Upcycled DIY Planters

Up on the blog today … my beautiful succulent arrangement! A good friend gifted this as a housewarming present and omg. ALL. THE. HEART. EYES. I fell in love. After a while though these babies were begging for more space. And buying multiple planters is just something I don’t want to spend money on!

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A little creativity and vision, and a bin full of recyclables later. I went from trash to DIY gold! It took a little motivation and some DIY dedication but these planters were said and done in no time!

After cleaning them out, I punctured drainage holes in the bottoms of each container. I just used a screw and and gently tapped it in with a hammer, and pounding a few holes in the bottom of each container. Make sure to go slow here, if you attempt this too aggressively, you can crack the whole plastic and then you’re out a container.

Using some 100% pure acetone, I was able to easily clear all the ink from my yogurt container.

After she was spiffied up all nice and clean, I took my hot glue gun and used some bakers twine I had on hand to wrap her up in. I’m all about utilizing resources, so any extra rope or twine or anything you have on hand would work great for this design.

Next up, removing the labels and glue from the plastic. This part was tricky because they use the most IMPOSSIBLE glue on these containers. Not having any Goo-Gone on hand, I tried acetone, lemon essential oil, dish soap, rubbing alcohol, none of these worked. BUT finally I came across olive oil on a google search. I coated some olive oil on the containers, let them sit for about an hour, came back and the glue had completely broken down and wiped right off. Legit, never buying Goo-Gone again! After wiping off with a paper towel, I washed them in HOT water and dish soap to remove all the oil residue and they were clear and clean of any residue.

Spray painting was one of the trickier parts. I wanted a cement vibe for my square planters, and found this awesome Rust-Oleum Stone Spray Paint. It leaves a really cool textured vibe and looks like actual stone once dried. It took a few coats to obtain a full finish, and a clear top coat is recommended. It looks so awesome now that it’s done!

While everything was drying and setting, I worked on some DIY macrame hangers. I used some more of the bakers twine I had on hand, but you can use all kinds of different ropes or yards for macrame hangers!

To hang the planters on the wall I purchased simple, affordable wood shelf brackets and stained them with some stain I had on hand. I drilled holes for the eye bolts for the plants to hang from on the end of the wooden shelf bracket.

A simple arrangement of the remaining planters on my dining table and I had it all set!

Project Shopping List:

• Rust-Oleum Stone Spray Paint
• Rust-Oleum Top Coat
• Wood L Brackets
• Eye Bolts

This was so simple and fun to do. And the best part for me was the challenge of making recyclables work as planters, but also transforming them into something unrecognizable. Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments below!

xo

Amy

For details and links on our dining room set and accessories, click here!