16 Ways To Repurpose An Old Coffee Pot Around Your Home And Garden

If the magical beans from fairy tales were real, they'd have to be coffee beans. The superpowers provided by these roasted, ground, and brewed nuggets have made coffee one of the most beloved beverages on the planet. Adoring fans and addicts have come up with scores of pots for preparing this elixir. And while these containers all tend to wear out or become obsolete eventually, they don't have to go to waste. Most coffee pots remain useful as planters or garden accessories. Plus, pots from days past and lands distant can be attractive enough to transform into decor pieces.

Don't throw your coffee maker away when it sputters out its last drips. Instead, save the pot while recycling the plug-in portion. (Check your area for appliance recycling services.) Then, turn the pot into something practical or whimsical rather than casting it aside. We've found 16 ways to rescue old coffee pots in many shapes and sizes. Let yours provide light, shelter plants, tell time, or just bring beauty to your home and garden.

Pretty much any container can be converted into a planter, but some do it with more flair. Old-school camping coffee makers often come with a set of cups. If you have one of these, use it as a planter. Poke a hole into the bottom of the pot to support a plant slipped inside the mouth. Outfit the set of cups with drainage holes and small potted plants as well. If they have hook handles, hang the cups around the mouth of the pot. If not, surround the pot on a tabletop or tray with the smaller plants.

For a pretty obvious repurpose, glass coffee pots make great watering cans. They are easy to handle, hold a decent amount of water, and come with a spout for a good stream while pouring. However, your pot doesn't have to be made of glass to stand in as a watering can. Vintage ones look nice intermixed with potted plants as part of decor in between waterings, too.

Workaday glass pots without their plug-in partner can do more than water plants. In fact, turn one into a house for plants. The clear sides and lid join forces for an offbeat terrarium when sand, activated charcoal, potting soil, plants, and other items are added. Keep the guesswork to a minimum by filling it with one or more of these 15 types of terrarium plants anyone can take care of.

Tall metal camp-style coffee pots are not only an iconic shape, they're also a blank canvas for a paint job that rings in any holiday. Go patriotic for the 4th, pastel sweet for spring, pumpkin spicy for fall, or green and red for Christmas. Remove the lid, and add flowers or seasonal foliage to get extra use and cuteness out of your decorative coffee pot. Then display it on a shelf or in the center of your table.

Sure, coffee pot planters are a no-brainer, and we already mentioned one. But using a French press takes this upcycle to another level of adorableness. "Level" is the operative word here, since the lid attached to the plunger can evolve into a clever canopy for your potted friend. Fill the carafe with stones, gravel, or better yet, coffee beans. Pour in enough material so that the plunger's lid stands several inches above the rim of the carafe. Press the plunger down until it touches the filling, and top the space above with soil and a plant.

Strings of beads catching the breeze and rays of sun or a fringe of jingling ornaments convert a coffee pot into a wind chime. Since it's best to drill small holes in the container to hang the charms or chimes, a metal pot may be the wisest choice for your own DIY. Dangle your decor from the handle with a "stream" of beads coming from the spout, or hang it from its mouth with adornments attached to the base. If you go with the latter, cap it off with a pot of cascading flowers for extra credit.

Extend an invitation to stay toward a birdy friend. Coffee pots can turn into birdhouses in many ways. Bore a hole in the side of a pot, affix a perch made from repurposed cutlery, and hang the new dwelling from the handle or holes around the mouth. Alternatively, forget making a new hole and take advantage of the pot's original opening. Hanging your pot so the mouth is vertical ensures that birds can flutter right in and make themselves at home.

It doesn't require lots of creativity to reimagine a coffee pot as a vase. However, the right touches take it from "well, duh" to "wow!" Of course, the more attractive the pot, the better looking it is with a bouquet dressing it up. Really, nearly any coffee pot filled with flowers can be pleasant as-is, but adding a few accents like a bold coat of paint or lacy trimmings are the icing on the cake.

Akin to the Tin Man of "The Wizard of Oz" fame, a metal coffee pot or a collection of them can team up to form a quirky figure worthy of adorning any yard or living room. Whether it's a face painted onto one pot or a stack of pots morphing into a statue, the results of personifying coffee pots can be charming. Try using other metal, ceramic, or glass items to create a larger sculpture.

With the help of a table lamp kit, you can turn nearly anything into a lamp. However, not everything looks as cute when illuminated as a coffee pot. The light fixture can come out of the mouth of the pot, but if it has a spout, why not have it pour out a light bulb? Pots with opaque sides, like ones made of metal or ceramic, are best for a lamp conversion, since they'll hide the inner workings.

Darling metal pots sporting long handles are an everyday tool for making Turkish coffee and are called a cezve. You might see them in gleaming copper or tooled metal. While they are perfectly decorative without any upgrading, the small pots accommodate a candle beautifully. Slip a votive into the container, or make your own soy candle by pouring wax around a wick, directly into the pot.

Along with a wired lamp and a candle, a coffee pot-turned-oil lamp rounds out our creative coffee lighting trifecta. Fit any old pot with a wick, the right size lamp adapter, and fuel, and it's changed into a long-burning no-electricity lamp. This trick gets even better when someone crafty has welded appendages onto the pot for added fun.

As long as your old coffee pot can still hold liquid, let its second career be as part of a fountain. If your water feature will live indoors, virtually any type of pot can perpetually pour water into a basin with the help of a fountain kit. Metal and ceramic fountains have a better chance of standing up to the elements for an outdoor fountain.

Make a clock out of nearly anything with clock kits that come with arms, time-telling hardware, and sometimes numbers. Pay homage to your affinity for coffee by equipping one side of a pot with a clock face. This use is better left to ceramic and metal pots, since you'll be drilling a hole for the clock face. Plus, opaque sides will mask the clock's mechanics.

Sometimes china coffee pots are too demure to get much enjoyment out of. For people with tastes that are more off-color than refined, top an otherwise conventional and classy pot with an irreverent word or phrase. Spelled out with antique lettering, your pot of "poison" or "liquid therapy" will earn plenty of double-takes. It can still play host to coffee or stand in as a vase or decorative accent.

Sometimes a new model of an appliance comes out and you just have to have it. If the old model is still working and you're an avid crafter, here's something you probably didn't know a coffee maker can do: Use it to dye fabric! The pot of a standard-sized coffee maker is great for small pieces of fabric you'll use for quilting or other projects that don't require a lot of material. Add your dye and material to the pot, pour water and vinegar into the maker, and let it brew.