Repurpose Your Broken Floor Lamp With This Genius Indoor Planter Hack
Floor lamps can always be a stylish addition to your home's interior, but you may be wondering what to do with those same lamps when they've broken or outlived their usefulness. While they may not be perfect for your home lighting needs anymore, attractive lamps can still be useful for upcycling into other projects. One great idea comes courtesy of TikTok user @redeux_style, who turns a broken brass floor lamp into a stunning planter perfect for holding plants aloft.
It's a great DIY that not only keeps the lamp from cluttering up your storage space or local landfill, but also creates a budget-friendly alternative to similar suspended store-bought planters. With a few modifications to the socket and base, you can create a totally customizable planter out of any kind of standing lamp that fits your design scheme perfectly, all with an eye toward re-use and earth-friendly upcycling. This suspended planter fits smoothly in a corner and is a great alternative if you cannot use a hanging planter to suspend draping plants from the ceiling. You may already have an old lamp in your home, or you can easily find one at a thrift store or garage sale that needs a little DIY love.
Creating a planter from a lamp
To transform a standing lamp into a planter, begin by disassembling the lamp and removing the electrical parts, including the cord, which you will need to cut all the way to the base. You will also need to remove the socket where the lightbulb goes by unscrewing it from the lamp. Keep safety in mind when working with electrical parts, making sure your lamp is not plugged in and that any dangerous wires are removed from the lamp before use as a planter. Once you have removed the lighting elements, reassemble the lamp and turn the shade upside down.
Many lampshades have holes to allow ventilation of heat, which make excellent drainage holes for outdoor plants. Just fill the interior with soil or rocks, or place an enclosed planter inside the bucket of the shade for indoor plant use. This fun DIY works great with a large variety of lamp designs, including the ever-popular Medusa lamp, which allows for multiple small planters on a single stand. Or try it with swing arm lamps or tall torchieres.
You can even create planters from shorter tabletop lamps with similar design elements. All you need is a hard shade made of metal, glass, or plastic that you can place the plant in. You can also turn an old pendant lamp into a lovely hanging planter with similar modifications.