DIY Planters made from Floor Tile
I’ve been searching for affordable modern garden planters to no avail, so I decided to make DIY planters from floor tile that my home’s previous owner left behind. I saw a few posts about this on Pinterest, but nothing looked quite how I wanted. This project is simple. To make 1 planter, you will need 5 tiles (preferably of all equal size), Gorilla Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive, and Gorilla Tape. Additional items that may be helpful would be a power drill and spray paint.
You will need to drill a drainage hole in the bottom tile. Surprisingly, 2 of the tiles left in my stack of extras had a random hole drilled in them already so I’ve left this step out.
I put the tiles with the holes as the base (bottom) tile of each planter. I also figured that my cement/ gorilla glue, might not be perfectly sealed along each seam and would allow for some drainage.
The first tile is the most awkward since there’s nothing to lean it up against to hold it in place. I applied the gorilla cement along the base edge and held it until it started to slightly set. Then, I reinforced it with a piece of Gorilla tape. This allowed me some give to get the second tile glued and set against it.
I used a painters putty knife to push down the tape as closely as possible along the seem of the meeting tiles.
Once two tiles were in place, there was enough support for them to stand upright without me holding them in place.
I’ve seen other posts that used a bungie to keep the tiles secure while drying. This would have been helpful since the tiles did wiggle a bit just due to gravity.
Making the Planters Pretty!
Once the floor tile is secure and the cement has dried, you can spray paint your planter any color you’d like! I didn’t love the original tile, so this part was necessary for me.
I had a floor stencil from a previous project that I used to spray the design on. I wasn’t super meticulous about this part, because these were just going to go outside and bleach out in the sun anyway. I used the Kerala design from Cutting Edge Stencils.
To finish the floor tile planters, I ordered two Birds of Paradise plants from Home Depot. They were delivered in excellent condition.
