Upcycle Old Shoelaces And Scrap Wood Into A DIY Gardening Shelf

If you're always out puttering in the garden or tinkering away in the shed, you're probably used to upcycling common items to give them an entirely different purpose. For example, it's amazing how many ways you can upcycle glass jars into unique home decor. You're probably also familiar with all the ways you can reuse wood pallets around the garden, such as making herb gardens or storage for your tools. But have you ever thought about what you could use old shoelaces for? It's probably not something that's even crossed your mind, which is why you might be surprised by a clever DIY from garden writer and Instagrammer Simon Akeroyd, who utilized a pair of these with a piece of scrap wood to make a useful gardening shelf.

So if you're always running out of growing space for your seedlings or you need an inexpensive shelf to display your newly propagated collection of tiny succulents, this is definitely the project for you. In fact, it's so inexpensive that it's totally free. As long as you have a pair of old boots lying around that you can steal the laces from and can find a piece of wood that would work as a shelf (like a piece from that pallet that's lying at the back of the shed while you decide which backyard DIY to reuse it for), you're ready to get started.

Apart from the piece of timber and the old shoelaces, you're also going to need something to hang your shelf from. This could be a wall in your shed or garage, or even an area of fence that's easy to get to and could do with a little embellishment. Basically, any wall that you can put a couple of screws into will work. And that's exactly what you'll need to do. Put in two screws or hooks that are level with each other and around ¾ the distance apart as the length of your piece of wood. Grab each shoelace and tie the ends together so that you now have a long loop of laces.

Secure the looped end over each screw or hook and insert the ends of the scrap of wood into the sling you've just created with each lace. Now, if you don't have or can't find any old laces, fear not, because you can just use some garden twine doubled over or even two pieces of rope to construct the slings for your new shelf. Of course, you want to bear in mind that this is not going to have a large load-bearing capacity, but it should be fine for tiny pots or small containers with seedlings. You could even pretty up your new shelf by painting the wood if you wish. If you have a bare section of fence, you could put up a few of these small shelves at different heights and then use them for small succulents or tiny pots filled with annual flowers or herbs. It's just another gorgeous idea that will liven up your yard.