Recycled Washing Machine Drum Into Garden Art

2 Materials
$20
3 Hours
Medium
I love making garden art out of old washing machine drums. I turn them into colorful planter boxes! They pop with color and add fun to the garden! They are a colorful, whimsical addition to a garden. Here are photos of one of my washing machine drum art projects.
The finished recycled washing machine drum turned into a colorful planter box!
This is the old washing machine drum. I cleaned and scrubbed it out. I will use oil based paint to cover it with as that will withstand the outdoors better than acrylic.
I covered the entire drum with oil paint first using an orange color. This is just a base to cover up the metal. I put it on with a brush.
I sprayed a bit of hot pink oil based spray paint toward the top of the drum to create a sunset look although this will change. Then I used black paint with a brush and made cactus and moon shapes and started to fill them in with color.
I filled in the cactus and moon shapes with solid color using oil based paint.
I added some dots too and created a scene around the entire drum.
I filled in part of one side with blue paint to create some variety.
I darkened the background orange with a more solid color. I added some orange around the yellow moon to create some shading.
I went all around the drum and added some shading to the cactus and touched up the black outline where the other colors had gone over it. I want a nice black outline around all the images.
Here's the other side.
I added a wavy border at the top. Then I added the spikes and dots to the cactus which creates the fun, whimsical look!
This is the finished recycled washing machine drum made into a whimsical planter box!
Suggested materials:
  • Old washing machine drum   (I got from my neighbor.)
  • Oil paint   (I had the paint on hand.)
Lindy G. Gaskill
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  1 question
  • Nancyperdue Nancyperdue on Jun 19, 2017

    how can you fill it up with dirt and plant in it with out the water running out of all the holes? nancyperdue1939@hotmail.com

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