Turn Your Garden Planter Into a Secret Vault

Not everyone has the luxury of a spacious storage shed . If you love gardening but don’t have the space to store all the tools you need, one solution might be to turn those large garden pots into their own storage container. It’s easier than you think.

How to turn a wooden planter into a storage container

The inspiration for this tip comes from the TikTok account @DIYMontreal, who recently instructed some 340,000 followers on how to open plank planters to create an easy storage solution. If you have a large wooden planter (or want to buy one), take heed: it’s easy, but it will take some time. Watch this video first:

As you can see, your mission here is to tear off part of the outside of the planter with a small saw. The plants themselves actually only take up a small portion of the container at the top; the rest at the bottom is just empty space. Sawing off one side from the outside gives you access to this hidden compartment so you can store your old hose , shovels and more.

The trick is to make sure the panel is easy to attach and remove again – you do this with magnets. In a clamp, the magnets are placed in a small hole, but if you don’t have a power tool, know-how, interest, or time, you can opt for magnets that screw into wood ; just be aware that this solution means that the new “door” will not be flush with the other walls. Screw one end to the pot and the other to the panel, repeat this a few times around the perimeter of the door you are creating and you are done.

Other types of planters

This can be done with large ceramic planters as well, although the process is a bit less glamorous. Plant your plant in a regular plastic pot, then find a large decorative pot that is much larger than the plant’s actual home. Take some sturdy cardboard, cut a circle around the middle of the pot and place it inside. This will be a simple shelf that the plant will rest on, but will leave room at the bottom of the plant. You can place anything here as long as you don’t use it too much (since you’ll need to pull the plant out every time you want to access it) and don’t mind it getting wet.