25+ Creative Vintage Garden Decor Ideas (you can thrift and DIY)

Love vintage finds? These vintage garden decor ideas will show you how to use your thrifted finds as charming garden Accessories. Enjoy a summer garden tour with plenty of inspiration!

Do you love vintage style? Then it’s a natural progression to enjoy your vintage finds outside, too! (and it gives you reason & space to buy more;) Decorating your gardens and outdoor spaces with thrifted finds is a great way to personalize your home and coordinate it with your decor style inside. Hopefully this 25+ Creative Vintage Garden Decor Ideas (you can thrift and DIY) will inspire you!

The Thrifting with the Gals Team

Today I’m joining my Thrifting with the Gals friends. You’re going to love all the thrifty, vintage ideas these ladies have for you! We’re all in different parts of the U.S. and each have a little different style, all with a thrifty, vintage touch.

Ann, from Dabbling and Decorating decorates with classic New England style at her homes in Vermont and Maine. She shares nostalgic family memories and has the cutest dog, Ella, that loves to join in the fun.

Rachel from The Ponds Farmhouse lives in North Carolina and has a beautiful custom built home on a pond. Her home is full of creative vintage style with an industrial flair. She loves thrifting and upcycling her finds.

Robyn from Robyn’s French Nest lives in sunny Florida and has a pool and palm trees in her yard. Robyn is a wonderful stylist and decorates her home with romantic, French style.

And me! I live in Minnesota. My decorating embraces each of our beautiful four seasons. I love curbside junking and every other place I can scrounge for thrifty vintage finds. Mr. Fix-it and I have spent years upcycling and repurposing for our home and my former store.

Most months our Thrifting with the Gals team is joined by a guest blogger, for even more fun. Now, for some vintage garden inspiration:

25+ Creative Vintage Garden Decor Ideas (you can thrift and DIY)

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Add Rustic Garden Decor Vertically

For a big statement in your garden, add vintage vertical elements. You can lean them against your house or garage, hang them, or stick them into the ground. Old ladders, bedsprings and headboards are great to give your garden vertical interest. A vintage windmill can add punch to your yard, too, along with movement.

Train climbing plants to grow up your vertical feature and/or plant pretty bushes in front. Another idea is to hang planted containers on your vintage find. Just make sure they have the needed drainage.

Use Thrifted Vintage Finds for Container Plants

Thrifted containers are an inexpensive way to have more dollars for pretty plants! Every container I use has come from a curbside pile or a secondhand sale. None of them are perfect, but once I fill them with beautiful foliage, no one would know!

Place pretty containers in perennial gardens for season long color and interest. Old galvanized washtubs work well with drilled holes for drainage. Baskets can be lined with coco liner. Repurposed coffee pots with flowers add a fun touch to the porch when placed on a thrifted stand. Old coolers on the porch are a great place to safely hide birdseed and plant food;)

See 13+ Vintage Junk Container Gardening Ideas with Repurposed Style for more ideas.

Add Upcycled and DIY Projects to Your Garden

Upcycled and DIY projects give personal style to your gardens and yard. An antique stove top was upcycled into a charming garden shelf years ago. It’s a fun place to create seasonal vignettes. Our Upcycled Old Garden Fencing Cloche overflows with trailing flowers for the summer. Mr. Fix-it just made 8 more of these for our daughter’s upcoming wedding; each one is unique.

See “16 Vintage Repurposed Junk Projects with Garden Style” for more ideas.

Include Water Features in Your Garden

There’s just something about the sound of trickling water that is so relaxing and soothing. Adding an electric pump or a solar fountain is easy to do in a water tight thrifted vessel. It’s also a great way to support wildlife and nature.

Years ago a friend found a huge copper sink while at a construction site; he knew I loved old stuff and showed up with it one day. It takes center stage in our back garden, while we listen to the bubbling fountain on the porch.

I just ordered a couple of solar fountains for our birdbaths (you can find them HERE). I can’t wait to add these to a couple of my birdbaths!

Combine Thrifted Finds for Garden Art DIY

When you use thrifted finds, you need to be creative. I found a sweet girl statue fountain while I was curbside junking this Spring. The homeowner actually offered it to me in her back yard as I was picking up another treasure! (See all my curbside junking fun on my Junk Hunt IG highlight HERE)

Unfortunately I realized the base was broken. Instead of trying to fix it, we placed it on top of another broken item-a ribbed, galvanized bucket that had lost it’s bottom. The two are perfect together! For now I’m just using it as a bird bath without a fountain. Maybe someday we’ll figure out how to get that part working, but for now, she’s pretty cute in the garden!

In the veggie garden (which is a whole other junk garden tour) I placed a curbside birdbath top on an old metal container. Unusual combo, but it works. Try to pair up your thrifted finds in unusual ways that work!

Arrange Vintage Garden Treasures with Collected Style

Decorate your outdoor garden areas like you would the inside of your home. You can create a collected over time style by adding vintage accessories to your container plants. Stick old garden tools into the dirt, set old sprinklers and concrete animals in and around. I’ve grown to love our porch steps decorated with a collected jumble of plants and vintage finds. Old watering cans gather rainwater while looking cute.

See “10 Easy Ways to Decorate with Vintage Garden Tools” for more ideas.

Hopefully your head is swimming with how to add vintage style to your garden using thrifted finds! And you can start keeping an eye out for fun accents when you’re thrifting this summer. I hope this summer garden tour inspired you to get creative with your garden ideas, too.

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Enjoy the rest of the inspiration from my Thrifting With The Gals friends, and be sure to Pin and Save below!

Robyn, Robyn’s French Nest, “The Best Antique Shopping in Indiana, Antique Alley and Beyond”

Ann, Dabbling and Decorating, “Thrifting at Sage Farm Antiques, NH”

Rachel, The Ponds Farmhouse, “Creative Decorating with Vintage Breadboards and Cutting Boards”

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