Upcycle A Picture Frame Stand Into Beautiful And Unique Garden Decor

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Decorating the inside of your home with a Triptyc-style photo screen helps you to organize your family photos and functions as a privacy barrier that separates one side of a room from another. Outdoors, the same tri-fold picture stand can be refurbished to show off your hanging potted plants. You don't have to fix the picture panes that have broken and fallen out, either. Instead, you'll add screws to the space above the open window panes and hang potted plants from them.

If the screen is a color that doesn't match the lush green of your yard, give a coat or two of spray paint to turn it into something a bit more garden-friendly. Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover Spray Paint comes in satin-moss green and is an indoor/outdoor product that you can get for around $14. Grab some terra cotta pots and some heavy-duty wire from the local hardware store, plus some gardening soil and plant clippings, and you have a simple way to transform your patio garden into something more. To make all of this happen, you'll need a drill, some screws, a little gardening shovel, and some gloves. 

Finally, you don't need to fill in all of the picture windows with plants. For variety's sake, you can cover some Plexiglass panels with stained-glass decals and place them into some of the empty slots. This creates more visual interest and balances the look of the piece.

There's no telling what kind of condition you might find a tri-fold picture screen in, regardless of whether you pull it from the trash or find it on sale at the local second-hand store. As such, you'll want to start this project by giving the piece a good once-over. Look for any leftover plastic or glass in the picture holes and remove those broken pieces. From here, clean it up and ready it for priming and painting. 

Once your stand is ready, a couple of coats of spray paint gives it new life. Leftover product is good to use here, too, so if you've recently repainted your garden furniture and have some remaining, use it if you'd like. If you want the hanging pots to match the tri-fold screen, paint those the same color. If not, either leave the pots as is or choose a different, perhaps contrasting coat. After that, put the plants in the terra cotta pots. You'll also need to add screws to the screen so that you can hang the planters on them.

Finally, you need to create the hangers for your planter pots. You can mold these out of hardware store wire or old clothes hangers. However, if you're concerned about rusting — or if you'd just like a softer, more rustic vibe — skip the wire and make an adjustable plant hanger out of rope or cord instead.

Plants are the most logical item to hang on this DIY project, given that you're going to use it in your yard. However, they're not the only garden-themed items that can work. They may not even be the most fun. Consider, for example, decorating the stand with disco balls. This isn't as far-fetched as it seems — these bright and shiny objects are actually great for keeping away birds that might eat your seeds. Basically, you want some reflectors to keep them out of the yard. Miniature disco balls, which you can buy for less than $10 on Amazon, can be hung in the stand's picture holes and serve the same function as CDs and other shiny objects gardeners use to keep birds away.

On the other hand, if you want birds in your garden, particularly hummingbirds, those holes should hold more than little potted plants. They make great spots for a hummingbird feeder or two, which you can get from the Dollar Tree for $1.25. If you want the best of both worlds, hang up a mix of potted flowering plants and hummingbird feeders to make your refurbed tri-fold picture screen stand a hummingbird haven.