Give Old Dishes New Life With A Stunning DIY Fence Decor Idea

There are many ways to repurpose old dishes in your home and garden, including clever DIY projects that take full advantage of the beauty of these older pieces, which often sport colorful flowers, unique designs, and interesting shapes. If you adore collecting vintage dishware, you will love this impressive use for old dishes that can add beauty to your outdoor space and a ton of vintage charm. By stacking and layering multiple dishware pieces together, you can create gorgeous hanging sculptures for fences or exterior walls that add whimsy and beauty to your yard.

Old dishes are available in scores at thrift stores, antique venues, and flea markets, usually for a budget friendly price, especially those which may be chipped, cracked, or exhibit crazing that aren't ideal eating off of. You may even have some old dishes lingering in your own home that you don't use anymore or that have seen better days. This is also a perfect project for dishware pieces you aren't quite sure what to do with, which can provide your spare glass pieces with a unique use, including mismatched lids, sugar bowls, and candy dishes.  

To assemble this ingenious DIY, place your largest dishware piece on the bottom, adding multiple layers in increasingly smaller sizes. Great bases include large serving plates and chargers, to which you can add bowls, planters, and standard size plates with a sturdy adhesive. For outdoor use that may experience some moisture, choose a waterproof sealer like E600 or All-Weather Construction Sealant, and apply it liberally between layers of the sculpture. Continue to adhere additional pieces of dishware to the sculpture in descending size. Great center elements include small saucers, butter pat plates, sugar and cream set lids, or decorative salt and pepper shakers.

Choose pieces that offer a lot of sculptural interest, such as fluted edges, scalloping, braided rims, and other details to add variation to each decorative piece. For a more coordinated look, choose dishes in the same material or color, or, for an eclectic vibe, stack dishes together with greater variation, including materials like clear glass, milk glass, and other popular vintage dishware styles like the decades-old tableware style that's making a trendy comeback. You could also add small costume jewelry pieces or pretty knobs at the center to add a little sparkle.

To hang your piece, you can add traditional hanging hardware to the back with adhesive. Or, for a clever reuse of old silverware, heat a spoon with a heat gun to soften it, bending it in half and creating a hook that you can secure on the back of a plate with glue. Hang i on a D-hook that's been screwed onto a fence for a secure hold that can withstand winds or bad weather.

These pieces, which look not unlike dainty decorative hats or unfolding ceramic flowers, depending on how you assemble them, can also be added as decorative accents in many different places, including on metal stakes or rebar you can drive into the ground in your garden. If you use an animal-safe adhesive, you could even use one of these as a birdbath or bird feeder, filling it with water or seed for your feathered friends. Or create adorable garden mushrooms using larger vases and vintage ceramic bowls turned upside down.