I love these metal folding strainer steamers. Around here I find them for 25 or 50 cents each at my regular thrift stores.After I took this picture I found one more strainer to use.
How to Make Repurposed Folding Strainer Garden Flowers
5 Materials
$4
2 Hours
Easy
Making fun things for the garden is one of my favourite things to so so I decided to create some repurposed garden flowers using thrifted strainer steamers.
Here's what they look like when they're open. They already kinda look like flowers.
The feet came off easily just by twisting them back and forth with pliers until they popped out. Some of the strainers also had a rod-type handle in the top centre spot and that came off easily too.
I spray painted the fronts...
and the backs with 4 light coats of the colours of my choice, and in the shapes that I wanted them to stay in. The spray paint helps to hold the pieces in place so they no longer move.
This is a great project for using bits of leftover spray paint.
To assemble my flowers I used screws and nuts, Marine Goop Adhesive, and stainless steel spoons that I flattened.
For the centre of this flower I used a red knob from a vintage biscuit cutter. The long screw, which I spray painted red, goes right through the cutter, the 3 strainers, and out the back.
At the back the screw is secured with a nut, and that holds the whole thing together.Here you can see that I bent the spoon glued on the back of the flower, and I used a spray painted leftover pipe for the stem.
Here's my finished trio of flowers. This is a pretty easy project with really fun results. The hardest part was the drying time for the spray paint between coats. I would just leave them and go do something else, and then do the next coat. Time to create these does not include drying time.
If you like this project you might also enjoy How To Make a Garden Dish Flower.
To see more pictures of my strainer flowers, get more details, and a few spray painting tips as well check it out on my webs site using the link below.
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Idaon May 23, 2019I need step instruction for a blue JEAN planter. I want to make one don't know what to fill it with indoors and out.
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Donna DiMarco Engelon May 23, 2019These are really cute. What a great, creative mind you have! But just to set the record straight, I suppose you can use these "gadgets" for strainers, but they are really vegetable steamers. I use mine all the time.
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How do i save this? I cannot wait to make these!
I don’t find the little heart to click on to save it....🤷🏼♀️
Perfect for the “all shade” section of my flower garden. Def going to make these! I love them. How did you flatten the spoons and did you secure them to the pipe or just hang the handle inside it?
Hi Elaine. Thanks so much! These flowers make me happy too. I flattened the spoons with a regular hammer, and you need to be on a really solid surface on the ground to do it. I do mine outside on a large cement patio stone. The spoons just fit inside the pipe. This makes the flowers easier to store away for the winter rather than having them attached to the pipe stems. If you have wind issues then you could stuff a bit of a plastic bag or something inside the pipe to stop the flowers from spinning around. It's not an issue where I keep mine. I hope that helps, and I'm so happy you're going to make some. I'm sure you'll enjoy yours as much as I'm enjoying mine.
I Loove these!!! How can I save this? How did unflatten the spoons? We live in an apt complex and no yard and I enjoy flowers outside as my allergies are worse when they r inside 😉
Thanks Barb! I flattened the spoons with a hammer on a hard flat cement surface. To save it I think you scroll to the bottom where it says I want to do this, and click on it.