Main Project Plans and Inspiration

The Project

For my main project, I was brainstorming a lot because I wanted to make something that I would be able to use in the future. I really enjoy woodworking, but don’t have too much experience with it so I thought doing a project related to it could be fun. After thinking about different things I could make, I have decided that I want to make a flower/herb planter box with a sliding drawer at the bottom to store the gardening tools I will use. I’m really excited about this idea because I have always really enjoyed trying to grow my own herbs and also having plants around the house. Below is a sketch I made for my initial idea for the project.

To start, I will use CAD to make a plan of how the planter box will look and how all the pieces will fit together. I will then borrow some of my friend’s power tools to be able to cut the wood pieces out and then attach them together. I also want to try staining the wood to get a more finished look.

The Aesthetic

For this project, I think I want to stick with my personal aesthetic since I will hopefully be using it in my apartment. My personal aesthetic that I really like is a modern farmhouse. This is the aesthetic that I currently have also created in my room so I want the planter box to match. Modern farmhouse is a play on the minimalist trend in the 1990s and early 2000s. It plays on the classic farmhouse look, but makes it modern by having a more neutral color palette and utilizing clean lines. Common details in modern farmhouse are the following:

• Reclaimed wood
• Iron accents
• Large comfortable furniture
• Lots of windows
• Straight lines
• Vintage accent decor
• Barn-board details
• Neutral color palette with earth color accents

An example of some of these feature can be seen in the picture below by KG Designs (2):

What I really like about the modern farmhouse aesthetic is that it adds more cozy elements to the minimalist design without making the space look too cluttered. An example of this is seen in the picture below by Marty Baldwin (3). The addition of the plants and the basket with the blanket and pillow adds more dimensions to the space and creates a warmer feeling than in the typical modern and minimalist design. 

I think I grew to really like this aesthetic because when I was growing up, I really enjoyed going to a lot of the Home-a-Rama shows around Louisville, KY where I got to see lots of different interior decorations. When seeing all these designs, I noticed that I really liked the clean look with lots of wood accents. When trying to set up my own room, I tried to figure out what this style best fit into and found that the modern farmhouse aesthetic was it! 

Sources

1. Flanagan, Lauren. “All About Modern Farmhouse Style”. The Spruce, Feb. 2024, https://www.thespruce.com/modern-farmhouse-style-2213409.
2. KG Designs, https://www.thespruce.com/modern-farmhouse-style-2213409
3. Marty Baldwin, https://www.thespruce.com/modern-farmhouse-style-2213409