Baking Tin Repurposed to Hanging Planter

Sarune
by Sarune
7 Materials
I love plants but so does my cat. Once I left my yucca on windowsill only to find a tuft of nibbled leaves sticking out next morning. such. I can only leave mint and lemongrass safely cause Jaques the nasty cat hates their smell. Everything else must be put in unreachable places. But plants also require natural light, right? So the best way is to hang them near windows. Luckily today I came up with a quick solution – DIY hanging planter made from metal baking tin.
Start by gathering all of your materials and tools:
  • Metal baking tin also known as loaf pan. Buy some cheap new (got mine for less than 2$) reuse old one or head over to thrift store.
  • 4 large beads with wide holes. I used wooden ones from thrifted necklace.
  • Twine. Check out gardening section at store for cheapest option and make sure that it will fit trough your beads.
  • Awl or other sharp object for piercing tin.
  • Crochet hook.
  • Scissors.
  • Toilet cleaner gel if using brand new tin.
The first thing that you have to do is making some holes. Use awl or other sharp object to pierce the tin. Make four holes – one in each corner. Also make sure that they are wide enough to fit twine easily but not too wide for the bead to fall into it.
Now if you’re using a brand new cheap shiny tin you might want to add some vintage look to it. To do that simply cover the surface with any toilet cleaner gel you have at home and leave it for some time. This is actually that rare moment where the harsher the chemicals the better. I also sprayed plain white vinegar on top to strengthen the effect. After an hour or so rinse all those nasty liquids and dry the tin.
As you can see it looks like this tin been laying around for a few years before reincarnating into DIY hanging planter. To strengthen the effect even more you can brush the tin surface with sanding paper before covering with toilet cleaner. If you started with authentic aged tin you can skip this step altogether and move forward.
Now take your twine and hook. Crochet a string of simple chain stitches. Measure the length you want. I counted 120 stitches being appropriate for my planter to hang.  Leave at least 3 inches of twine at both ends for making knots and securing beads.


If you have no idea how to use a crochet hook don’t worry. You might as well use plain strings of twine or simply braid them by hand. As long as you have two pieces of string of the same length you’re fine! You might also do this step while you’re waiting for that toilet cleaner to age the tin.
Now take one end of the string and put it trough the hole from the inside. Put the twine trough one of the beads and secure in place with triple knots. Cut the loose end at desired length.
Repeat the latter step on all four holes and you’re basically done! Now your DIY hanging planter is only waiting to be hanged and filled with plants. You can see that the interior doesn’t look so nice, but I didn’t even try to cover it evenly with toilet cleaner or vinegar. I’m far from being perfectionist but you can definitely try to do it more properly.
One way to hang this planter is to gather the strings on some metal ring like I did here. You can see that my plants are not in the best condition but I’m working on it so please don’t judge icon


For alternative way to make and hang this planter visit my original blog post!
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Sarune
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 13 questions
  • Maureen Maureen on Feb 16, 2019

    Could you use the foil tins.?

  • Julie Ann Julie Ann on Feb 16, 2019

    why didn't you also poke some holes thru the BOTTOM of the tin to drain the water from the plants in the planter?? I would do that too

  • Kathy Kathy on Feb 21, 2019

    Do you think, in time, the pan would rust, with the water that drains from watering, that stays in the bottom ?

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3 of 132 comments
  • Joanie Joanie on Feb 18, 2019

    Outside hanging planter would be the place for this. Your idea is great for plants and you don't even need pots. If you are looking to plant herbs in the kitchen, you will need pots with saucers for the drainage. Good Luck!

    • Jill Ron Pike Jill Ron Pike on Mar 03, 2019

      A thin layer of rocks on the bottom of the tin provides sufficient drainage for inside plants

  • D fuhrman D fuhrman on Feb 19, 2019

    cute, cute, cute

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