Remember those precious colorful pots that held herbs and adorned our kitchen windowsill? Yeah, well, the were metal and apparently fried the roots during the day and allowed them to get too cold at night. Boo. So within a couple of weeks, we had limp, lifeless, toasted herbs.

After some research, we realized that we probably could have made better choices for our little herbs and headed off to try again. This time we bought old fashioned, less colorful, terra cotta pots (we went with the 8″–instead of recommended 10″–because we needed so many and they were cheaper and because we needed them to fit in a predefined space).

We also decided that unfortunately, the window sill, with its temperature variations and noonday sun through the top window, probably wasn’t the best home for these little dudes. Enter search for a plant stand or bench small enough to fit in the back nook of our deck that receives plenty of shade from the house. That simply didn’t exist for less than $150ish, so begin the Pinterest search. BAM–this $15 bench tutorial. We modified this to give it a little extra height and painted it with leftover white weatherproof from another project we need to blog. We also added a shelf across the bottom to house the watering can and any other tools–totally worth the cost of another 2×4.

Again, have we mentioned how awesome it is that we get to borrow our neighbor/landlord’s power tools? Kinda sad in the we don’t have to buy them to have our own department, but definitely a blessing on the budget. Enough with the words, on to the photos!