Repurposed Wheel Flowers

How to create repurposed wheel flowers

There are so many ways to add some whimsy to your gardens, and these wheel flowers are a quick and easy project.

Whether they’re created by Mother Nature or by my own two hands, my hubby says I never tire of flowers of any kind… and he’s absolutely right.

 

Wheel project challenge before pics.

On the second Wednesday of each month I join some very talented blogging friends for a project challenge, and with a different theme each time it’s really a lot of fun.

If you missed any of the past projects you can find them here.

I’m so excited to see what my blogging friends have come up with for this month’s wheel challenge. You’ll find links to their projects at the end of this post. Be sure to visit and check out the fabulousness.

But first I’ll share my project with you.

 

These three wheels are from a repurposed doll carriage planter that I created a few years ago. It was in my front hosta garden.

One morning a few weeks ago I went out to do my usual watering and I discovered the planter was overturned, spilling dirt and red begonias all over an unsuspecting hosta.

I imagine the carriage probably got toppled by some animal’s nocturnal shenanigans.

Well, regardless of who was responsible… it was quite a mess.

 

After cleaning up the hosta, and relocating the begonias, I realized that one of the wheels was now broken.

The wheels are plastic so the broken spokes were not repairable.

So that one wheel was history, and it was time to give the other three wheels a chance at another repurposed life.

Perfect timing for this Thrifty Chicks project challenge.

 

I removed the 4 rubber tires from the pink plastic wheels. This was fairly easily done with just my hands.

I’m saving them for a future repurposing project that I already have in mind.

 

Before doing anything I gave the wheels a good bath with the garden hose.

The wheels rims are about 10″ across, and even though I love pink they’re not actually a shade that appeals to me.

I love bright colors, and they’re just a little too pale for my liking.

So just like my repurposed folding steamer strainer flowers, and my repurposed garden trowel flowers, they’ll be getting some spray paint love.

Spray paint is a girl’s best friend, at least this girl’s.

 

Assembling my doll carriage wheel flowers 

To put  my wheel flowers together I scoured through my stashes to see what I could find… some bolts and twisty nuts, some washers, and some metal skewers.

I love finding solutions using things that I already have.

After all, that’s what stashes are for.

If you  never use them… they’re just stuff taking up valuable real estate.

 

I decided I wanted the bolt heads to have some color, so I spray painted them to mix with my spray painted wheels.

The spray paints I used for the bolts and the wheels are a paint and primer combo, and can be used for many different kinds of surfaces. Krylon and Rustoleum both make these types of spray paints.

 

I removed the plastic caps that were on one side of the wheels so the bolts could be put right though the holes to the back.

Then it was just a matter of tightening the washer against the skewer with the twisty nut thingy.

These flowers can be easily taken apart if I decide some time in the future to use the wheels for something else.

 

The skewers easily slide into the pipes that I spray painted green to use for stems.

I’m using leftover pipes from an old deck swing, but you can also use pvc or copper pipes… or whatever else you might have.

 

My repurposed wheel flowers in the garden 

And here are my finished wheel flowers in a recently renovated garden.

The ornamental zebra grass makes a lovely backdrop for the vibrant colors.

I’m not quite ready to let go of summer yet, so these colors are just what I was looking for.

 

As I mentioned earlier I decided to use the colors that I spray painted the wheel flowers for the bolt centers too.

 

And then I mixed them up to add some interest.

 

For me, the centers help unify the three flowers.

 

The fun thing about an easy project like this is that you can spray paint any kind of wheels any colors you like.

Want all your flowers to match? Go for it.

Want them to be completely different like mine? That’s ok too.

Whatever you love is what works here, so just go for it and have some fun.

 

Save this project by pinning to your favorite board.

 

Now be sure to check out what my friends did with their wheel projects.

Just click on the links below to check them out.

1: Itsy Bitsy And Pieces: DIY French Style Market Basket
2: Lora B, Create & Ponder: Repurposed Wheel Pumpkin
3: Little Vintage Cottage: Junk Wheel Wreath
4: That’s mine.

 

Thanks so much for reading, and until next time…

keep on keepin’ on!

XOX