Window Boxes in our 2nd Story Porch

These wonderful, handmade thrifted window boxes fit beautifully on the inside of the 2nd story porch south wall windows. Here is how I installed them.

This 2nd story porch was such a found treasure to me.

The first time I looked at our 100 year old house when it was for sale, (it’s a big ole rambling house) I was totally and very sweetly surprised when at the end of the 2nd floor hallway… or so I thought it was the end, not only did I find the back kitchen stairway that had been closed up from the kitchen end, as well as an attic stairway, but still there was another door! As I tugged it open I was greeted with this room… a wonderful 2nd story porch on the south end of the house!!

This hidden 2nd story porch gets amazing sunlight with huge expansive windows on all 3 sides of it. I’m sure originally it was a sleeping porch with just screens at the window openings, but at some point a previous owner put in these windows, and I’m so glad. It makes it so much more usable for Wisconsin.

So this year I wanted to try a go at raising some herbs and lettuce…

These thrifted window boxes were handmade by a gal I met in Minneapolis. She was a very interesting background… had started her own business making case goods for a major retailer. She designed these and had her carpenter make them for herself, but when she moved, they didn’t fit in her next porch.

They fit mine! Aren’t they so cute?

I was thrilled with the vintage green color and fun contemporary yet classic style.

If you don’t happen to find some on the 2nd hand market like I did, have no fear… HERE are some really cute wood window box choices!

When it came time to mount them, since these windows didn’t have much of a window sill, I was left with a couple of options. I could invest a lot of time and effort and money and make deeper window sills, or come up with an easier option.

I opted for a much more economical and easier route… The key was to find the right hardware to do the work.

I’d mount the window boxes just below the actual sill with a simple bracket.

Here is a link for these simple and VERY economically priced brackets!

The bracket needs a block about 1″ deep behind it on the lower part to hold it firmly in place.

I found a scrap strip of MDF that was the perfect thickness. All I needed to do was cut 18 blocks from the leftover board.

Now let me just pause a moment here and say, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a carpenter, nor do I really like using power tools all that much. However, I do love the chop saw we have and the ability it gives me to make a quick cut.

Here is a link for a best selling chopsaw at HomeDepot. Having a chop saw has saved me so much time and energy compared trying to handsaw a board… to make these 16 cuts with a handsaw would have taken me most of the day, and I would have been exhausted after!

I don’t know much in the way of tips for using power saws… except keep your fingers out of the way.

OK, so actually, here is a tip, besides the obvious fingers thing:

I had to make 18 cuts all at the same 3″ width…

So instead of measuring each one out, I did like what I would have on my sewing machine…

I marked with a pencil right on the flat surface of the saw bed where to place the end of the board for the next cut, (if you look carefully, you can just barely see the pencil line a couple inches to the right of the red cutting area)

So with the blocks of wood, simple white hardware brackets and a drill with some proper length screws, (longer for the wall and shorter for the bottom of the window boxes) I drilled then screwed each window box up….

The brackets hold the window boxes firmly in place.

Now I have herbs and lettuces getting plenty of sunlight and hopefully growing healthy.

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