47 Upcycled Planter Ideas that are Easy to Make

I love an upcycled planter. From boot planters to chair planters and transformed tin can planters, there are just so many bits of junk and trash we all have lying around our homes unused that can be turned into the most glorious upcycled planters.

I hope this bumper list of upcycled planter ideas will spark your imagination and get you upcycling and repurposing your way to a fabulous little green patch – whether it’s for your garden, your patio, your balcony or your window ledge.

Upcycled Chair Planters

Chair Planters are something I recently tried myself for the first time. Pretty easy as DIY projects go and very satisfying.

You can drop a pot in like Sustain My Craft Habit did with their Iron Chair Planter above. You can also create a base with outdoor fabric (like I did with the purple chair planter above) or you can place a low chair directly in the garden bed and build up the soil like I did with my white wicker chair.

Upcycled Potty Planter

This idea is so cute! It’s similar to the chair planter idea but with a vintage potty!

Pink Fortitude has the low down on how to do it.

What a fun project to involve your child in as a right of passage when they’ve outgrown their potty.

Dutch Oven Upcycled Planter

This is a great idea for succulents from Salvage Sister and Mister. Repurpose a dutch oven as a fun (and stable – because they are so heavy) planter for succulents.

There is of course no drainage in something like this but if you build in a layer of stones at the bottom that should provide enough for something as low maintenance as succulents.

Succulents are actually a great choice for a lot of upcycled planters because of their hardy nature.

Which is why we have a whole other article dedicated to upcycle ideas for succulents.

Upcycled Cooler as a Planter

Sustain My Craft Habit had the brilliant idea of repurposing an old and unused cooler as a handy kale planter for easy access harvesting for her morning smoothies!

Check out the simple and easy tutorial here!

Garbage Can Upcycled Planters

This one is a bit of a no brainer. Small plastic garbage or trash cans are often the perfect size for a planter and they cost and weigh far less than their expensive garden centre counterparts.

Above are two ways to upcycle the everyday garbage can into a fabulous planter.

Andrea from Hungarican Journey has spray painted her IKEA trash can to make a much more expensive large container and Toni from Girl Just DIY has wrapped her garbage can in rope to make her upcycled indoor planter pot!

Upcycled Boot Planters

The boot planter has got to be one of the most classic upcycled planter ideas out there. We’ve found a few different takes on it for you to try.

Thrifty Northwestern Mom has gone all overgrown with her boot planter, Red Ted Art has done theirs in Wellie Boots, and my own upcycled boot planters have been fortified and glued together to defend them against the creatures in our garden (you can read about it here).

Tea Pot Planter

How darling is this upcycled planter from Vicky Myers? Its obviously pictured here indoors but I think this would work great on a balcony or patio too. So cute and you could use mis-matched patterned crockery too to add your own personality to it.

Tin Can Planters

If a boot planter is a classic upcycled planter then so is a tin can planter!

When I asked my blogging friends to send me their best upcycled planter ideas, wowza did I get a lot of tin can ideas! There are just so many things you can do to dress up (or down) a tin can.

Love My Simple Home created the cute burlap wrapped herb planters and Momma Always Finds Out went for a faux aged look.

The queen of tin can planters has to be Claire at Pillarbox Blue though who is the talented blogger who did both the trick of the eye oriental vase planters and the colourful decoupaged ones above.

Faux Copper Toy Box Planter

If you like the look of the copper tin can planters above by Girl Just DIY, you might also like this Faux Copper Planter by Where the Smiles Have Been. Believe it or not that is an old toy box.

Upcycled Plastic Bottle Planters

As you can probably tell from the photos, plastic bottle planters are a big hit with kids. It is so quick to cut off the top and the rest is pure crafting.

From a cute unicorn to matching Micky & Minnie and a super simple cat face. You and your kids or grandkids can have tons of fun making all kinds of upcycled planters out of your empty soda bottles!

License Plate Planter

This is probably not one for the kids as it involves bending a license plate!

But Salvage Sister and Mister have a great tutorial to talk you through how to do this yourself. You can find it here.

Upcycled Drinking Straws Planter

Make a trendy geometric hanging planter using upcycled drinking straws.

Crafty Girl Life Hacks guest blogged for us last year and gave us the complete tutorial including a video demo. You can find it here.

Paint Can Planter

This is another one of those things a lot of people aren’t sure what to do with – a paint can.

Upcycle My Stuff regular contributer Charlie Miller showed us how to upcycle an empty paint can into an outdoor planter here.

Planters made from Upcycled Clothing

From a sock, to upcycled denim and old men’s shirts. All of these fab upcycled planter ideas invovle upcycling unwanted clothing.

Now you know exactly what to do with that sock with the whole in the bottom!

Looking for more clothing upcycling ideas? We’ve got 18 other ways you can upcycle men’s shirts here.

More Fabric Upcycled Planters

Do you have other fabric that you want to upcycle, maybe scraps or offcuts from sewing projects? Then you could try this cute and colourful fabric twine planter from My Poppet or the fabric wrapped tin can planter from Love My Simple Home.

If you are a cross-stitcher you might also like the idea above from Sum of Their Stories to wrap a humble tin can in a lovely cross stitch to dress it up! [Okay can you see now why I couldn’t fit all the tin can ideas in the tin can section above – seriously there are just so many things you can do with a tin can!]

PVC Pipe Photo Planters

This is a lovely way to upcycle leftover PVC pipes.

Anita from Unique Creations by Anita has a tutorial to show you how to add photos to these to create lovely gifts or family keepsake planters.

Upcycled Smudge Pot Planter

Proving that even the most unique items can make great planters is this ‘smudge pot’ planter made by Ellen over at Artsy Pretty Plants.

A smudge pot is an old round lantern, that kind of looks like a bomb. They were used in the ’30s and ’40s in the U.S. to light roads and railroads while men were working on them.

This one was pretty worse for wear when Ellen found it, but she nursed it back to life and now it is a gorgeously unique planter. Her Smudge Pot Planter Tutorial can be found here.

Upcycled Pallet Planters (and other reclaimed wood)

Reclaimed wood, whether it is from an old pallet or another project can make great upcycled planters.

The Gingerbread House made a simple standing planter out of an old pallet, Dukes & Duchesses creatively repurposed an old wooden letterpress as a planter and Rachel Teodoro used some found driftwood to re-home some lovely succulents.

Do you have any old wood lying around in your garden or shed?

Wacky Doll’s Head Planter

I just love this quirky upcycled planter from Cintia at My Poppet. She never fails to come up with something fun and original! She’s called this a Halloween planter but I think in the right eccentric home or garden this sweet doll planter could fit in all year round!

What do you think? Cute or creepy?

Upcycled Terracota Pots

Now a Terracotta pot is already a planter of course, but upcycling is also about adding value to something dull and boring that you might otherwise get rid of.

So if you have a bunch of terracotta planter pots that you find uninspiring maybe one of these ideas will inspire you to keep them and give them a new lease of life!

Here is where to find the instructions for each of the photos above:

• Acrylic Pour Terracotta Pots from South Lumina Style
• Black and White Pots from Hungarican Journey
• Simple Blue Rim Planter Pot from Camillionaire
• Marbleised Terracotta Planter Pots from Natural Beach Living
• Mod Podge Terracotta Pots from Mod Podge Rocks
• Pink Ombre Terracotta Pots & White Triangle West Elm Inspired Pot form Ann’s Entitled Life
• French Transfer Terracotta Pot by Kippi at Home

Twine Wrapped Upcycled Planters

Twine can give a great look to a plant pot whether you are looking for something a bit rustic like Pink Fortitude who upcycled plastic containers to make her planters or go a bit modern with twine and bright paint like DIY Candy who used mini buckets as her base.

Baking Tin Planters

Fancy a clear out of your kitchen cupboards?

Vicky Myer’s repurposed old cake tins to make this gorgeous vertical herb garden and Duke & Duchesses use muffin tins as a mini herb garden!

I hope you’ve found some inspiration from this piece.

I’d love to hear what weird and wacky items you’ve upcycled as planters. Make sure to comment below or tag Upcycle My Stuff on social media with your upcycling photos!

Want to come back to one of these ideas later? Don’t forget to pin this post to your upcycled planters board!

If you liked this post you’ll probably also like these ones:

• Fun Upcycled Succulent Planter Ideas
• 10 Summer Upcycle Projects to do in the Sunshine
• DIY Upcycled Planter: Two Ways

More posts you might like:

• 9 Ways to Make a Rag Rug you’ll Want to Try!
• 65 Brilliant Ideas for Upcycling your Scrap Fabric
• 25 Stunning Ideas for Reusing your Old Jeans
• How to Upcycle Your Wedding Dress after the Wedding!