Turn Your Leftover Garden Supplies Into Stylish Outdoor Accents

Even with the patio built, your furniture in place, and a grilling station ready for action, you can't call your backyard entertaining setup complete without some decorative flair. Just as they tie your interior design together, eye-catching accents make for a thoughtful, cohesive outdoor space you'll be proud to show off. And it doesn't have to cost much to style it! In fact, this might be the perfect chance to make a stunning set of low-cost decor using old garden supplies that are just taking up space.

While you can find brilliant ways to repurpose garden tools around the home, some of the most chic DIY decor can start with excess materials. Hardware cloth, chicken wire, and other rolls of metal mesh you may have used for DIY fencing make an excellent foundation for beautiful small-scale gabion baskets. All you have to do is cut a run of mesh and wrap it into a cylinder. Fill it with hard material, like leftover landscape rock, and you've got a delightful new accent item! Put a potted plant in the center to add a splash of color, or install a light for a neat atmospheric element in the evening. For a bit more function, you can DIY a fashionable side table with a taller mesh cylinder and a plate on top, while shorter cages can hold a wood surface for a quick-and-easy bench build. It's a simple technique for designing the perfect patio and one you can take in countless directions with different sizes and fill materials.

Plan the size of your DIY accent to determine how much of your metal mesh to cut. Cut the mesh with heavy-duty scissors, tin snips, or, if necessary, electric shears or bolt cutters. Wrap it into a cylinder, using pliers to bend the cut wires around the wire frame on the opposite end to hold the shape. Wire or zip ties can also tie the ends together if you can keep them hidden when in place. Add a base to finish the frame. For this, you can lay a piece of metal mesh on the bottom of the cylinder. Cut it into a circular shape, wrapping the cut wires from the base around the cylinder mesh to combine the two pieces.

After making the frame, have fun with the creative side by painting the wire frame and picking an attractive fill material. The basket will be heavy once you add the rocks and other bulk, so put it in place before you fill it. Add any potted plants or other decor to the basket and a complementing fill to go around it. Crushed gravel, smooth river stones, and other types of landscape rock add instant style with texture and color. If needed, you can also use stones from around the property or even broken up construction materials, like concrete or brick. Any random material will be especially handy if you only have limited amounts of decorative landscape rock. Use that for the interior bulk, and save the decorative fill for the top and sides — the parts that people will actually see.