15 Whimsical DIY Garden Art Projects Perfect for Summer

Wondering how you can improve your garden and make it more welcoming? Well, in lots of ways. Try doing some landscaping and adding shape and structure to the space but don’t forget about the little details. Just like you would decorate the interior of your home with artwork and all sorts of accessories, there are many things that you can add to your garden to give it more character. With that in mind, check out below our selection of DIY garden art projects and have fun figuring out ways to make them work with your own outdoor setup.

Painted Bird House

This copper wind spinner featured on zestitup is a lovely little detail that tickles the senses and adds charm to the garden. It’s also fairly easy to make and you can do it all yourself. You’ll need a copper sheet, a pair of tin snips, a hammer, one nail and some thin wire for hanging. We love the way it twists and turns, catching the light and spinning with the wind.

Painted Bird House

If you feel like your lawn or your garden is missing some color, perhaps it would look nice to add a few bottle cap flowers here and there. They’re super easy to make and very inexpensive. The project starts with a few bottle caps, metal cutting shears and some stiff wire. You’re also going to need some strong bond glue and outdoor paint in any colors you prefer. After cleaning the bottle caps, go ahead and cut the folds in the rim to make petals, then attach the wire to the cap using glue. You can then proceed to paint and decorate each flower using paint. We found this lovely project on urbangardenersrepublic.

Painted Bird House

Another cute idea is to make little flowers for your garden out of copper sheets. However, this project requires you to use a cutting machine and some steel rule dies which have to be purchased separately. Assuming you have everything you need, putting together the flowers once all the little pieces are cut is quite fun and simple. You can make a bunch of them in different sizes and with different types of petals or patterns. You can find more details about this project on gardentherapy.

Painted Bird House

You can also make something really cool for your garden out of old license plates. We’re talking about a big dragonfly decoration that you can display up on a tree trunk or a fence. Doesn’t it look whimsical? To make this you require 4 license plates, a chair leg (or something similar), screws, a picture hanger, a metal file, a drill, snips and a few decorations such as old keys, rings and wire.  You can also use outdoor paint to add more character to your dragonfly and make it look extra pretty. Check out birdsandblooms for more details.

Painted Bird House

This flower garden spinner was made, among other things, from a fidget spinner. It’s a fun project which makes use of a few rather odd supplies but ends up looking gorgeous. You can check out all the details on instructables if you want to make this yourself. The short version is you need to cut out the petals out of tin sheets and then paint them. While you’re waiting for the paint to dry you can work on the spinning part and for that you’ll need the bearing from a fidget spinner and two CDs. After that everything needs to be assembled.

Painted Bird House

Dragonflies are magnificent and we really like the idea of making a dragonfly sculpture for the garden. Doesn’t this one look amazing? It’s all made from scrap metal which is quite impressive. If you ever want to look for parts to make something similar you’ll need some sheet for the wings, something long for the body like a bolt and a thin rod for the legs. Of course, this can be adapted based on the materials and resources that are available to you. Check out instructables for additional details.

Painted Bird House

Concrete is another cool material which you can make use of for some of your DIY garden projects. There’s this cool-looking concrete leaf orb that we found on madebybarb and it seems like a fun and interesting project. It’s made using an inflatable beach ball, concrete mix, fiberglass drywall mech and cabbage leaves. The cabbage leaves have a really nice pattern on them and they’re also huge which means you can trim them and shape them however you want.

Painted Bird House

Doesn’t this look cool? It’s actually a bug hotel designed to support beneficial insects and to look interesting at the same time. It’s something that you can hang up on the garden fence to make it look nicer and less boring or something that you can display on a wall. In any case, it’s pretty simple to make using things from your own garden. You need a wooden frame, a bunch of sticks, branches, moss and other things you can find outside, a saw and some wood glue. Check out gardentherapy for instructions.

Painted Bird House

Some of the supplies that you can use to make garden art may not make much sense at first but at the end of the day being creative means coming up with designs and ideas that stand out and make others wonder. In that sense, check out the garden art project featured on infarrantlycreative. It uses various glass dishes, glue, glass marble and paint and it’s definitely intriguing. You could make something really cool inspired by this project using unusual items that are available to you.

Painted Bird House

These concrete globes look gorgeous out in the garden, resembling large and perfectly round pebbles. You can have a bunch of these spread around, placed at the base of some of the trees, between bushes or randomly along the pathway. You can use old glass lamp globes as molds and you can also play around with different shapes and sizes if you want to. You can find out all the details and instructions on thegardenglove if you’re interested.

Painted Bird House

Speaking of glass lamp globes and similar fixtures, something else you could make with them is a gazing ball which you can display in your garden, on the porch or indoors. The design that’s featured on hearthandvine was created using a clear globe fixture, mod podge, neon food coloring, a clay pot and gold spray paint. Depending on the colors you prefer and any elements that you’d like to customize, you can adjust the list of required materials accordingly.

Painted Bird House

You can make a garden look really whimsical with lighting and there are tons of interesting projects to do based on that idea. One of our favorite projects comes from thenavagepatch. This is a water drop solar light and it’s magnificent. In case you’re wondering what it takes to make something similar, the list of supplies include a hose bib, a black pipe 9 degree elbow, a black pipe nipple, a tall metal candle holder, solar string lights, moldable glue, watering globes and metallic spray paint.

Painted Bird House

Wind chimes are also lovely and they can be added to a garden in all sorts of beautiful ways. You could hang them from a branch up in a tree or add them to the porch. There are also lots of different ways to make wind chimes. The design shared on rhythmsofplay is really cute because it’s very colorful. If you want to make something similar you need some branches, fishing line, bells and a bunch of sea glass beads. You’ll also need some twine to hang the wind chimes with.

Painted Bird House

Garden flamingos are quite popular and you might even already have some. They’re not the most interesting or best-looking garden decorations out there but you can definitely do something cool with them. For example, you can decorate them with moss and greenery and then display them in your garden and they’ll actually look quite natural in there. This idea comes from lostmom so be sure to check out the tutorial before you get started on this project.

Painted Bird House

Another really cute thing you can add to your garden is a bird house. They comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and you can hang them from tree branches or attach them to fences in your backyard or garden. Go ahead and get yourself a simple and unfinished wooden birdhouse and a bunch of paints in different colors. You can also use different paint brushes to create different textures. The actual design is up to you. We really like the design featured on createwithmom. It has a nice old-school oil painting kind of vibe.