How To Upcycle Vintage Copper Pots the Wrong Way

Sometimes you are so excited to get started on a project. In your mind you have it all planned out and you imagine these perfect results. But in reality it doesn’t always work out the way you want it. Hence the title of this project. Because there is definitely a wrong way to upcycle vintage copper pots, and I am going to show you!

This month I was challenged by my blogger friends to come up with a project using a thrift store find. The only problem is that there are no thrift stores in my town. Nada! Zero! Nothing! So I asked the ladies if I could find something from my basement which is really the best thrift store around! But you all know that!!​ 

​At the end of this project you’ll be able to see what my friends did with their thrift store finds. So make sure you go all the way to the end and read my hard earned lessons too!
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Off I went to the basement where I found these two vintage cooper pot bowl dishes with strange looking lids. After a bit of sleuthing I found out that they are vintage copper pots from the 1950’s and were selling for about $36 for a set of two. 

What I didn’t find out was why the lids were such a strange shape. Anyone have a clue?
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The first step was to clean them up.  That was very easy to do. I cut a lemon in two and poured some salt onto the lemon halves. 
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Next I rubbed the salted lemon onto the bowls. As you can see below the result was instant. You can even see the lemon juice dripping and how clean the copper became. 

I was so happy and excited!  Now I would just fill them up and make a pretty vignette!

Here is the vintage copper pot lid all shiny. Do you know what that is used for? The million dollar question!

For that perfect vignette I had in my mind that I would use some plants my husband had bought home. And then I would add some rocks and some dried flowers. And I would use a dried squash which had been painted and a milk pourer and so on.

And then I filled them up like this. 

But you know what?  I hated the vignette!
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I mean, what is this supposed to be anyway? A lid with rocks and a … I don’t even know what that is. I’ve had it in the house for as long as I can remember.

I had to ask the hubs, and he said that it was a piece of wood we found in the river many, many years ago, and I’d liked it so much I bought it back home with us. I guess I was hunting for junk even back then. 

Sentimentality aside, it does nothing for me.  And why am I showing it to you?  Cause it makes for a cool photo.  “wink”

​Let’s stretch the truth a bit and call it abstract art!

The bottom portion of the bowl was turned into a rock garden, which in my opinion is an epic fail.  I always drool over everyone else’s fairy gardens but I am so bad at these things. 

I had painted these rocks last year. You can see them on the balcony tour here. 

Maybe if we look at it overhead it won’t be so bad?! Of course that defeats the purpose of upcycling the vintage copper pots. 

The big copper pot was used as a very bad planter for the tomato plants. 

Now I have a confession to make. As you all know I am no gardener but even I can grow succulents. However this year I have been so busy fixing up the new space that I have neglected my meager succulents.  And so when I went to add some to my other lid, this was the result.  

It is pitiful and I am embarrassed to show it to you, but I think that we can be truthful here. After all, we are among friends.
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​I hated it so much that I just took everything out, cleaned it up and started again. 

Upcycling my Vintage Copper Pots

While I was decluttering the other day, I had found a container full of tiny beads. They belonged to my girls who liked to make bracelets and other crafts when they were younger, much younger.  But these beads had been abandoned to their useless fate.  It was a chance for me to use them so I grabbed them and tossed some watery glue on the inside of the lid and added them on top. 

Then I randomly threw some more glue onto a jar and added more beads. Once they were dry I simply placed the jar on top of the beaded lid. 

I added some dried flowers in the mix and added a tea light. You can never have enough tea lights!

I had started with a whole different vision for this vintage copper pots project, and this is what I ended up with. It’s not the greatest craft but at least it beats that pitiful excuse of a succulent garden.
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Oh and in case you’re wondering the beads are holding up very well, even on a windy balcony. 

Here they are on the balcony.  The bowl with the painted rocks and behind it the backgammon tray which was once a drawer.

And on the pallet couch the other three pieces. To the left is the “Abstract Art” piece.  And to the right I have placed the lantern on top of the larger pot to give it some height.  You see my husband took back his plants and put them in real planters. 

My vision has been ruined but at least I got a few good photos out of the project.

What did I learn after this fiasco of a project?

To stay away from plants?

Or at least to prepare ahead of time so the succulents will be alive?

When in doubt go with blingy beads?

A pretty picture can make even the silliest stump look like art?

Or just to stay out of the basement for a while?

Which one is most on point?
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And here ends my tale of how to upcycle vintage cooper pots the wrong way. Because sometimes things turn out the wrong way! But at least I’ve learned a few lessons.   

And now for that most important question.  Do any of you know why the lids are shaped like that?

AND THE MYSTERY HAS BEEN SOLVED!  I belong to an Upcycle Sharin group on Facebook. Within minutes they responded that it was used as a serving dish.  Apparently if I take out my “Abstract Art” I can actually serve food in it.  So the small bowl shape on top is actually a pedestal. How cool is that!?

Make sure to hop on over and visit my blogging friends to see what they have come up with for this thrift store upcycle challenge. 

• ​Across The Boulevard
• My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies
• Purple Hues and Me
• Sew Crafty Crochet
• Stone Cottage Adventures

​More Vintage ideas: