Upcycle Your Old Bowls and Plates Into a Stunning Wall Planter

9 Materials
$10
5 Hours
Easy

If you have accidentally broken one of your favourite bowls and plates, don't freak out! Keep all the pieces in a box until you have enough to make one of these gorgeous wall planters. If your family is as clumsy as mine that shouldn't take long.


I've made very popular Moroccan planters out of old tiles before (see here), this time I used China.


What makes this mosaic wall planter unique is the way that I used the chipped cups and bowls as the actual plant holders.


This is a really easy upcycle and costs very little, the only cost for me was with the tile adhesive.

You can see why I wanted to use my broken plates! Some of them where gorgeous!

To use the bowls and cups as plant holders I cut them in half. This is surprisingly easy to do if you have the right tools. I used a Dremel rotary saw with diamond blade. 


(The rotary cutter was a birthday present and this was the first time I used it, I can't wait to get stuck into more projects with it.) Thanks, hubby icon

Depending on what plants you are going to use, you may want to put drain holes in your planters. This can be easily done with a diamond tipped drill bit.

The remaining crockery I broke into small pieces with a hammer and a box. If you want a more accurate break you can use tile nippers.

I used an old kitchen cupboard door as my base, as that is what I happened to have lying around. I weather proofed my door for outside use (details on the blog at the end).

I covered the wooden base with a ready made tile adhesive and grout in one.

I then stuck the cut bowls and cups down in the pattern I wanted them in.

Next, I filled in the background with the smaller broken bits of plates.

Leave your mosaic planter to set and dry according to the instructions on your tile adhesive packaging. There are more detailed instructions on the blog link at the end of this post.

Now all you need to do is to decide what plants to use. Will it be bedding plants and flowers, herbs or succulents ?

I love making upcycled planters for my garden. If you don't quite have enough broken crockery yet for this project, then you should check out my very popular and beautiful stencilled pallet planter.

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Claire at Pillarboxblue
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 27 questions
  • Brenda Brenda on Aug 13, 2019

    beautiful and inspiring...maybe a cute little hanging fountain if you "dremel" a little lip into the cup's rim?

  • Kathy Marek Kathy Marek on Aug 13, 2019

    What if you are not lucky enough to have a Drexel cutter-what else could be used? Love this piece

  • Beverly Beverly on Mar 16, 2020

    Can you use a small dremel

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 388 comments
  • Taf Taf on Mar 11, 2022

    Looks great. The Stencil pallet is stunning. I think i'll try that one. Hope it turns out as nice as yours. :-)

    • Claire at Pillarboxblue Claire at Pillarboxblue on Mar 12, 2022

      Thank you so much, and thanks for checking out the stencil pallet. I painted the pallet a few years ago but it's still looking good despite being outside all the time.

  • Linda Burton Gants Linda Burton Gants on Mar 08, 2023

    WOW!!! Both projects are absolutely beautiful! I love the colors in your mosaic!! Stunning! The palette is just lovely!! Thank you for sharing!

Next