How To Make A Chair Planter

From junk shop chair to garden feature ! First you need an old dining chair with a push out seat as this is where the flowers will be growing. If you haven`t got one lying around in a garage or shed, ask around friends and family or offer a couple of dollars for one in a junk shop, op shop or thrift store. If you want to paint the chair this is best done first, although a chair showing signs of age looks very good for this project too. You can get a very nice effect by painting your chair with one colour, leaving it to dry completely, and then applying another different colour all over.

When this second coat is completely dry, lightly sand off the second coat in the places that would naturally have received the most wear and the first colour will show through giving a very pretty distressed look, which you can then protect with a couple of coats of varnish.

When you have your chair frame looking the way you like it, fix a double layer of chicken wire where the seat used to be. A heavy duty staple gun is ideal for this job.

Next line the chicken wire with a good layer of pre soaked sphagnum moss as this will be needed to stop the soil falling through the wire.

When you have a good layer of moss in place, sit a plant pot saucer or small shallow dish on top of it, just to retain a little of the water and stop it dripping through quite so much. Then fill your moss lined chicken wire with soil or compost and add your plants.

Pansies look very good in these chairs , as does a cushion of busy lizzies. Climbing plants such as sweet peas will wrap their tendrils around the chair back giving another dimension to the display and a couple of variegated ivies or other trailing plants would look splendid curling down the legs. Copyright 2001 Colleen Moulding