Old headboard for the garden

Question

I liked the detail on this old headboard and would like to recycle it into something for the garden/yard that doesn't look like a headboard. Any ideas? I have plenty of benches so don't need another one. Thank you.

Barb Rosen · Answer

How about adding some pressure-treated lumber supports and having the headboard be the top of an arbor or garden gate? Paint the whole thing (with exterior paint) so it doesn't look pieced and grow some wonderful vine up it!

Meagan {The Charming Farmer} · Answer

Do you have a potting bench? My other thought was to add some kind of planters below the cool detailed portion OR within the detailed portion.

Amy Ogden-Paparone · Answer

If you have a fence or somewhere to hang them, you could paint the decorative rectangles of the headboard individually and attach a planter box to them and hang them on a fence or wall ... I can picture them with beautiful flowers cascading down from each one. I think if you used them on the ground they may look more like tomb stones :O

AvonelleRed · Answer

Ok, so I am kind of weird, but my first thought was to cut out the 4 shapes and use them at Halloween as headstones. Paint them gray or something, then use some brown towels staked to the ground in front of them to appear to be mounds of dirt. It would be perfect for a little graveyard. 
 If not that, I really like AJ Ogden's idea of attaching planter boxes to each of the irregular shapes and hanging them on a fence.
You could also cut out those 4 shapes and attach them together at the corners, using it as a single planter or something.
Or, cut the shapes out and put a large hook near the top of each one, and use one for hanging a water hose, another for hanging electrical cords, and so on. If you have a pool, you could cut the legs portion off while leaving the rectangular part of the frame together, then attach hooks so you can hang your pool net and skimmer stuff or hoses or whatever and hang it on a fence, or if you don't have a fence, leave the legs on and use some cement to stand them into the ground.

Jessica @ Decor Adventures · Answer

Maybe you can hang planters or pots from it and make it a vertical garden.

Jeanette S · Answer

I would cut off the 4 panels and use them as doors on small cabinets with shelves; then paint them a cream with a dark wax. These cabinets could be of a narrow depth and could be put almost anywhere...bathroom, bedrooms behind the door for special items, inside closets for those 'special' items you want to keep out of sight. (Do not throw out that post with the spindle...repurpose it into a post with a hook from which to hang a plant...set post in concrete in a flower pot.)

Flex Court Athletics Of New York · Answer

That is a truly beautiful piece. You could use that in many different and creative ways and it will look amazing regardless. When I see this piece, I definitely see garden decor. I would remove the four shaped pieces and attach them to a wooden vine trellis and intertwine the vines through the trellis and around the shapes.

Silver Geras · Answer

I would turn it into a bench, love it by the way.

Trent-Tonya Sharp · Answer

use the panels as door on a cabinet

Regina Johnson · Answer

I would cut off the four panels and put them together and make a planter and use the rest of the wood for legs or to make a trellis

Christine E Fuller · Answer

I'm with Regina, or use the 4 panels on al elaborate birdhouse? Or make a garden tool holder? Use a spray paint in your favorite color, spray it & see what your eyes see then! You can still cut it apart, with only a thin layer of spray paint on it! Have fun, nice piece!

Janis Gibson · Answer

The 4 Panels remind me little Victorian houses. I'd cut out 1 or 3 (I like odd#'s) and treat them as fairy houses. One small bottom rectangle is the door. The rest windows. I'd paint & embellish the heck out of them. Nail to a stake & hide them among your plants with pebble walkways etc.

Kate · Answer

Janis, I was thinking the same thing, that they look like Victorian Houses. I wonder if they detach from the headboard easily. Use all four and make it into a square. Using a panel for each side. It would make a great table base if a top was placed on it, especially clear top so you could see the very cool detail. It would also make a great back for a seating bench.

Kate · Answer

Another thought.... use it as a Garden Back Drop, cut out some wooden trees, the trunks in between the houses and the canopy rising above the rooftops. It could be very whimsical.

Betsy Spencer · Answer

My first thought looking at the headboard was row houses - the panels look like windows all in a row. What if you made little window boxes under each one, painted it to enhance the window look,and use it against a fence, wall, as a partition in the garden?

Rita Galella Nicholas · Answer

Make a bench

Joffler · Answer

You've got plenty of ideas for the panels. My favorite part of the headboard is actually the one remaining finial so my suggestion for it would be to remove that entire post with the finial in tact, affix a rustic planter hook (or any other discarded/found object you can recycle as a hook) to it, and set it in your garden with a seasonal blooming plant hanging from it. You could set the post in light weight concrete, papercrete or hypertufa into one of those black plastic containers from a plant you may have purchased at a nursery so it would be fairly easy to move since those are lightweight media. Alternatively, you could attach the post to a fence (for added height) or maybe just use the finial for another project in the future. If you ask me, we just don't see enough finials anymore so make good use of it somewhere. (am I weird for admiring finials??)

Sheila Koch · Answer

What about bird houses! Cut out the 4 squares on each board. Attach a short box with pegs in it to the back of each board. You can paint each individual board different colors. Each color represents each individual bird house. I think it would be gorgeous!! Good luck!

Jude O'Keefe · Answer

How about cutting in the exact middle, putting some hinges on the cut part and use it to border a corner garden. I love the wood, and would leave it that way, but because of the elements outside, you'd have to put a couple coats of something protective on it. Very unique look.

Carol Springer · Answer

Paint it wild colors, place it at one end of your garden bed, and make a colorful sign that says 'garden bed.'

Kim Lunsford · Answer

If you have a shed you can cut each of the 4 panels off and use as shutters around real windows or fake window and paint them to match your shed.

Brenda Webster · Answer

I would paint it your favorite color, then cut off enough of the legs to sink it into the ground up to the headboards lower rail for a type of fence, divider, focal point. Lovely headboard!!!

Lourie Jenkins · Answer

how about a garden hose box, use panels to form box with a hole for hose to go out!

Buster Evans · Answer

OK i thought and stared really long at the picture... and if you really wanted to make it not look like a headboard, and if you dont mind really cutting it up, there is a lot of scroll there on all sides that could be sliced off thin and used in lots of places, where it tapers in at the top cut it straight across and use that above windows or two together as a topper for the front door of the house... there is a total of 16 of the rectangles in the squares in the center that could be cut apart and added as ornamental pieces to doors or windows as well... with it being a bed I would guess it wont last long in the yard but the ornamental elegance could be used to add interest to a number of things either the house the mailbox the shed etc just so its painted or coated well so it can withstand the weather.... Its difficult to picture what YOU could do with it at your place without seeing what your place looks like.. but breaking it up into small ornamental additions would be fun, Use your imagination, and look around at what you have and how to change it.

Connie Shurtz · Answer

A backdrop for a planter or use the panels to make a box and put a basin on top for a birdbath.

Jennifer G · Answer

That's so pretty! It reminds me of playing cards with those neat geometric shapes :) I'd cut it in half, then flip one side upside down so it is a mirror image of the upper two, mount to a frame and make it a garden gate. Paint or stain it in a quality outdoor product to protect it.

Micki · Answer

Wow, what wonderful ideas everyone has posted. You have helped me think outside the box and started my imagination to see what this could be. I have saved all your suggestions and appreciate your responses. Thank You!

Karen Sauers · Answer

Each panel looks to me like a window. Perhaps cut each one individually and attach to a heavy stake to elevate above existing foliage for each one throughout the garden. Then put a small 'window box' with flowers and maybe ivy to cascade over the boxes on each. Sounds pretty elaborate but I can 'see' it and it looks pretty cool! ;0)

Le' · Answer

Jennifer, you are so right re: gate...how cute would that be

Wendy Johnson · Answer

I want to see whatever you do! I think this headboard is going to be even neater in its 'afterlife' than it is in its present state.

Old headboard for the garden

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Old headboard for the garden

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