How to Use an Old Chiminea as a Flower Planter

Several weeks ago my neighbors were moving out of their home and tossed this old Chiminea to the curb. I had seen this outdoor fireplaces before but never thought about owning one because we have a fire pit.

Anyway, hubby saw it sitting at the curb and went over to ask them if we could have it. They gave it to us but left us know upfront that it had a hair line crack. That crack didn't bother us at all because we were going to clean it up and use it as a flower planter in our garden.

The old Chiminea comes in two parts...the base and the chimney portion. We separated them and gave them a good cleaning. To clean them up we used a product called Krud Kutter that easily removed all of the dirt, grime and soot. We then hosed them down with our garden hose and left both pieces dry in the sun for 3 days.

We then decided to seal them by spraying the outside of each piece with clear acrylic spray. You can find this in the spray paint section at your home stores and it comes in several different types of finishes. We chose the matte finish for our project and gave both pieces two coats of the clear acrylic finish and left them dry for 24 hours.

We then assembled the two pieces together. We measured the chimney opening and found a plastic flower pot at the home store that perfectly sits down inside it. We filled it with some good dirt and then placed several trailing plants inside it (along with a small mound of ornamental grass).

In the bottom of the Chiminea we used two plastic flower pots and turned them on their sides. Each one has several "trailing" type of flowers inside it. We also placed some river rocks into our base which helps to keep the flower pots (turned on their sides) from rolling around.

Now that it is finished...hubby moved it down into the backyard near our outdoor swing & flower bed. It really looks nice sitting there and it really adds so much needed color to that area in our yard. We are very pleased with how this turned out and we saved another item from going to the landfill! We love to upcycle and turn nothing into a pretty something! What a pretty addition to our flower garden!