Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

11 March
Today is my favorite day of the month! It's Thrifty Chicks challenge day!!

If you are new to LVC, the Thrifty Chicks is a small group of blogging friends and on the second Wednesday of each month, we do an upcycling challenge project and share on each of our blogs. Each month has a different item that we each upcycle. This month our item to upcycle is canisters, buckets, or pails.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

I had my heart set on finding a canister to upcycle for this project for some reason. I stood in the thrift store staring at all the canisters they had trying to imagine what else they could become but I just wasn't coming up with much. My friend Amanda had given me a great idea but none of the canisters I was seeing would work very well for what she suggested.

I was about ready to leave but decided to stroll down the kitchen aisle one last time and that's when I saw this.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Amanda's suggestion was to paint a canister, bucket, or pail with some fun native American designs and make a macrame hanger for a cool hanging planter! I really loved that idea but I'll confess right now that I didn't do the macrame. I thought it would cover up too much of whatever cool native American design I decided to paint on it.

Once I took off the tape and opened this up, this is what I found.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

It's part of an old aluminum camping cooking set, kind of like this.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/OldRedHenVintage?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=711901129
Source: Old Red Hen Vintage
I decided to use everything except the plates to make my boho planters.

Now that I had my "canvas" so to speak, I hopped on Pinterest for some inspiration and I found these!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!
Source: Woodwaves - Boho Modern Black Clay Planters
Aren't they cool?!

To make my version of these cool planters, I used black chalkboard paint and gave the parts I was using two coats of paint.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Did you notice how the inspiration planters have a base that is slightly smaller than the rest of the pot? Well, I decided to use the lid (that didn't fit either of these pots by the way) and glue it to the bottom of the larger pot to get the same feel as the inspiration planters.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!


Now, I needed to get that cool design on mine!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

This has got to be the easiest decorative painting job I've ever done, the imperfect design is so great because anyone can paint this!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

You don't even have to make a straight line!! 😃

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

So once I had the designs painted, I felt like my planters still needed that chalky looking finish like the inspiration planters!

What luck I had painted these with chalkboard paint!!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

I used a piece of chalk and rubbed the side of it all over the planters, just like you would do when seasoning a chalkboard! Then I wiped it off with a paper towel.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

They are left with a someone chalky appearance that resembles the inspiration planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

I made a little black and white tassel and added round wooden balls for feet on the smaller one.

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

The inspiration planters cost $98 for a set of three... that's over $32 each!! 😮 Mine only cost about $2.50 each to make! They would cost a little bit more if you had to buy the paint and chalk but not much!

Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!


PIN ME!!
Vintage Aluminum Camping Gear Upcycled to Pretty Boho Planters!

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