It's WISE to DIY: Thrify Ideas for the Do-It-Yourselfer

Totally Gorgeous Result From PVC Pipes and Spray Paint

Supplies:

According to craftbits:

• Hammer
• Small plants or seeds (plants must have short and narrow roots)
• Planting soil (optional)
• Krylon metallic copper spray paint
• (4) Large nails (sorry, only two were photographed)

For the Planter you will need ½ inch PVC piping cut to the following measurements:
• (2) 7” inch pipes
• (1) 5 ½” inch pipe
• (1) 5” inch pipe
• (1) 3” inch pipe
• (3) 2 ½”inch pipes
• (2) 2” inch pipes
• (1) 1 ½” pipe
• (1) 1” inch pipe

Including:
• (10) pvc ½ inch elbow fittings
• (1) pvc ½ inch elbow fitting with one side threaded (a.k.a one side male and one side female)
• (2) ½ inch pvc crosses
• Red valve

DIY_PBC_PLANTER_11

Directions:

1.  Assemble your supplies from the hardware store.  (You can cut the PVC yourself pretty easily but you could also ask your the attendant at the store to do it for you.  They usually will.)

2.  Assemble the pipes as shown here:

DIY_PBC_PLANTER_51

Be sure to push them together really tight.  If you do it tight enough, you won’t need glue.

4.  Apply about 3 coats of your metallic copper paint.  Let dry in between coats.  It really looks like copper!

5.  After it is all dry, attach the valve.  It will screw on easily to a grooved/threaded end.  It will turn, too.  (If your pipe doesn’t have grooves, you could always glue it.  Be sure to check with hardware store about the “male/female” PVC pipes.  The threaded are the “female” and that is what you want here.

6. Mount by nailing to the wall on both sides of each crossed point.  Like so:

DIY_PBC_PLANTER_81

7.  Add the soil by putting in a little at a time and tapping so it fills throughout.  Plant your succulents and use a mister to water!

(Bonus:  If the plants you used require more water, put a potted plant beneath it and the excess water will drip from the valve into the plant.  Looks like a leak!:)

DIY_PBC_PLANTER_81

Have you done anything awesome with PVC pipes?  Show and tell us!

Thanks to craftbits for this awesome idea and tutorial!  See their site for more pics!


21 Comments

  1. Ker Webster says:

    We made twin beds for our 2 sons out of PVC. Since they are both into gaming we painted them green like the pipes in the Mario games. So far they have held up through jumping, running and general “boy use”. 😉

  2. Frieda says:

    This is an awesome idea, it would be a great conversations element and this would make a great housewarming gift already made or for the crafter to put together themselves.

  3. love to make different things that are not common

  4. Beth says:

    This is REALLY cool, but it would make more sense (and be more believable) if you put air ferns in the planter. These plants will only last a little while before they die.

  5. kathleen collett says:

    This would be great in a kids room as Mario brothers theam

  6. jdypat says:

    i would have liked to see the result… you messed up somehow..

  7. Maureen Baisden says:

    Unusual but rather cute

  8. Kat Dye says:

    IT would be nice to actually SEE the project so we Know what this is about, instead of your posts sending us to options to buy pages.

  9. Love it, but the pot size is very small. Plants need room to grow.

  10. Cute, but looks a little tedious for so little results!!

  11. Somebody needs to check out the price of PVC first. Each of those elbows are about $1.50 or more each, And she used 11 of them. The four ways ae even more, and PVC pipe is sold by the foot. DIY, but not cheap.

    • Cindy says:

      Not sure where you get those prices from but at Home Depot the 1/2″ PVC elbows are .28 cents each, the 1/2″ PVC crosses are $1.32 and 1/2″ PVC pipe 10′ long is $2.01.

  12. Diane Storey says:

    would be cool as an herb garden

  13. Very cool! I would love to try this!!

  14. flip@60 says:

    Nice! Might try this with much bigger PVC & fittings; then put small pots inside the elbows…maintain and/or change plants as needed.

    PVC elbows can be purchased in a bulk bag at most big box hardware stores (Home Depot/Lowe’s). That would keep the price down.

    This idea leads to other configurations that can do a lot more than hold plants!

  15. Kathy Bright says:

    A planter for your wall, where the plants are in copper-painted pipes.

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