How To Incorporate 12 Thrifted Items Into Your Garden For An Eclectic Outdoor Oasis

Thrift stores can be a treasure trove of budget-friendly and distinctive items for your home. But you may be overlooking their potential to create a welcoming and relaxing outdoor space, where they can offer just as much charm and character as indoors. You can create a unique and eclectic garden or yard with ordinary items you come across while thrifting, many via ingenious DIY upcycling and repurposing projects that make something new from something old. You can craft everything from gorgeous outdoor lighting to beautiful custom greenhouses using secondhand items.

Combining many of these ideas can be the secret to building a uniquely creative space for both relaxation and entertainment. Many of these items are also readily available via other secondhand outlets, including estate sales, flea markets, salvage shops, antique dealers, and online marketplaces. Most will run you only a few bucks and can be a great budget-friendly alternative to cookie-cutter outdoor decor items you'll find in retail stores. This also helps keep these items out of landfills and give them a second life.

Grab a collection of thrifted ceramic or porcelain planters, dishware, and decor items and get to breaking them. You can create beautiful mosaic designs on any surface to add an artsy aesthetic to even the most boring tabletop. Or create a mosaic on a flat stone or paver to hang on an outside wall or fence.

There are many stunning ways to incorporate thrifted and upcycled Mason jars into your outdoor decor. Decorate them with wound twine to use as easy outdoor centerpiece candle holders. A fun and simple rope DIY is a good way to craft pretty hanging lanterns that you can add solar lights or candles to. Or, attach a jar to a board with a pipe clamp to create a hanging lantern or planter along a fence or exterior wall.

You can easily flip old dishware into adorable bird feeders with just some adhesive. Stack plates or bowls in descending size from the bottom up, using thrifted candelabra or other slender glassware between levels. Then fasten it all together with an animal-safe, non-toxic adhesive. Fill the levels with birdseed for a pretty way to welcome wildlife to your yard in a budget-friendly way. You could also turn dishware into a small bird bath or a stunning DIY fence decor.

Turn thrifted glass light globes and shades into adorable outdoor landscaping lights hung on garden poles. Or use a thrifted vintage floor lamp or old chandelier outfitted with glass jars as a fun light-up garden accent. Ensure to swap out existing bulbs or fixtures with a solar or battery-operated LED bulb to keep your outdoor space well-lit in the evenings. You can also turn a glass hanging lampshade into a unique hanging planter by flipping it upside down or create a vertical planter with a floor lamp. 

Many different items you find in a thrift store make gorgeous fountains or bird baths, including old pots and pans, which are durable in any kind of weather. Many can be turned into a fountain with a simple solar-operated pump attachment. Stack them atop each other with a teakettle or watering can at the top. This is also a great DIY to create with enamel wash basins for a charming, rustic fountain. 

Colored glass bottles look beautiful glinting in the sun. Why not make them into a unique garden fence or gate by stringing them on some lengths of rebar? Not only will a bottle fence bring some rustic vintage charm to your outdoors, but it can also keep your garden chic and colorful even in the winter months. You could also use bottles to create a colorful privacy screen or trellis. 

Many thrifted items and pieces of secondhand furniture are wonderful for building DIY trellises, including antique headboards and old bed frames that allow the plants to wind their way up through the open spaces. You can even use a deconstructed box spring frame as a perfect trellis in a vegetable garden for an entire row of plantings. 

Thrift stores and other secondhand outlets are a great source for old windows or antique doors you could use to make a beautiful rustic greenhouse or a garden potting shed. Do this by simply fastening them together with screws or nails and adding some corrugated fiberglass as a roof. You can even customize the DIY structures to your garden needs and available space to craft either larger walk-in or smaller versions.

Large planters, old wash tubs, buckets, trash cans, and wooden half-barrels are great for holding plants and greenery in the garden, but they can also be turned into fun outdoor tables simply by adding a round wooden top. You can even leave the inside of the container empty for some extra storage. Use them as a chic coffee table for an outdoor seating area or a rustic end table.

Thrifted mirrors can be a perfect addition to outdoor spaces, adding interest along fences or exterior walls, as well as creating an illusion of a larger space or highlighting certain elements in your yard with their reflective surface. They look especially beautiful when surrounded by an array of greenery and vines. Or hang a large one along a fence to help ground an outdoor seating area with a focal point. You can also use a large mirror or a gallery wall of small ones. 

While there are many uses for a thrifted room divider inside, you can also use one outside in outdoor-durable materials to create distinct areas, provide shade, or add privacy to gardens, patios, and yards. You can also use indoor screens that can be put away when the elements may ruin them. They are also great for blocking things you don't want to see outdoors, like unsightly air conditioning units or electrical panels. You can also add hinges to antique doors for a whimsical privacy screen divider that's perfect for the outdoors. 

While rusty rakes, shovels, and other tools might not be usable in their current state, you can always turn them into other kinds of decor, including fashioning old rakes into cute and rustic fence decor or a garage wall organizer to hang garden essentials like gloves and clippers. Or, use some rusted shovels and dustpans as planters you can hang on a fence or garden wall.