DIY garden bench, window boxes, and shutters for the garden shed

It's been a busy few weeks in the basement workshop. Not only did I make three window boxes from old louvered closet doors left over from a bathroom remodel, but I've made a garden bench from an old headboard we were going to throw out. And then I made some shutters for the garden shed's round-topped windows.

An old headboard and foot board from a wooden bed frame
have been hanging out in the basement for about eight years

It was pretty easy to put the pieces together. a cut here a cut there, a coupla' screws here and there.

I didn't have any old wood the right size for the bench, so I did buy some. They're 2"x6" deck boards.

And the painting's been the fun part. The overall bench is the blue-green being used on the shed – only because that's the paint color I have the most of. Then the other colors from the shed are the other highlight colors. I have more to do – second coats, and the spindle across the top of the bench back.

I've got diamonds as a theme throughout my garden – from the checkerboard garden to the diamond-shaped pear tree espalier. Instead of just doing more triangles, I cam up with this icon of a diamond being grown from a terracotta pot.

I still may add some painted embellishments to give it a little more of a Mackenzie Childs vibe.

I'm only adding a set of shutters on one window of the shed. The other windows just don't have the space for shutters. But I wanted actual working shutters. I grew up in a house that had fake, decorative, non-working shutters and they always looked kinda' dumb to me.

I cut out the same diamond planter shape as from the bench. Continuity, repeated patterns. It's a designer thing.

The inside of the cut-outs got the terracotta paint color used on other parts of the shed.

Even though the window these will be on is not a working window, I wanted them to to be genuine, not fake. They'll get some hardware - decorative hinges and some handles that I have from some other project from the house from years ago.

From two closet doors, this is all I have left. I'll find another project for this.

they're deeper than needed, but I've filled them up about one-third with expanding foam and will line them with plastic and still provide some drainage holes.

Few coats of terracotta colored paint and they look like a million bucks.

Next up? A small slate-tile worktable, an arbor, and lattice panels – all for the exterior of the shed.