We show that the free Banach lattice FBL (A) may be constructed as the completion of FVL (A) with respect to the maximal lattice seminorm ν on FVL (A) with ν (a) ⩽ 1 for all a ∈ A . We present a similar construction for the free Banach lattice FBL [ E ] generated by a Banach space E.