You can DIY so many outdoor decorations using Earth-safe materials!
Making your garden and yard look beautiful doesn’t require plastic, resin, insulation foam, or any other high-waste, petroleum-byproduct materials. You can make soo much cute outdoor decor from natural, recycled, upcycled, or other sustainable materials! Here are some of my favorites:
Bottle Cap Wind Chime
In case you needed a reason to collect bottle caps other than the most important one: they’re so pretty! I love that since bottle caps maintain their shape and graphics essentially forever, so will your wind chime. I also love that you can easily customize the color palette of your wind chime since there is absolutely a bottle cap in every color ever made.
Decoupaged Garden Furniture
Sometimes you don’t need something completely new, but just the refinished version of something old. Wooden garden furniture needs occasional re-sealing anyway, so why not make its next spiff-up something super special? I love the idea of decoupaging old book pages or wallpaper samples, but anything that’s paper would work.
Framed Art
I LOVE this idea! The upcycled frames are amazing, but I especially love the experimentation the authors of this tutorial did to find an ink that would work with the outdoor fabric they wanted to use. With a sealant on the wooden frame, the final project is very weather-proof!
Painted Wooden Bunting
I managed to make my entire bunting from stash wood, but if your supply is low you can check out your local Restore or Freecycle group. Other supplies include clothesline, paint, a staple gun and staples, and sealant.
Penny Gazing Ball
Use up the last of your last-ever penny stash while beautifying your garden! I love that this project also upcycles a bowling ball, which otherwise can be surprisingly challenging to repurpose. For the glue, use the best all-weather outdoor epoxy you can get your hands on. I feel like I’m constantly upgrading my outdoor glue choices thanks to technology’s equally constant advancement, but currently I’m happy with GE Advanced Silicone Caulk. I’m always open to suggestions, though–put it in the Comments if you’ve got one!
Plastic Tray Flowers
You wouldn’t want to buy these plastic trays new, but if you can score them from a ReStore like the author of the tutorial did, they’re perfect for upcycling! Plastic, especially used solely decoratively like these upcycled flowers are, is pretty hard-wearing, with the fading of the colors over the years just another way that they’ll continue to look interesting on your picket fence. Plant some real flowers underneath for even more beauty!
Stick and Fabric Woven Sculpture
This is a great way to incorporate some process-oriented but still quite lovely kid art into your outdoor space. Choose a single colorway, like the author of this tutorial, or go for a rainbow or chaotic multi-colored vibe. I love the idea of using natural, non-polyester fabrics that can wear and age over the seasons, giving kids a beautiful and real-world visual of the passage of time.
Sundial Mosaic
I love a STEAM project, and this is a terrific one! If you can’t easily upcycle a circular mosaic form (the author of this tutorial used a pizza stone), you can make your own concrete stepping stone first, then create the sundial mosaic on top of it. My favorite part is the beautiful natural rock gnomen!
Tree Slice Plant Stand
I go into feral raccoon hoarder mode whenever I see that a neighbor has had to cut down a tree–so much nice wood! So many things to do with it! If you can catch the tree trimming company still around, they’ll occasionally even cut you a couple of slices to size. But even if you have to chainsaw it yourself, this plant stand is so much sturdier and I think looks so much nicer than a typical store-bought plant stand. Just add caster wheels, and bonus points if you upcycle them from a dumpster-dived office chair!
Wooden Pallet Planter
So, using wooden pallets as planters is high-key controversial in some circles (see also: old tires). And it’s valid! A lot of these old pallets were treated with chemicals, and/or who knows what was stored on or around them. It can definitely feel risky or gross to use them in gardening and not know what might be leeching into your soil, and therefore your strawberries and cucumbers. However, that being said, I personally literally do not care and happily grow my strawberries and cukes in whatever container I can find to house them (okay, that’s -ish a lie, because I only grow flowers and catnip, never food, in my upcycled toilet planter, but that’s not because I think anything will leech out of the toilet, but only because I think eating something grown in a toilet is disgusting). But if you feel weird about it, you can always take the upcycled toilet planter route and fill your pallet planter with floers and catnip!
P.S. Do you have an outdoor project that you love? Tell us about it in the Comments!
