of the Adirondack chair planterr.
Marking my 2 ¼” up from the bottom, I glued/nailed those in place, then using a ½” spacer, adding 2 more rows. Repeat for the other side.
Then attach the “arms” to the tops of the Adirondack chair planter.
Now, standing the sides up, glue and nail the 10 ¼” horizontals, to the front and back, following the same spacing as above.
Decide which will be the back of your Adirondack chair and add the 10 ¼” piece labelled upper rear (best seen on the Sketchup Drawing because I forgot to take a photo)
Lay out and then glue/nail the bottom support pieces for your planter. This is what your potted plant will rest on. Note: you’ll want to use outdoor appropriate wood glue (Amazon affiliate link) for this project if you want your planter to last through weather and waterings.
Finding the center point on the rear of the Adirondack chair planter and space out your 2 x 9 ¾ pieces at the outside, and 2 x 10 ¼ towards the inside
At this point, the boss came out to the garage and suggested adding a 5th piece to the back, in the center. While it wasn’t in my original drawing, it looked vastly better, but will take some futzing around if you’re going to try and slot one in.
And here is the finished Adirondack chair planter, hanging in mom’s back yard, brightening up the patio.
All in all, a win. I just love doing one-board plans. Mom is tickled pink and using pressure treated lumber, this Adirondack chair planter will last for years to come and maybe most importantly, I stayed out of Shelly’s hair, AND, let her win with the design change at the end.
A success!