A Window Box Tutorial

I've been waiting for these window boxes for two years.  They were worth the wait.  I was able to think about how I really wanted them to look.  I did a lot of research and looked through my photos of our trip to Boston.  When we went there a couple of years ago I (like many others) fell in love with their window boxes.  The (lucky) people who live in Beacon Hill do the most amazing things to their window boxes.  We went in the fall and they were decorated so beautifully!  I was so inspired and asked my husband if he thought he could build me some.

We started by finding the most reasonably priced wood (we used pine) we could at our local hardware store.  Jason basically built your average window box to start.  Please pardon the dark, basement pictures.

Here he is nailing it together in our basement on a rainy day.

We took them outside to fill nail holes and sand them.  Here are the filled nail holes.  There were a lot of them.  Sometimes Jason goes a little overboard with the nail gun, which I guess is a good thing, since the window boxes will be exposed to the elements.

Here are the three window boxes after they were built.  The two on the left are for the front of the house.  The one on the right is for the back under my kitchen window.

I primed them and painted them.  I did one coat of KILZ 2 Latex primer (multi-purpose stainblocker) and three coats of an exterior semi-gloss white paint (Olympic).

Here is the molding.  It is made out of PVC and according to my husband, is really easy to work with.  I'll tell you that it paints up easily as well.  We caulked the gaps in the molding and between the wood and the molding with DAP Dynaflex 230 Premium Indoor/Outdoor Sealant.

Jason cut and mitered it and then nailed it into place.

Here are some before pictures of our windows sans window boxes.

Jason found these heavy duty, zinc-plated brackets (8" x 1-1/4")  to hold up the window boxes.  Since we were mounting them on our Lannonstone house, we used Tapcon Concrete Anchors (3/16" x 1-3/4").  We drilled into the actual stone instead of the mortar since the mortar would not have held the weight of the window boxes once they were filled.  He drilled the hole with a Tapcon carbide tipped concrete drill bit (5/32" x 5-1/2").  He also put a bead of silicone over the screw heads to prevent them from rusting.  To drill the holes he used the hammer drill feature on his drill.

Jason drilled two drainage holes on each end.

Here are the finished window boxes with the plastic planters inside.

I love the fact that they dress up the font of our house a little bit and add some curb appeal.

Thank you for the window boxes, Jason!  Boston, thanks for the inspiration!

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I am linking this up at Tatertots and Jello, which you can find here,

Home Stories A to Z, which you can find here,

Between Naps on the Porch, which you can find here, and

A Beach Cottage, which you can find here!

All are such lovely blogs! Check them out!