Welcome back to 7 Days of Thrift Shop Flips, today is day five!

I recently saw where a very clever DIYer used an old fan blade and made a coat hook. She removed the metal part used to attach the fan blade to the fan itself, turned it upside down, and reattached it to create a hook!

Then I found a selection of fan blades for sale (and priced individually) at the thrift store! I picked one that had cane details and took it home with me for a whopping .99 cents!

I wanted to create something new with my fan blade though, something that I had not seen done before so I hopped on Pinterest for inspiration. My search words were "repurposed fan blade," so I'm not sure why, but Pinterest decided to throw in a picture of a plant propagation station amongst the fan blade search results 😕

Now, I'm not one to question the signs I'm receiving from the universe (or Pinterest 😂), so I thought ok, plant propagation station it is!

Repurposed Fan Blade Plant Propagation Station

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For this project, I thrifted the fan blade, two of the little test tubes, the oven-bake clay, and even the wood beads and jute twine that I used! I also used E6000 glue, wood filler, L-hooks, and green and black craft paint.

I have linked to the supplies that you can purchase online for your convenience if you'd like to make one of these for yourself. You may have an old fan lying around already or, I bet you could find one on Facebook Marketplace, or maybe just the blades at a Habitat store!

I started by disassembling and cleaning the fan blade. While I was wiping it down, I noticed that the cane insert was moving around so I was able to pull it out for cleaning and painting.

After it was wiped down, and while I had the cane piece out, I painted it with two coats of dark green. I did not have the color I wanted so I mixed green and black paint together. You could paint this any color you desire if you are making one too!

Once it was dry, I used wood filler to fill the top hole in the blade, then lightly sanded and painted over that when it was dry.

Then I reinserted the cane.

I found these L-shaped hooks so that I could hang some propagation tubes on the fan blade.

I used three on this fan blade (because I only had three propagation tubes), but you could add more.

Then I used my thrifted Sculpey oven-bake clay to create some hangers for my tubes.

To make the hangers, I used a tutorial from Mikyla Creates. This is the one that Pinterest shared with me that started this whole idea!

You just roll out a thin snake of clay and roll the tube over it to get the correct size. Then cut it and join the ends together. Make a smaller ring to act as the hanger and attach it to the larger ring. I made little cross-hatch marks with a clay knife in both pieces so they would form a tight bond once baked.

Bake according to the package instructions.

NOTE: my tubes are plastic so I had to remove the hangers from the tubes before baking. If you are using glass tubes, you can bake them with the tubes still inserted.

I used E6000 to glue the hangers securely to the tubes and I would suggest this even if you have baked them on glass tubes. You don't want the weight of the water to make your tube come crashing down!

Did you notice that the middle tube is smaller than the other two? Yep, I only had two thrifted tubes so I scrounged around and found this one that had glitter in it to use for the third one.

Then, all I needed was a way to hang it up! I used some jute twine and wood beads to make a cute hanger.

Now all that's left to do is fill the tubes with water, pop in your plant starts, and hang it up!

I think the cane detail gives it a boho vibe and I love that.

I made the "grow" word out of clay by rolling a long skinny rope of clay and then just writing out the word with it.

What do you think? Was this a unique fan blade repurpose?

If you missed any of the first few projects, you can check them out here:

Upcycled Nightlight

Repurposed Ceramic Hand Figurine

Knock-Off Urban Outfitters Mushroom Jewelry Holder

Updated Thrift Store Art

And be sure to tune in tomorrow for the project for day 6, I'm repurposing this dish drying rack!

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Comments by Blogger

Marie-Interior FrugalistaAugust 24, 2023
Now this is a great idea for repurposing fan blades and the cane really adds a nice touch! Such a clever idea making hangers with Sculpey clay and I like the idea of using recycled glitter bottles for the vases. When not propagating plants, this would make a cute bud vase for flowers from the garden too!

Repurposed Fan Blade Plant Propagation Station

Repurposed Fan Blade Plant Propagation Station

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