Vertical Chicken Wire Planter on Pallet Wood

Last winter when my son was home visiting over the Christmas holiday, we have a few warmer days and he offered to do a little work for me.  I don’t think he was extremely thrilled to start disassembling pallet wood skids, but he made the best of it and by the end of the afternoon, I had piles of pallet wood strips in a variety of shapes, wood grains and sizes.

I knew I had plans for the wood but it would have to wait until warmer weather to be put to use,  so there it sat.

Well it’s been hotter than hates recently, and I finally have at least one pallet wood project out of the way.    

Vertical chicken wire planters attached to pallet wood

for my hanging flower basket pleasure…;)

Preparing the pallet wood

I started with several planks of pallet wood that were rather dull and beat up.

I lightly sanded the pieces, and then applied a mix of canola oil and vinegar to wood with a paint brush using the same recipe that I found on Hometalk,  here.  I gave all pieces 2 thick coats of the mixture with drying time of an hour or so in between.

Using stain and a clear coat would certainly have been an option, but I actually just wanted to bring out the natural color of the wood and nothing more for this project.

I also drilled two holes into the top section of the pallet wood piece, to run wire through later for hanging.

Making a vertical chicken wire planter

From there I gathered the following supplies:

2′ chicken wire roll

wire cutters

a staple gun

thin gauge wire (for hanging)

several clay planters (to weigh down the chicken wire while cutting out the pieces)

bucket (to collect all the scrap chicken wire pieces)

I rolled out some of the chicken wire and placed the clay planters on top to weight it down.

I cut several pieces of the chicken wire in a triangular shape, more or less.  A perfect shape wasn’t required, but I did make most of my pieces about 2/3 length of the 2′ chicken wire roll.

I rolled the triangle piece into a cone shape.    Note:  I did have some overlap and excess chicken wire that I snipped off after the chicken wire cones had been securely attached.

I laid the cone down along the piece of pallet wood and stapled one staple on both the top and bottom of the cone.  On the bottom section, I made sure to fold and tuck the chicken wire ends up so that it created a closed end.

Next, I had to push down on the top part or layer of the chicken wire cone so that I could reach the staple gun down far enough to staple sections of the bottom chicken wire layer onto the wood.  I wasn’t worried about crushing the chicken wire too much because it can always be formed back into shape.

Most of all, make sure the chicken wire is secure from top to bottom, by tugging on the wire from top to bottom.

Once I was sure it was attached to the wood securely, I molded the chicken wire back into its cone shape and snipped off the excess chicken wire (which went right into that bucket I mentioned earlier.)

I made some with one larger basket and some with two chicken wire baskets in a tiered or cascading fashion.

Finally I ran the thin gauge wire through the drilled holes for hanging. (Not shown in this picture.)

I was able to cut and attach all 5 planters shown in this photo in a matter of 4 hours, including clean-up and taking photos, which is better timing than I thought it would take.

I’ve seen plenty of moss filled chicken wire garden projects, so I’ve had this one on my bucket list for quite a while.  I like the idea that it can hang just about anywhere, once all assemble.  Of course, then there’s the task of filling it with plants or pretty flowers…

Click on over to see: How to fill a vertical chicken wire planter with moss and greenery.

You can also see more chicken wire projects, here.

Hope you are having a fabulous day!  ~ Amy

 Linking up at:

Confessions of a Plate Addict / The Scoop

Funky Junk Interiors / Pallets Only Club

 Best of DIY Link Party

Funky Junk Interiors/ Upcycled Moss Projects