Privacy Screen Planter Box - Timber Cafe Barrier & Balcony Screen

A timber planter box that does a second job: a screen where you need one. Footpath dining, a beer garden, breaking up a pub courtyard, or softening a hard corner inside. Pick the screen height that suits the job — or no screen at all, just a clean timber planter.

Unlike our raised garden beds on open legs, the timber here runs nearly all the way to the ground — a solid, furniture-look box with a 10mm shadow line. It reads as part of the fit-out, not as a garden bed parked out the front.

Which screen height do I need?

• No Screen (58cm): just the planter. Marks out an edge without closing anything off.
• Cafe Barrier (1.1m): seated eye level. Screens people at a table without shutting the space in — the footpath dining height. Worth checking against the height your council's outdoor dining permit asks for.
• Privacy (1.6m): standing eye level. You can see out, but passers-by can’t see much in.
• Tall (1.8m): above eye level — stops the view both ways.

Can it go inside?

Yes, and the pots are the reason. The slatted timber base takes 390 x 390mm self watering pots — 2 to 5 of them depending on length. Each pot holds its own water in a reservoir underneath, so nothing drains out of the planter onto a floor, a deck or your paving. No saucers, no water marks, and no soil filling the box either. Lift a pot out, swap the planting, done.

Add pots for $20.99 each (the same price you’d pay at Bunnings) or bring your own — anything up to 390mm square drops in.

The two-door trick

Our favourite setup: two Tall (1.8m) screens on the 2 pot (85cm) box, both on castors. Push them together and you have a 1.7m wide, 1.8m high wall of green that takes the western sun off a table or drops the neighbour out of the picture. Roll them apart when you want the light and the outlook back. Same idea as a pair of sliding doors, without the track — and these ones are planted.

How do the castors hold up?

Add four EasyRoll 75mm castors ($80 the set): black PVC wheel, 32mm tread, precision bearing, 80kg rated each, swivel with a brake. It’s a commercial-grade castor and it’s a deliberate choice — the brake still works after a chair leg or a boot finds it. Rated for hard floors, so timber, tiles, concrete, paving and decking. They lift the whole planter 105mm.

Drop the brakes once it’s parked and keep the pots filled: the weight sits low in the box, and that’s what makes a tall screen feel solid when someone leans on it.

Built like the rest of our range

The same arsenic free MCA treated pine and bolted board frame as our garden beds. Screen on one long side; the 4 and 5 pot sizes carry a centre support front and back.

Sizes (all 53cm wide, planting height 58cm)

• 2 pot: 85cm long
• 3 pot: 125cm long
• 4 pot: 165cm long
• 5 pot: 205cm long

Delivery: these arrive as solid, fully built units — delivered and placed for you across South East Queensland. Outside SEQ, get in touch for a freight quote.