Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Hang Window Boxes

Word up my fellow Pinterest playas. Hope you got down with some baking, crafting, painting, organizing, sewing, building, or knitting fun because it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing). The only rule is to pin something you’ve wanted to get done (big or small) and do it. You know, instead of sitting on your duff pinning other things… which I’ll admit happens a whole lot in my world.

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Our mission this season? Window boxes! I actually pinned two window-box related pics, this picture just for the eye candy of it (at $90+ bucks per box they’re purely for inspiration) and this tutorial for making them (which we planned to do if we couldn’t find ready-made ones in our price range). We thought they’d add some nice dimension and soft greenery to our long boxy ranch, and they’d been on our list for a while. They’re definitely not necessary for resale or anything, but we just couldn’t part with this house without seeing how cute they’d look. How’s that for being a weirdo? Anyway, here are the three windows that we thought could use some quaint greenery…

Window Boxes

And here are the materials (the window boxes, liners and brackets) that we grabbed last week at Home Depot (we priced out building vs. buying and realized it was pretty close).

Window Boxes 1 Materials

We loved that the planters were clean-lined and mid-century-ish (it was like they were made for a ranch). As for how to hang them, here’s what worked for our brick facade:

Step Numero Uno: Use a hammer drill to drill pilot holes for the screws for each bracket (after carefully marking where you want them to go by holding up the window box to make sure it’s centered).

Window Boxes 2 Drill Pilot Holes

Step Dos: Hang the brackets according to the package instructions (you’re essentially just drilling them into the pilot holes you make while adding that weird little metal thing up top (we’ll get into what that’s used for in a second). Oh but we made two mistakes for you, so now that we know what not to do, we wanted to spread the word:

  1. Don’t use the cheap/short/non-masonry screws that come with the kit! We had 2″ masonry tapcon screws that we had leftover from our fireplace project that worked really well.
  2. Don’t use a regular drill to get the screws in, be sure to use a hammer drill! It really got them in tighter and the ones we screwed with the regular drill were lose and needed to be redone.

Window Boxes 3 Drilling Bracket

Step Tres: Once we got our method down, it was easy to get them in nice and tightly. And then the weird metal thing on the top of the bracket could be bent over the window box once it was placed onto the bracket, thereby locking it into place. The metal thing was so soft you could just bend it with your hand. Although I should have told you guys that it was crazy hard and the only reason I could do it with my bare hand is because The Hulk is my second cousin.

Window Boxes 4 Attaching Box

Step Four: Drop the plastic liner into the planter box while making a weird face (check). Oh and be sure to pop out the two drainage holes in the plastic liner beforehand (I used a house key to smash them out since they were slightly perforated but I couldn’t get them with my finger). The cool thing about the drainage holes in the plastic liner is that they line up with the pre-drilled drainage holes in the planter box, so that was nice planning on Home Depot’s part.

Window Boxes 5 Putting Liner In

You might wonder what John and Clara were doing while I was on window box duty…

Window Boxes 6 Clara Mulching

Yup, they were spreading mulch. And it was adorable. And we all had about 100 inch worms on us by the time we were done outside.

Window Boxes 7 Clara Mulching 2

But back to the window boxes. I used an old “cheaper and already grown in” trick, which is to buy two hanging baskets from a local nursery (Great Big Greenhouse, here in Richmond, where I actually had a store credit so they didn’t cost me anything). The reason hanging baskets are so smart for window boxes is because they already spill down and appear to “drip” instead of the typical pots and flats that they sell for gardening. Hello, instant gratification!

Window Boxes 8 Hanging Basket

I just dumped them out and very very carefully divided them as gently as I could…

Window Boxes 9 Dumped Out Flower

… and bam: I had a few spilling-over flowers for each window box, without having to play the waiting game while they grew over the edge.

Window Boxes 11 After Full House

Aren’t they cute? I have no idea what kind of flowers these are. I think the white and pink ones are petunias though. Maybe these purple guys are some other blend of mini ones?

Window Boxes 12 After Purple Detail

I think the window boxes are sweet little additions. Not giant and commanding, just casual and simple. I actually love that they’re the color of the brick so the flowers are the star and they don’t look too busy. And as they continue to fill in and spill out more I think they’ll look even better.

Window Boxes 13 After Other Side

So there you go, three window boxes, some tips for what not to do while hanging them, and one way to find already-droopy flowers to fill them.

Window Boxes 14 Pulled Back

And just look at that fresh come-hither mulch. Me-ow.

Don’t forget to check in on Katie, Emily, and Renee to see what awesome projects they’ve whipped up (they’ll all be sharing theirs sometime today as well)!

  Pinterest Pic

And we’d love to hear what you guys did for this season’s challenge. If you’ve already blogged about it, just:

  1. click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are added)
  2. add a link to your specific blog post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
  3. where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “Homemade Leaf Wreath”) as opposed to your actual name
  4. we’d also love if you could quickly link back over to our project posts within your own (here’s Katie’s, Emily’s and Renee’s) – it’s also nice to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, just so they get some love too.

And if you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). I’m borderline too excited to see what you guys have been up to…



Comments

  5. Chelsea @ Riding Escalators says

    Super cute! We’ve been wanting to put window boxes on our house too, but I’ve been holding off since I’m not sure about how it will work with our siding. I also thought the cheapest way to do it was going to be to build them – so I’m glad to hear that buying may be just as cheap (cheap in a good, economical way – not cheap in a ‘gurl that dress makes you look cheap’ way!) lol

    Reply

    • Kathryn says

      Neither had I! It’s one of those real, “Well, duh. Why didn’t I think of that?!” things. Kind of genius.

      Speaking of flowers, I was looking over the exterior house tour photos yesterday, Sherry. Holy springtime! The back of the house (recently updated?) photos are gorgeous!

  8. Stephanie says

    They are so cute! and the last picture is my favorite, the house looks great with the window boxes and pergola! I want a pergola!

    Reply

  9. Martha says

    I love the window boxes . . . but the true stars of this post are Clara’s pink sparkly Tom’s!!!!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hahah! Those are shoes she picked out at Kohl’s with her Grammy actually, but don’t they look like Tom’s? I think the brand is called Grasshopper?

      xo
      s

  10. Chrissy @ Two Everyday Divas says

    Thank you for hosting the Pinterest Challenge again! It is always so much fun and I love seeing what projects people have taken on (and finding more pins to add to my ‘to do’ pinboards)! Your window boxes look great, and buying hanging plants to fill them up is a stellar genius idea!!

    Reply

  12. Sandy says

    They look so nice and inviting! I’ll miss our home. (Sigh) Yeah I know … sounds creepy. Just having a sad moment. :-(

    Reply

  15. Marji Roy says

    The window boxes are a wonderful touch and hopefully they’ll make a sale come through quickly! Congrats on the new house. Thanks for having this challenge along with your other blog friends. I so needed a motivator and this got me going. Off to visit some of the other contributors now.

    Reply

  16. Kimberly @ Turning It Home says

    They look great, guys! I also love how fresh mulch looks so inviting, we just spread some mulch ourselves and I can’t stop staring at our garden beds.

    If you don’t mind me asking, how to you pick the guest hosts? Sorry if that’s a nosy question!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Since this is Katie’s brain child, she does that each time, but her method is to look at people who shared projects that she really liked the previous season and then she reaches out to them to see if they’re interested in playing along :)

      xo
      s

  19. Ashley says

    What a smart tip with buying hanging baskets! I did a plant-themed project this time too, but now I’m playing the waiting game while things fill out and spill over.

    Reply

  20. Stephanie says

    The window boxes look great!! The purple flowers are called ‘million bells’ and they come in a huge variety of colors – they love the sun and do really well in container gardens! They also attract hummingbirds!

    Reply

  21. Christine@DecorumDIYer says

    Thank you so much for hosting and congratulations on your new home (again). ;)

    I have been wanting flower boxes for our hum-drum 1960’s rancher forever. My husband just isn’t on board, but perhaps your project breakdown will help me persuade him? Thanks so much!

    Reply

  23. Krista @thehappyhousie says

    Yay!! Thanks for hosting such a fun party… can’t wait to see what everyone has been creating lately:) LOVE your window boxes… your home looks so charming. Every time I see your yellow door I start thinking about repainting mine, it is so fabulous!
    Krista

    Reply

  24. Karen says

    I love window boxes, but I thought the purpose of the Pinterest challenge was to link to the pin that inspired you and then to actually complete a project.

    Does buying pre-made window boxes and hanging them really count?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Absolutely! You can pin anything and the challenge is just about getting off your duff and getting it done (even if it’s just organizing your pantry, planting annuals around the mailbox, or hanging a gallery of store bought frames)! We linked to the two pins that inspired us, and in keeping-it-real fashion, after we priced out building them (which was our initial plan) we learned that buying them was just as cost affective… so we weren’t going to build something “just for the blog” if it made more sense to buy them and share how to hang them & fill ’em with flowers (heck, that might be more helpful to most people). The Pinterest challenge is all about getting things done that you dream about doing (big or small) – and having fun along the way! :)

      xo
      s

    • Linda says

      What I loved about this example was that (a) it’s not always cost or time effective to DIY every little (or big!) thing; (b) the tips about adding in better masonry screws and which drill bit would work best (heck, how many people have never messed with their brick exteriors and don’t know where to start), and (c) the use of hanging baskets. I just realized two years ago that it can be way cost effective to buy hanging baskets and redistribute the plants into other planters for my patio and the front entry of my condo building. Instant gratification is not always bad!!!

  25. Gretchen says

    Congratulations on your new petunias. A word of warning though – they dry out quickly and once they do, they don’t bounce back. Water regularly!

    Reply

  27. Gabriella @ Our Life In Action says

    I’ve been wanting to add window boxes for some time. They just make a house so much cuter in my opinion. :-) Great Job!

    p.s – We all know you guys must be super busy with all the going-ons with the new house. Thank you for taking the time to host another edition of Pinterest Challenge. I love these.

    Reply

  28. Cathy says

    I still can’t believe you guys are moving…again! What’s the reasoning behind it? It seems like you guys just got done remodeling the big things – kitchen and deck – don’t you want to finally enjoy it? Could it be that…*gasp!* you guys are expecting??

    Reply

  30. Kelsey // It Takes Two says

    Love them! And I had never thought of using hanging baskets in window boxes for instant gratification. I’ve been debating adding window boxes to our house so I’ll have to keep that tip filed away if we do.

    Reply

  31. Keri says

    Wow…the picture where you’re putting the liner in – the resemblance between you and Clara is nuts! I’ve followed since the beginning and never noticed that. Pretty, pretty girls! Oh, and pretty window boxes, too!

    Reply

  32. Starr @ The Kiefer Cottage says

    I want window boxes. I dream about them. But I shall have to wait on our new siding, whenever that happens.

    Petunias get leggy sometimes, so you might want to cut them back if they get really long–that’ll help thicken up the middle and keep them from getting ugly up top.

    Reply

  33. Christy says

    So thrilled you decided to make a post on this!!! I’ve been planning on tackling this project myself but have been pretty lazy about it. This might push me to actually get it done. Whats been holding me back the most is probably more of a style issue what type of boxes I was to put up.

    Reply

  34. Gina says

    I think the smaller flowers are calibrachoa. My husband runs a greenhouse and grows them all the time. So beautiful!

    Reply

  35. corrie says

    Thank you for posting! I’ve been wanting window boxes forever, but mots of what I looked at was so expensive. I somehow missed these affordable options!
    Can’t wait to tackle my own windows now.

    Reply

  38. Ali B. says

    The window boxes turned out so cute! It really adds to the curb appeal of the house. I’m still blown away by the pergola too. Great additions! I’m sure the house will sell in no time.

    Thanks for doing the Pinterest challenge again. It was just the jump-start I needed to finish up turning this antique radio I’ve had forever into a bar!

    Reply

  40. Amanda C says

    I love this, Sherry! I’ve always been a fan of window boxes but have never done them. It has added so much charm to your already quaint home. Great idea about planting them with flowers from hanging baskets – I never would have thought of that. :)

    Reply

  42. Tyson says

    Awesome addition – what would the plan be for the fall/winter? Leave them up? Take them down? Interested in adding them to our home but apprehensive on how they will look in the colder months.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Great question! Since we’ve loved them for years, we’ve kept an eye on them on other houses to see what those people do over the winter, and it seems to be common to plant something winter-hardy in them (pretty draping ivy or some small evergreen plant). It’s really fun to see all the color in the spring/summer/fall that flowers can add, but they’re cute with pretty green stuff feathering down too :)

      xo
      s

    • Jennie says

      I have seen people shove cut evergreen pieces into the box for Christmas / holidays. They stay fresh for a long time outside and look really festive, especially with some nice ribbon and maybe even some red dogwood branches, etc.

  43. Bailey says

    The window boxes add a wonderful touch to the front of the house! Great idea! Your tiny gardener is adorable ;)

    For my Pinterest Challenge post, I used your “Clara’s Cluster” method of hanging up some frames for a “wall art” project I saw on Pinterest.

    xox
    Bailey
    http://akabailey.blogspot.com

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, thanks for playing along everyone! We love seeing what you guys do – from recipes and sewing to hanging frames and painting furniture :)

      xo
      s

  45. Erin || Sewbon says

    Wow! These turned out great! I’m so impressed! Your house has such great curb appeal – it’s going to fly off the market. My husband and I are trying to sell our condo in Colorado now and it’s such a nail-biting process! :)

    Reply

  46. Liz says

    How is this a Pinterest challenge entry – you didn’t build the window boxes. You just bought something and attached it to the house?

    Reply

  47. Liz says

    And I just read your “we love your comments!” blurb right below this comment box. No, you don’t share them all (good, bad or ugly). And no, spam filters don’t eat emails except on a rare, rare occasion anymore.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yup, we share them all! Here are the links to yours for ya:

      https://www.younghouselove.com/spring-pinterest-challenge-boxed-up/#comment-1527677

      https://www.younghouselove.com/heres-the-thing/comment-page-42/#comment-1514860

      https://www.younghouselove.com/heres-the-thing/comment-page-42/#comment-1514860

      https://www.younghouselove.com/made-in-the-shades/#comment-1482790

      https://www.younghouselove.com/fireplace-makeover-stick-a-fork-in-it/comment-page-5/#comment-1457804

      Sometimes spam filters eat comment entries if they see too many capital letters and exclamation points but we try to save as many as we can (just need to have that disclaimer up in case). Hope it helps :)

      xo
      s

    • Sarah says

      Sherry – you are a saint. I so admire how you deal with all the haters out there!

      Love the window boxes! I’ll admit that I was a touch disappointed that you bought them from the store (only becasue I admire all your DIY builds) but hey – if it makes more sense to buy, than buy! Thanks for always keeping it real!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, you’re welcome Sarah! You know we definitely love to build stuff when we’re saving loot or making something we can’t find in the store :)

      xo
      s

    • Maryellen says

      Sherry for the win! Your graciousness is truly a model for dealing with negativity.

      I don’t get to read through all of YHL’s comments, but is Liz the new Bob?

    • rachael says

      Busted!! LOL. Good on ya, Sherry, you are so decent to complete strangers who are rude! Hey Liz, if you hate this blog so much why the heck do you read it?

    • LMN says

      Sherry. This is my most favorite response ever. EVER. And you’re still nicer than most of us would be about it. :-)

    • Sara says

      Way to go Sherry! I would never handle something like this as well as you do. I definitely don’t LOVE everything you guys do with your home, but I definitely see purpose in it and can always appreciate your skills and willingness to try new things. Keep it up! I can’t wait to see you transform the new house.

    • Crystal says

      Why do you even follow liz? Why even bother making a comment if its a negative one? Its amazing they make an effort to post all the comments and even respond. This blog is their job, as was pointed out in the post and follow up comment. It only makes sense they would move and start on a new home! Especially when its for the additional reasons they stated. I also took the liberty of reading your other comments.. they too just seem to hate. Why bother? Seriously? Sherry shouldn’t even have to respond to a post like this on their own blog. You have a choice to spend your time doing something you enjoy.

    • Liz says

      WOW! While some may appreciate your responses to me, my first thought is……you have WAAAY too much time on your hands, as do some of your followers! You not only replied here, you found all of my posts (I’m not a follower, just curious on stuff that makes absolutely no sense to me) AND you sent me an email saying all of this. My suggestion would be to spend your time on better things if my comments make me a “hater.” The cutesy responses and exclamation marks only make an impression and fool some of your stalker followers. Yes, it’s weird. Carry on with your new house!

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Just takes me a second to click the IP address in your comment and all of your previous comments come up (it’s a standard WordPress feature for bloggers). We use it a lot, like if a contest winner has a typo in their email we look for a previous comment to get the right address and let them know they’ve won. I promise it was no trouble at all :)

      xo,
      s

    • Evelina says

      Sherry, full of grace! This blog is lovely and amazing. I read every day and so do thousands of others. Stay positive and please don’t ever change!

  49. Guylaine says

    Hello!!!
    Thank you so much for the good tips!!!
    We want to do that soon.
    That’s help me!
    Very beautiful result!!!
    Have good day :)

    Guylaine

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha! We knew the second we mentioned it you guys would snap into new house mode- and we have to admit we’re having trouble not doing that too! Still gotta get this baby sold and get all packed up and move over there, so posts will be transitioning from here to there for a while. We’ll share as many updates as we can though :)

      xo
      s

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