Thursday, August 15, 2019

Potting Bench

I'm super excited about what we built from salvaged wood! Maybe you guys remember from the photos of the yard the mess of wood along the fence?
I offered it all, plus the big logs, for free on craigslist. Unsurprisingly, we had no takers for the lumber but plenty of people wanted the logs.

Yesterday, Aaron and Jeff worked on cleaning up this back area so they could start prepping the soil for planting. Jeff decided to just take all the wood to Metro for disposal; they would know what to do with well-weathered wood. But as they walked past with load after load of all that salvaged wood, I couldn't do it...

I ran into the house and looked up a few projects made from 2x4s and printed out the plans. We made the first one today!! A planting bench—just in time for my new seedling project.
We got this design from Ana White's website: Simple 2x4 Potting Bench. The design was super easy to follow and really the whole project took us maybe three hours. Jeff did make one modification from her plan. He didn't like the way the cross braces attached into the edge of the thin boards so he added another 2x4 for it to screw into.

The tabletop and shelf were finished with the old fence slats. The guys took the fence panels apart last night and Jeff cut the pieces down to size. I sanded the boards that went on the tabletop because they were a little splintery (is that a word?). Since they are wider than the 1x4s in her plan we had to adapt the design a bit; there are fewer slats and more overhang.

I'm still debating whether I'm going to do any more sanding of the horizontal surfaces before it moves into the basement. I may also finish the tabletop with varnish or something. I haven't decided. We also haven't installed the little shelf on the top yet. The fence boards were too thin to screw into the edge. I need to go dig through our scrap in the garage to find a better piece of wood.

Stay tuned for another project soon (I hope).

7 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm really looking forward to using it this fall.

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  2. What a great use of materials! It looks wonderful and no doubt will get plenty of use!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. I feel particular glee when I get to reuse salvaged wood like this.

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  3. You are going to pot things in the basement? Why not the garage or outside?

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    Replies
    1. Because that's where my seed starting station is.

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