20 Garden Junk Ideas Hiding in Your Kitchen

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Hey, garden junk fans! If you have a bunch of kitchen items sitting in your cupboards that never get used, why not give them a new life as garden art and decor? Here’s 20 simple ideas to make your garden unique.

For more repurposed and upcycled project ideas, also see the DIY Idea Bank.

Garden art made from repurposed kitchen items including a chandelier and kettle.

Garden Art & Decor Ideas Made from Kitchen Stuff

Unless you’re a real minimalist, you probably have stuff lurking in your kitchen cabinets that you have not used in years. If they don’t have some special sentimental (or other) value, why not turn some of it into garden decor? And yes, donating useful items is always a good option as well.

These ideas are all simple, probably pretty obvious, and do-able in an afternoon.

20+ Garden Junk Ideas from the Kitchen

1Bundt Pans

A bundt cake pan makes a perfect umbrealla table planter.

Bundt pans make excellent patio table planters. And muffin tins are fun for smaller succulents.

2Spoons

Vintage silver-plated fish windchime by NevaStarr Etsy Shop. Buy some or get a metal drill bit and make your own.

3Ceiling Fan

Turn a ceiling fan into a fabulous garden art dragonfly.

Garden Art Dragonfly: The blades from an old ceiling fan make perfect wings. Many other parts of the fan can be used as well.

4Chandelier

A chandelier makes an excellent oriole feeder.

This old light fixture doesn’t require any DIY. Just hang it up and add orange slices.

5Colander

Funky chandelier made from a kitchen collander.

Garden Art Chandelier: Use a mish-mash of old treasures for a shabby chic look. Colanders and other metal containers work great.

I’ve had this one in my garden for years.

6Cutlery

Crazy-fun idea: put kitchen cutlery inside an glass garden totem or bird bath.

Make a See-Through Garden Birdbath or Totem: Pick a theme and fill the containers.

Here’s another version that I filled with seashells.

25 Garden Art Projects & Ideas
by Melissa J. Will

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7Dishes

Dress up a garden fence with old plates.

Here’s my low-cost plate hanger tutorial. Makes it easy to hang them where you want them (indoors or outdoors).

Turn old dishes and serving plates into garden art flowers.

Garden Art Dish Flowers: Use plates and other small dishes from the thrift store or your kitchen cabinets.

Using old dishes to decorate a garden planter.

I like to use garden art to fill in the spaces while waiting for the flowers to grow.

8 Doors

Old doors and windows are fabulous in the garden.

Not that I’m suggestion to tear off your kitchen door, but, if you’re updating your kitchen, see if anything would work in the garden.

For more ideas, visit the Door and Window Garden Art Gallery here.

9Drawer Pulls

Turn old kitchen drawer pulls into garden hose guards.

Kitchen Drawer Pull Hose Guards: protect your plants in style. I use these to keep the garden hose out of the flower beds.

10Knick Knack Shelf

Turn a knick-knack shelf into a hobbit house for the garden.

Any little cabinet with doors can convert into a little fairy or hobbit house. This one was a spice jar shelf.

11Lazy Susan

A mirrored lazy susan makes interesting fence art.

A lazy susan makes a good garden mirror because they tend to have a frame for extra weather protection.

How to Safely Use Mirrors in the Garden: Be safe and get artistic.

12Mason Jars

Old canning jars are useful for rooting plants in water.

How to Grow Sweet Potato Vine from Cuttings
Great way to use mason jars.

I keep a jar handy while cleaning up the garden: great way to display flowers.

13Pie Plate

Glass pie plates are the right depth for bird baths and water feeders.

A strong, shallow pie dish is perfect for creating a water feeder. I placed mine in an old grape vine wreath.

Make a Water Feeder for Butterflies and Bees
Easy project, much-used by wild things.

14Tea Cups and Saucers

This tea cup is beautiful all on its own. But you could plant some pansies in it too. Or succulents.

How to Make Tipsy Pots: A garden art favorite.

15Trivets and Candle Holders

Kitchen trivets and metal candle holders can dress up a garden fence or wall.

Hang up metal candle holders or trivets and you have instant wall art. For a unified look, spray paint them all the same color.

16Whisks and Mixer Blades

Whisks and mixer blades are perfect for dish flower leaves.

Can you see the mixer beaters and whisk? They make good leaves in a garden-junk kind of way.

17Wooden Bowls

Turn wooden salad bowls into garden toadstools for your gnome.

I used old wooden salad bowls for this project.

DIY Garden Art Toadstools: give the gnomes some shade.

18Wooden Spoons

Use wooden spoons to create garden plant markers.

Good idea if you have burned your wooden spoons. Use any acrylic craft paint and paint pens to turn them into plant markers or garden art.

19Cake Pans

The top of this giant coneflower (Echinacea) garden art is a deep cake pan from the kitchen.

How to Make Coneflower Garden Art Flowers

20Soda Pop Cans

The metal from soda pop cans can be used to create all sorts of art including plant markers, trinkets and tramp art.

See How to Make Soda Can Charms

I hope you’ve found some repurposing ideas you want to try for your garden.

When it comes to garden junk, if you love it: it works.

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛