Building a window box

21 years ago

I would like to build simple window boxes for the front of my house.

A friend tried to talk me out of it due to the potential for rotting wood against the house etc. He also dislked all of the bracketry underneath and thought I would dislike the look.

He said maybe I could buy plastic ones.

I HATE that idea although would consider lining wooden with plastic liners.

Two bedroom windows on the front are 39x39 inches (which I have built wooden shutters out of 1x6 lumber for). A large living room window (109 inches wide) is also on the front of the house (no shutters possible as it takes the whole wall. The boxes are not going to subjected to a great deal of rain as they will be under the soffit requiring me to water them daily.

Does anyone have a simple plan that I could incorporate? Is there a mounting system that would minimize rot against my wood siding-perhaps some sort of spacers? Can I use chicken wire and cross braces along the bottom to allow for better drainage? If I use 1x6 for this project, how closely will I need to support across the window box to keep that length from bowing with the weight of potting mix and water?

Do I have to use brackets underneath or can I mount from inside the window box somehow?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (3)

duane456
21 years ago
I've been thinking of doing something similar. I don't want to attach it to the house. I'm thinking of making it free standing on rebar stilts or somehting similar. Close enough to the house to look like it is attached. What do you think?
Duane
Stellinate
Original Author
21 years ago
a free standing box on stilts might work for my larger window and is above a flower bed so I could further hide the short ( 2 foot or so) stilts with more plantings but the bedroom windows are high enough to be above my head (above an ivy bed), so to look right, they are going to have to be mounted as safely as possible to the house.
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Saypoint zone 6 CT
21 years ago
You could make a wooden box large enough to insert plastic window boxes or pots inside. This way the wooden box and your adjacent house will not be subject to the constant moisture. A single 1x3 installed lengthwise in the bottom of the otherwise bottomless wooden box will allow the plastic boxes or pots to drain freely. Or you could use hardware cloth stapled firmly to the inside for the bottom.

I have this same dilemma with my new shed which came with a wooden window box screwed right to the bottom of the window frame. I'm reluctant to fill it with soil and it's too small for more than three small pots. I'd have to remove the bottom of the box, too.