DIY Faux Concrete Planter

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I’m so excited to share our DIY concrete planter with you today!

I recently found a gorgeous GIANT rubber tree on Marketplace for a steal, but when I started looking around for new pots large enough to hold it, I quickly realized that pots the size we needed come with a hefty price tag. Hence, this DIY!

The plant came in a large pot, but it just wasn’t pretty. So this DIY planter is designed to be a box for the existing pot! But if you made it a solid bottom and filled it with rocks before applying soil (for drainage), it could absolutely be the planter itself.

First, photos don’t really show how big this beauty is! This is a 24 inch x 24 inch planter box. So, before you head to the store and buy these exact supplies, make sure this is the size you need and if not, adjust materials accordingly 🙂

What you’ll need for your DIY Concrete Planter:

* to note: we had most of these supplies beforehand. If you are buying everything, tools and all, this project will cost more.

4 1x6x8 pine boards
2 1x4x8 pine boards
8 feet of 3/4” quarter round
1-1/2” screws
2-1/2” screws
Electric Sander
Brad nailer
Drill
Gray spray paint of your choosing. This is the one I had on hand.
Henry Feather Finish
6 inch putty knife or taping knife

Step-by-Step for Building a Faux Concrete Planter:

Cut (4) 24” long pieces of 1×6 pine for each of the four sides.

Assemble each side by lining up the four pieces and screwing a board across the bottom and the top.

Stand the pieces up corner to corner and mount a 2×2 furring strip in each corner.

Cut and mount (4) 24” long pieces of 1×4 pine across the bottom.

To give the box a rounded shape to the corners, mount 3/4” quarter round trim on each corner top to bottom.

Take the electric sander and sand down the whole box to smooth out the surface before applying the feather finish.

Use the gray spray paint to cover any part of the wood that might be showing that you do not plan to apply the concrete finish to. This was parts of the bottom and inside edges for me.

After spray paint dries, mix up and apply feather finish with putty knife. Try to keep even strokes and smooth it out as much as possible as you go. You will want to keep sanding to a minimal in the end, so don’t bank on that. I found that the easiest way to do this was to use a smaller putty knife to apply the finish all over the surface, and then smear around and work towards solid, even strokes with the larger putty knife.

After the feather finish has dried (I let mine dry overnight), use a high-grit sand paper (I used 120) to sand rough parts smooth. I tried sanding the whole surface on one side, and it was not giving a great look. It brought out too much white in the concrete finish, in my opinion. So avoid going over the whole thing and only sand obviously rough parts. I found this was mostly the edges and corners for me. And beyond that I think leaving some of the lines and texture in the front surfaces really gives it character!