DIY Old Vases And Dishes Into Adorable Modern-Rustic Garden Decor

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Sometimes a garden needs a little something to find its personality. A few well-chosen pieces of decor can work wonders, turning your plants' home into your own outdoor sanctuary. Luckily, garden garnishes are easy to make with repurposed household items such as old cutlery, and you can explore all sorts of creative possibilities with glassware, such as DIY birdbaths made from punch bowls. And one of the simplest and most versatile sculptures you can build calls for a vase and a bowl. If you combine these two items in the right way, you've got an adorable mushroom to accompany your flowers and other plants.

The materials of the vase and bowl you choose will shape the style of your mushroom sculpture. Vintage china pieces have an old-fashioned vibe that fits modern-rustic and cottagecore garden designs, while crystal bowls and vases can lend a bit of art-deco elegance to your outdoor space. Use glass milk bottles instead of vases to lean into a farmhouse aesthetic. If you adore cheerful colors, scour thrift shops and flea markets for Fiestaware bowls. Though collectors often hunt for these vibrant ceramic dishes, they tend to skip specimens with chipped edges and other blemishes. Imperfections like these aren't a dealbreaker for this DIY since you may be able to hide them when putting together your toadstool. Also make sure the vase you select has a smooth, level opening. This is important because you'll be using this opening as the base of your sculpture.

Unlike shaping a piece of marble into a human form, a la Michelangelo's "David," turning glassware into a mushroom sculpture is quite simple. Once you've found vases and bowls to upcycle, grab a tube of E6000 Plus or another clear, waterproof adhesive suitable for outdoor use. Then, place a generous amount of glue on the bottom of the vase and affix the center of the bowl's interior to it. The vase will become the mushroom's stem, and the bowl will become its cap. To make your garden especially whimsical, DIY some cute mushroom stools to go along with your sculptures.

Want to illuminate your mushroom at night? Place outdoor fairy lights such as those in the Selarlyt 2-pack of 200 LED waterproof solar string lights in the vase portion of your mushroom. You could also fill the vase with other eye-catching objects that can handle the sunshine and temperature changes that come with outdoor life. Sea glass and marbles are a couple of possibilities. If the bottom of the bowl you're using is nice and flat, you might be able to use your sculptures as stands for potted plants or pedestals for your favorite garden gnomes.