Recreating a vintage planter

A couple of weeks ago, a friend helped me rebuild some broken down planters.  When my husband and I bought our lake cottage twelve years ago, it came with a homemade planter that I loved.  The original planter had been built by the former owner in the 1990's.  

I've been using it every year, and it was beginning to slowly break down.  This spring, I noticed it was leaning to the side.  When I tried to righten it, the wood on the base gave up completely, and crumbled into pieces. I set the planter back down; it was about 6" shorter.

Here's how it looked:

Here's my shrunken, 30-year-old planter

I loved the style of it, it reminds me of the planters I'd see outside of farmhouses when driving through the country as a kid.  (Remember the little wooden wishing wells with flowers inside?  I love those too!)  I wanted to rebuild it exactly as it was, so I asked a friend if he would let me help him make a new one so I could see how.

The planter was made out of cut up timbers.

It really was as easy as he said it was, and I got to learn how to use a chop saw.

The saw part was easy; the only part that was a bit difficult was holding pieces tightly together while screwing them together at the same time - especially because they weren't all exactly even or straight.

They definitely required some manhandling.

Here's the old planter and the new one being built.  

We measured it to make an exact copy.

We discovered the old one was built around a small tree stump that was holding it in place.

Here it is finished!

All I have left to do is varnish it.

It looks so much better now.

While we were at it, we replaced a few other worn out wooden yard pieces at the same time.  There was a small garden box made with the same timbers.  They were crumbling too.  We enlarged the box a little and replaced all the timbers.

Here's the new garden box, same style as before.  

But now I can fit two rows of plants!

There was a really cool wooden bench with iron legs that came with the cottage as well.  After decades outside, it's wood was destroyed too.  I was driving down the road last summer when I saw a sign that said "free wood."  Someone with some nice wood that was already planed had stacks of boards by the side of the road for anyone to take.  So I took a couple that I thought might work well to cut down to make a new seat for the bench.

Here's how it looked put back together:

I've definitely scored my share of cool stuff for free from the side of the road in my life.

But this nice, already-planed wood was a huge win.

I love the bark still on the sides.

My buddy James was a childhood friend of my husband's.

You know someone is a real friend when he is willing to teach you something he could do in one-third of the time it takes him to teach.

But then, he did have the pleasure of my company...

Seriously, I have learned so many useful skills from him over the years.

Five hours.  Three projects complete. ✔

The hard part is done, now the fun part - what am I going to fill the planters with?