DIY Planter Basket With Casters

Turn an old wicker basket into a DIY basket planter! It’s an easy project that’ll give new life to your old baskets, and it has casters for easy rolling!

I know I’ve been falling behind with my blog posts, but I promise I am up to some excellent stuff! We just signed a contract with a builder, and my long-awaited dream will soon be a reality [insert drum roll]: we are getting a new deck! YAY! I’ve been dreaming of a big, dark brown deck since we moved here.

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As I wrote this, Greg just started laughing like crazy, but I had no idea why. Then he told me. God, he’s such a jerk, LOL! When I write, I read my sentences back to myself to make sure I have my English correct. Well, apparently according to the jerk sitting next to me, I may have a small problem pronouncing the letter “e” in certain words. I’ll leave the rest up to you to figure out. He is such a silly bugger sometimes! 😀

Anyway, we are getting a new deck – twice as big as the old one. You’ve all seen pictures of the old one – it was painted gray before we moved in, but the paint has almost totally peeled off the floor, and the wood beneath is getting old and starting to rot. It is such an eyesore! Oh, the new deck will be my dream come true! I can just picture myself relaxing on a lounge chair eating one of Greg’s delicious meals and drinking my spiced rum on our awesome big brown deck! [Greg is still laughing so hard! Can someone please tell him to stop being so silly! Thank you! :-D]

I’ve already started planning all sorts of new things for the new “dEck”:

• two Morrocan style side tables – he doesn’t know it yet, but Greg will be building them, hahaha :-D. I know – he never gets rest, but once this deck is done, I won’t be asking a thing from him for at least 2 weeks. I promise! 😉 [This is total bullcrap! Handan gets to enjoy her big brown deck while I work like a rented mule to make the deck furniture! -Greg]
• some rattan seats – I am opting for the generic patio furniture from Home Depot or Lowes, but that is, of course, if I can find something comfortable enough for my babes – you know how much I care for his comfort ;-). [Why bother, woman? I’ll never get to use them! -Greg]
• a patio heater for the cooler nights – I actually prefer cuddling my awesome, talented and “oh so handsome” hubby when it gets cold [You’re gonna need a bigger shovel for this load of crap, woman! – Greg], but we still will be needing something for our guests.
• another big cantilever umbrella – at least until we can afford a nice gazebo or a pergola.
• a small water fountain – only if I can find something affordable. Those things seem to be crazy expensive, but we’ll see… I might be able to find something on Craigslist, or maybe I can DIY one 😉
• some string lights to nicely light up the new deck.
• maybe a doggy bed for our beautiful girls – in fact I have a great idea for that, but we’ll see how doable it will be.
• and of course all kinds of planters.

I know, I know…I should actually prepare a mood board to show you what will go on our new deck and what not, but I will do that in another post. Today I want to show you the first planter I finished for the new deck. 🙂

I found this guy at Put & Take. I know, right? Who would throw a perfectly fine basket away? Well…Lucky me someone did!

As it was a free find and had really strong bones [metal frame! Can’t beat that :-)], I thought why not give it a makeover and turn it into a planter basket? Since I am not really a fan of very light color wicker, I opted for darkening its color first. I had some Java color Folkart chalk paint on hand. Using that, I started dry brushing the basket in and out. The darker it was the better it would hide the dirt.

After achieving the darkened tone I like, I left the basket aside to let the paint set properly.

Next, I had to strengthen the bottom. After all, the basket was pretty wide, so it could surely take more than one plant in it. And that meant the basket had to have a strong bottom to carry that weight. While I was at it, I might as well add some casters to it. To do so, I needed two pieces of wood to sandwich the bottom of the basket. Okay, that sounded a little confusing, but you’ll see what I mean in a bit.

Do you remember our Garden Shed Organization? Yes, that biiig clean-out project! Well, during that clean-out we found some extra plywood siding which the former house owners left behind. It was exactly the same plywood siding that they built the shed with. So instead of spending money on cedar, I asked Greg to cut two pieces of that plywood siding to fit inside of the basket.

Once he cut those two boards, I picked one and installed casters to it.

Next, I placed the second board into the basket.

Then, I put the board that had casters on the floor and placed the basket on it.

Next, using deck screws, I connected the two boards to each other, sandwiching the basket’s bottom in between.

Once I finished my work with the bottom, I again turned my attention to the overall look, as the basket seemed just so plain. I wanted to break the monotony either with block painting or with stenciling. But then I saw all it needed was a simple touch. So I grabbed a pick of Dollar Store flowers, bunched them with a craft wire, and cut the stems.

Then, I cut some sisal rope and made a knot right in the middle.

Next, I frayed both ends of the sisal rope to turn it into a sisal bow – just like the ones I made for our scrap wood sconces, remember?

Once I finished fraying, I connected the sisal rope bow and the flowers to the basket using craft wire, as shown in the picture below. And with that, my quick planter basket project was finished.

So how do you like my new planter basket? Not bad for a quick project, is it?

Oh, before I forget – do you know what else I found at the Put & Take just recently? The chair next to the planter. Yes, really! There are actually 2 of them. Oh, you should have seen my joy that day. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw these perfectly fine patio chairs being dropped off 😀 They even had their own cushions with them, but they were faded, and also…you know me…I get a bit paranoid about picking upholstered things from Put & Take, so I left them behind. But the chairs…they are awesome!

I bought these cushions from Home Depot which are a perfect fit for the chairs. And they look pretty good with the chair color, don’t you think?

Okay, okay, I know I’ve been yapping the whole time. So now I’ll keep quiet and leave you with the rest of the beauty shots.

I hope you liked my new planter basket. For now, I placed it right in between these chairs in front of our deck – where I sit and enjoy my morning coffee on weekends. When we have the new deck in place, my planter basket will take its new place on the deck. And I have to say, I indeed can’t wait for that day! 😀

Handan, xo