Blown Away: 12 Upcycled Wind Chimes You Can Make

A simple terra-cotta flowerpot, some fishing line, floral wire, a washer, acrylic paint, and flat glass shell pieces are all you need to create a playful DIY wind chime to match your outdoor decor. If you can’t find glass pieces, use anything else that can be easily drilled and strung up.

Save your plastic bottle tops to make DIY wind chimes! Caps from water and soft drink bottles work well, especially if they’re brightly colored. This cheerful, easy project is great to do with kids. Just make strings of bottle caps and attach them to a simple tree branch.

Now that you use your smartphone and tablet to take notes, do you have too many pencils cluttering up your desk drawers? Sharpen them up to different lengths and attach them to a wooden ruler. Voilà—you have a delightful wind chime you can really write home about!

Do you have a bag full of shells from your last sun-and-sand vacation? If so, it’s time to upcycle them into a set of beachy DIY wind chimes. This example uses a variety of shells to create a one-of-a-kind chime that will remind you of your beach getaway every time you hear its melody.

Vintage cookie cutters, silver spoons, keys, beads, and buttons get new life as shabby-chic DIY wind chimes with charm! The finishing touch is a simple chain, available at your local hardware store. Spray paint it a funky color or leave it plain for a more weathered look.

This wind chime is possibly the cheapest and easiest project you can make. Gather some long, flexible twigs that you can bend into a circle to form your base. Collect a number of thicker twigs or small pieces of hardwood and tie each to one end of several lengths of twine. Hang these lengths from your twig circle—and there you have it.

Don’t throw out that old rusted bicycle—upcycle it! Remove the chain and gears, and spray-paint them. Use one of the gears as a base, add a few metal rings and some line, and hang your new DIY wind chimes in your garden.

A vintage teapot serves as a colorful top for a cheerful, folksy set of DIY wind chimes. To make your own, restring old faux pearls onto fishing line, then add flat glass pieces or even old xylophone keys to the bottom of each string. When the wind blows, you’ll enjoy a sweet, tinkling tune.

Related: 11 Brilliant Ways to Reinvent Your Dinnerware

Guess what these cute silver fish used to be? Yup, they are old silver spoons that have been reworked and upcycled into a sparkling set of DIY wind chimes anchored by a piece of driftwood. Look closely and you’ll see the diver in the middle—he was once two forks and three spoons!

Another great project to do with kids, this bright set of DIY wind chimes is made from old tin cans of different sizes painted in various shades of blue. If you add metal washers to this windsock-style chime at intervals along the string, it will create a tiny tinkle when the weather gets breezy.

Reluctant to throw away any of those unidentified keys in your junk drawer? Hang them from a few chains attached to a simple ring for a sweet-voiced wind chime. A pretty addition to your balcony—and an easy way to find the keys if you ever need them!

Old wrenches, broken tire pressure gauges, and any other small metal tools that have seen better days are perfect candidates for upcycling into melodious DIY wind chimes. The bright blue cording gives this set a hit of color. 

For more on outdoor DIY, consider

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