Place a pillar candle, a battery-operated LED candle, or a small string of battery-powered fairy lights inside the box. The open frame sides allow light to filter beautifully through all four sides, casting warm, dappled light through any glass panes you choose to re-insert, or glowing softly through the open frames themselves if you leave them without glass. For an outdoor version, drill a few small holes in the base for weather drainage, insert a waterproof LED candle, and hang the finished lantern from a porch beam or shepherd's hook using a length of heavy-duty twine or metal chain attached to all four upper corners. These lanterns also look extraordinary grouped in threes on outdoor steps or along a garden path.
Project Idea 2: A Tiered Hanging Garden Planter Display
For this variation, you do not necessarily join all four frames into a closed box structure. Instead, join two frames at their lower corners only and attach a piece of mesh screening, hardware cloth, or a thin wooden shelf across the bottom interior of each pair to create a shallow tray. Then use ribbon, twine, or chain to suspend one pair below the other at a comfortable distance, creating a two-tier hanging display. Line each tray with coconut coir liner or a piece of burlap and fill with trailing plants, small succulents, herbs, or seasonal flowers.
This works beautifully on a covered porch or in a bright corner of a room, and the frame edges give the whole thing a polished, finished look that a simple wire basket planter cannot match. You can customize it endlessly — paint the frames to match your outdoor furniture, stain them to complement your porch decking, or leave them in their original painted or gilded state for an eclectic, collected look.
