5 DIY garden pallet planter ideas you can copy for free – and they're GORGEOUS!

Looking for cheap ways to create a garden packed full of character? Use pallets no one else wants to DIY yourself an original display

Lovatt thatched cottage potting table
(Image credit: Future / Brent Darby)

Fancy a great (and easy) garden DIY project? Pallet planter ideas are IT! Pallet furniture may be time consuming, but making a pallet planter is dead easy, and there are all sorts of configurations you can try. Paint your pallet planter or leave it natural; nestle plants on it or in the gaps; cut it up and reconfigure it or use it just as it was when it came off the skip you found it on... Explore a range of shapes, heights, and sizes below.

Then, head to our garden ideas hub page.

1. Use pallet planters for displaying pot plants

Garden with patio and watering can planters

(Image credit: Future)

Smaller-sized pallets will look great to accessorise a decking area. Paint yours to match the colour of your deck, or leave them natural to create a more rustic look. You can also mix and match pallet furniture with pallet planters for an all-wood outdoor area. 

Find more decking ideas in our gallery. 

2. Make your pallet planters portable

Maxine Brady transformed her small garden into a Moroccan-inspired haven

The rotten fencing was replaced with sleeker wooden panels with horizontal slats, painted white to reflect light around the garden. ‘I’ve also painted the pergola blue and some of the planters lilac to add more colour to the space,’ Maxine says. Fencing and pergola, Grange. Furniture painted in Mendip Mist, fences in China Clay and planters in Winter Sky, 
all
Protek Wood Stain. House painted in Spearmint masonry paint, Little Greene

(Image credit: Fiona Walker-Arnott)

Like rearranging your garden set-up? Make your pallet planters portable – all you need is some castor wheels, which you can easily get from a hardware store. They work particularly well on tall planters, like the ones used in this garden. 

3. Make a pallet plant stand 

garden

(Image credit: https://www.realhomes.com/completed-projects/real-home-explore-a-restored-17th-century-country-cottage?utm_content=buffer18f4a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR1T6B24zkDilyWEYSBskNQKe0WmjeCYigm5n0pKbqCMJinasCRHEPlr5F8)

If you have lots of smaller pots already, a large pallet or two will make a perfect plant stand for them. Simply take the planks off on one side and either reinsert to make a shelf, or stack two on top of each other for a multi-tiered plant stand. 

4. Use a pallet planter to start a kitchen garden

A pallet can make an excellent home for a kitchen or herb garden. You can fill the entire pallet with compost if you're growing just one type of herb or vegetable, or you can create a grid with a few extra planks if you want to separate the different plants. We love this one by @paletdecor. Worth a follow, too, if you like pallets and upcycling.

Find out how to plan a kitchen garden in our guide.

5. Fill a pallet planter with succulents

Pallets make for wonderful succulent display – because you can use the gaps between the pallet planks as well as the top. Choose small-sized succulents to make sure they fit in the gaps. This one was captured by @thisdoesntsucculent and it's brill. Worth a follow if you're a succulent fan!

Lucy Searle

Lucy is Global Editor-in-Chief of Homes & Gardens having worked on numerous interiors and property titles. She was founding Editor of Channel 4’s 4Homes magazine, was Associate Editor at Ideal Home, before becoming Editor-in-Chief of Realhomes.com in 2018 then moving to Homes & Gardens in 2021. She has also written for Huffington Post, AOL, UKTV, MSN, House Beautiful, Good Homes, and many women’s titles. Find her writing about everything from buying and selling property, self build, DIY, design and consumer issues to gardening.