Introduction: Build a Plant Box From an Old Futon Base

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Hi again,

This is not a new idea, there's tens of similar instructables. I guess you could find new ideas from reading mine or maybe you'll simply have the same materials laying around as I did.

Ok.... I love growing tomatoes but I am limited by the space on my balcony. I decided to build a large box to plant my tomato plants in. I could have bought new wood or I could have picked up a pallet somewhere but I decided to reuse an old futon base that I had laying around.

Step 1: Materials Required


- An old futon base
- Drill
- Some type of cutting mechanism (I used a bench saw)

Step 2: Taking the Futon Appart


This is pretty easy as these things are not usualy glued.

It's a simple matter of taking out the screws.

Step 3: Cutting the Boards

Again, very simple step here.

The way I designed the box was using 4 boards on the bottom and 3 boards for the walls. To hold these togheter I used 4 boards in every corner attached by screws.

Those 4 boards need to be cut to the proper size. This is a simple matter of measuring the height of your 3 wall boards minus the thickness of the base board.


Step 4: Drilling and Assembling

If you read the previous step you already have a pretty good idea of what the assembly will look like.

Here's a few pointers, the pictures will explain the rest.

Drill holes ahead, I tried putting in the screws directly but the wood split.

Reuse the screws from the futon.. you'll save money and save the planet (somewhat)

I created holes on the ends to make it easier to carry.

Step 5: Balcony Setup


This is just to show you how I use my balcony for my plants.

As you can see I built a counter that's attached to the rails. Right now I put the box on top of it so that my tomato plants get as much sun as possible.

Once they're tall enough I'll put them on the ground and pull the leaves out of the fence I use to cover the rails ( you can see what I mean by looking at my strawberry plants).

This will act as a holder for the plants and allow me to save space at the same time.