This website uses cookies to improve your experience navigating our site. By continuing to browse, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
OK, I understand
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Do you remember how sweet Lucy's garden is? Lucy sure is a gardener and Guest Blogger extraordinaire!! Thank you Lucy for such a great week & putting together this brilliant redesign roundup! [Please also extend your thanks to Lucy in the comments!] - Jenny x
Today is my last guest post, and I’m highlighting some of my favourite recycled garden design objects! A big ‘thank you’ to both Jenny and Lucy for letting me indulge in sharing some of my favourite current and previous recycled designs with everyone – it’s been a pleasure to highlight so many talented people and creative products!
How about these fab ‘ee i ee i o’ garden sculptures from Think Outside for integrating a colourful and fun design aesthetic, with a great recycling sensibility. All of these quirky farm animals are sculpted from old 44 gallon oil drums, showcasing the original barrel colours and even parts of the company logos. Super clever - and very cute!
Think Outside also creates a range of rubber garden pots called ‘Tread’. These planters are hand-made out of recycled truck tyres! Perfect for planting flowers, herbs and veggies – and what a great way to reuse the enormous growing stockpile of discarded tyres. Very clever!
I know these very cute cutlery garden markers from Emerald+Emma were only featured recently on The Design Files, but I thought they are well worth another mention!
I’m a bit drawn to old cutlery with their charming patterns and detail on the handles - just not seen on contemporary cutlery. I thought they deserved another mention as they do make very sweet plant markers.
Tyranny of Distance is a cafe, housing a great collection of recycled lighting and plant sculptures in the garden created by jeweller and silversmith Marcos Davidson. The cafe is on the site of an old petrol station - and this launches the theme for the cleverly conceived industrial sculptural pieces.
The main centrepiece is an outdoor heater concocted from an assortment of used colourful gas bottles - genius! Old gas bottes have also been cut up and twisted to form outdoor hanging lightshades – they almost look like flowers and petals. Other reworked objects include rusty gas cylinders and jerry cans as plant pots, and second-hand customised cutlery which has been bashed, punctured and inscribed with TOD.
www.tyrannyofdistance.com.au & www.marcosdavidson.com
And lastly, I thought I’d finish with a few recycled and reused garden planter images and ideas from my little corner of the earth.
As usual most of my recycled planters are hi-jacked second-hand kitchen items – saucepans, colanders, woks, teapots and cups all house a variety of plants at my place. Used food tins also work equally well – and I’ve even planted into an old plastic shopping bag!!
I love the crazy mix of colour and pattern, and I like how over time the pieces weather, discolour and breakdown. And so my little garden grows and matures with each new find unearthed from the local op-shop or salvage yard!
Thanks again for a wonderful week!
- Lucy x
The Design Files acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
First Nations artists, designers, makers, and creative business owners are encouraged to submit their projects for coverage on The Design Files. Please email bea@thedesignfiles.net
The Design Files’ original content and photos are copyright protected. Please email us before reposting our content on other publications, personal websites, or Instagram. Feel free to share our images on Pinterest using the credit ‘via thedesignfiles.net’. Thank you!