As much as I'd love to lay my pennies down and purchase new planters from retail establishments, I just can't bring myself to do it when there's so many great things to repurpose. That said, I was ridiculously mad at myself for never thinking of this totally awesome use of a filing cabinet, sans drawers.
I ran across a review of the new book from Amy Pennington titled Apartment Gardening over at DIY Life and it was like a light bulb had gone on. Craigslist is flooded with folks begging you to take their old file cabinets from them for free or super cheap.
The idea is simple, turn the cabinet on the side, remove the drawers, add some wood for stabilization and fill with dirt and plants. We're thinking you could take it one step further if you wanted by drilling drainage holes, adding a wood plank to the outside bottom and end to make it have a more modern dressed up feel while covering up the old exposed base.
It's a great way to put to use something that rarely gets put to use and is in large supply from closing businesses and folks cleaning out their garage. If it's too deep for your liking, try filling it with some recyclables to help fill the space before adding in dirt!
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Image: Illustration by Kate Bingham-Burt for Sasquatch Books
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The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
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Agreed. Drainage holes are needed.
Rust.
To be fair, the detailed instructions at the linked site mention adding drainage holes (not that difficult to punch holes in file cabinet sheet metal) and spray-painting the cabinet, which one could presumably do with Rustoleum, or other coating intended for outdoor furniture.
I think it sounds like a great idea. If I can get the "inside the house" projects a little more under control, I'd love to try this out this summer.
I was thinking about this a bit... and thought- what if you fancied up the cabinet, but used a planter/container IN the cabinet? Would look killer painted a nice shiny teal or orange, and if you use containers in there it cuts the rust issue to a minimum... because this would be heavy as hell full of dirt and plants, so containers seem to be the way to go.. use it as a container container! ;)
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/07/before-after-chads-filing-cabinet-planter.html
Do you have any idea how much a four-drawer steel filing cabinet filled with dirt would weigh? Let alone the cost of that many cubic feet of potting soil? Yikes. Also, once you drill drainage holes in the bottom, what do you plan to use for a dish to catch the water that dribbles out the bottom? I suspect melissacj has the right idea -- build a platform inside the cabinet to set containers on, and use the upended cabinet as a giant cache pot / trough. Reduce risk of rust by using Rustoleum paints when re-painting and it just might work.
Amusingly I have literally just finished doing this - it was last weekend's project and last week I had 2 people stop and ask where they could buy it. Most filing cabinates are powder coated which automatically cuts down on the rust issue. I drilled holes in (don't forget to use a center punch to make a divit or you get drill doodles) I then covered it with a couple of coats of white metal primer (Roller it on for the smoothest finish) which means all the metal is covered. I didn't put castors on because buying heavy duty castors is expensive. Sprayed mine bright yellow popped some rocks in the bottom for drainage and planed it with potatoes. It's perfect in my concrete 'garden' and cost me £15 including the paint and was pretty much my first DIY project. Will definatly make another.
Oh and you do need to prime because if like me you're going for sunshine yellow over a dark dark green colour it'd take a lot of coats of spraypaint otherwise! (I tried and failed)
I just finished that book this weekend - altho some of the Ideas are not for me. The book is a good reference on how to create a garden in you're urban area. Perosnally I don't have the space for an ths anyway, butmany ofher other ideas I can do & am going to start this weekend....
@ruth@yummy
... planed it with potatos...?
Woops, planted with potatoes - the depth after the drainage was added was perfect and the light can't destroy them while growing. Guess that'll teach me for trying to fire off a comment while working.
Great idea! I have been using some old file cabinet drawers to grow vegetables on my allotment. Works great.
plastic and metal containers are not ideal for plants.. earthenware works best as they are porous. bad idea!
@ruth@yummy
Aha! XD I was wondering if it was some esoteric technique known only to a special cabal of DIYers or something. I bet they will be yummy. :9 Hasselback potatoes forever!
plastic and metal containers are not ideal for plants
Horsepucky. Both make excellent containers, especially for plants that like to stay moist (or for owners who forget to water from time to time).
No pictures? Hmmm.......
My local nursery did this with succulents in an old metal library card catalog, they left all the drawers in, opening them at different lengths for the plants. It looks awesome!
I made a filing cabinet planter a few years ago and love it! It has rusted a bit, but I don't mind too much. You can check out some pics here http://justabouthome.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/new-plants/