DIY Upcycled Pallet Rainbow Flower Garden

by Crystal Allen

11 Materials

$30

2 Hours

Easy

Turn your backyard patio into a colorful oasis with this bright and colorful DIY Upcycled Pallet Rainbow Flower Garden. This is a super fun weekend project that the kids can help out with! Use colorful acrylic paints that you already own to make this an inexpensive backyard DIY.

DIY Upcycled Pallet Rainbow Flower Garden

How to Make A DIY Upcycled Rainbow Pallet Flower Garden Planter

Materials:

-1 heat treated pallet (mine has 8 slats)

-Sand paper

-Acrylic paints in every color of the rainbow (red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange and blue… and a few shades in between!)

-Acrylic varnish, optional (I used Americana DuraClear Varnish in Satin and went through approximately 3 ounces)

-Paint brushes

-Drop cloth (or a section of grass you don’t mind getting paint on!)

-Drill and drill bits

-Flat head screw driver

-Worm clamps (These are the round pieces that will wrap around your mason jars and be attached to the pallet. Available at your local Home Depot, I found them in the section with heating ducts. I used 4″ worm clamps for my large mason jars and 3″ worm clamps for my small mason jars.)

-Zinc machine bolts and wing nuts (We used 1/4″ -20 which ended up being a great size for this project)

-Terra cotta flower pots (I got mine at the dollar store)

-Flowers

-Potting soil

Instructions:

First things first… a note on pallets. When using pallets for garden or home projects you want to look for heat treated pallets (vs. chemically treated pallets). Chemically treated pallets are getting harder to find, but they are still out there. To determine if a pallet is heat treated, look for a stamp on the wood that says “HT” like the stamp above. You will usually find this stamp on the side of the pallet or on the back. If you see the HT stamp you are good to go!

diy upcycled pallet rainbow flower garden, container gardening, flowers, gardening, pallet, repurposing upcycling, Always look for the Heat Treated Stamp

Always look for the Heat Treated Stamp

Step 1- Gather together your materials and sand your pallet to remove any pieces that will sliver. I left my pallet fairly rough but at the same time didn’t want the kids getting slivers if touching it.

Collect your supplies

Step 2- Paint your pallet with your favorite rainbow colors. Since rainbows are nice and bright, I put two coats of paint on each slat of my project. Acrylic dries pretty quickly, and it was warm outside when we were working on ours, so by the time I got around to finishing painting the 8th slat, the 1st was dry and ready for a second coat.

diy upcycled pallet rainbow flower garden, container gardening, flowers, gardening, pallet, repurposing upcycling, Paint your pallet with your favorite colors

Paint your pallet with your favorite colors

Step 3- Apply a layer of varnish to your project. This step is optional but I decided to try it. I told the associate at Michael’s about my project and asked her what she would recommend. I thought that I would end up with a spray varnish, but she advised that I use the liquid varnish that is sold right along with the acrylic paints next to the speciality paints like sparkle, chalkboard and glow in the dark. Her reasoning was that the liquid would go on thicker and more evenly than the spray and offer better protection

Step 4: Plant your flowers in your terra cotta flower pots.

Step 5- Drill holes in each of your worm clamps. (Don’t worry if your worm clamp gets slightly flattened when drilling. As soon as you tighten it around your flower pot it will re-shape into a circle.)

diy upcycled pallet rainbow flower garden, container gardening, flowers, gardening, pallet, repurposing upcycling, Drill holes in your worm clamps

Drill holes in your worm clamps

Visit Hello Creative Family to get the details on how to finish this fun weekend project!

diy upcycled pallet rainbow flower garden, container gardening, flowers, gardening, pallet, repurposing upcycling

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Frequently asked questions

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3 of 6 questions

Mar14176411 on Jun 07, 2017

looks so fun...but what is the difference between Heat Treated and Chemical?
Is one 'safer' to use for plants etc/furniture

1
Jan25301665 on Jul 06, 2017

Am I missing somethin? I don't see mason jars.

2
Lorrie on Feb 06, 2018

Why can’t you use chem treated pallets?

3

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2 of 92 comments

Sweettlb on Apr 09, 2022

For those asking about the mason jars, here is the link for that pallet. A-SHOP-APP-UWRoZHp6RnozbTJPZjJPdytzM3cwUGpsSHluV21iVGlmMHdaTUJXeUlrVkxLQmVTYUJtT2lESTM2M3hELzZyZ2tsMWNRRUZYWkpSZGpZV0xtU0RONHFCWU16cklGMWk4aUdxNjF1SkFsejFYdVptNTJFTElxYU9pbjZHYnhDdnVOUnJFTDZKMW1WcG0rS0dRTkExK0JOS2N0ME9NNVNuQUNuSEkvYUJvSUdlUDdVVEJxTHErcmJrQ1FZdFFRSy8vN1hHQnN0SUEvbGpiTloxdnFQUTBMYU4vNFYvQ1F5dWU1ZWMzYlM0NmlOa3d4SzBOSjZQK25zWVVhYjNyMUVObzVTMVN4cDR6N25yZVl1Z3ZWQ1J2OG5ya01pYmIvTWVnRXNOZXBtcWFGRnFPc2JQUnJ1Sm9lZ1VTdWRmTVB4SXotLVgzNFM1Y0lHRU1NZ3JEOHdNdWRCbWc9PQ==--b62d57d9a4a97d6cc43261b8b43abc7a8bd3daa7,6c001d34-3f9b-4e21-8d65-6d5e415a54ac,order_status_page

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Millie on Apr 09, 2022

Going to do this but I am going to use colored pots like I saw in another post last year. I just got my pallets two weeks ago.

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