7 Ways to Repurpose Your Old Guttering

Creatively repurposing stuff is a great way to keep items out of landfills, use existing materials to provide for our current needs, and have a bit of quirky fun. Reimagining how to use old rain gutters makes for a great collection of funky projects.

While guttering is necessary something that makes it to the trash bin often, it is something that occasionally gets damaged or needs updating. When that happens, we end up with a lot of downed gutters that have suddenly lost their purpose. Time to find a new one!

Not only do these projects repurpose old gutters, they do so with cool stuff that has functional and aesthetic value. It turns out gutters can help with a lot more than directing rain off the roof. There’s so much we can do with them.

1. Vertical Gardens

As gardening has become more common in urban areas, city growers have learned to utilize vertical space rather than just square footage. Gardens can climb up fences, walls, balcony railing, and more. Old gutters are perfect for vertical gardening.

The two ends of the guttering can be capped and sealed. Lengths of guttering are hung up the walls. They are filled with potting mix and are perfect for growing things like lettuce, strawberries, culinary herbs, and more. One wall of guttering can supply several rows of planting space.

2. Wall Fountains

People love to have water features around the house, and since guttering already has a history with H2O, it only makes sense that they are well suited for water features.

One cool way to make a rain gutter water feature is to zigzag old gutters down the wall so that one spills into the next. The final gutter can dump its water into the rain barrel (make a little patio pond), and a solar pump can send water back up to the top gutter to keep the water circulating.

3. DIY Organizers

Easily cut to the exact length needed, guttering can make quick accessible organizers. In the house, they can be hung behind the desk or put underneath the entertainment center to keep all those cords tidy. In the garage, they can be hung on the wall to contain different cans and tubs—varnish, spray paint, wood glue—up and out of the way. They’ll hold canning jars and other containers in the pantry, attic, or utility room.

4. Bookshelves

Kids always love to have unusual features to show off in their rooms, so using some old guttering to make bookshelves can encourage them to read and give them something in their space to show off. The gutters can even be painted to match favorite colors or with thematic interests.

5. Drink Cooler

For those who like a bit of time outdoors, an old bit of guttering can be used to make a pretty nifty drink cooler. By a couple of caps for the ends of the gutter, fill it with ice, and stock it with beverages. This can be fastened to an outdoor wall or rail. A cool project is to sink the guttering into the middle of a picnic table.

6. Garden Edges

Raised gardens are really popular these days, and old gutters can make some cool garden edges for containing them. Used upside down, they can act as borders to keep the soil in place. Turned upright, those gutters can be filled with pebbles as a visual feature or filled with potting mix for another growing place (perfect for plants like mint that need to be contained).

7. Window Gardens

Windows are great places for growing a few veggies, culinary herbs, or edible flowers. Guttering can be mounted inside a sunny window or outside it (or both), and the gardens can be tended and harvested without even leaving the house.

Gardens like this are amazing because they can both supply food and give us something really lovely to enjoy at the window. Violets and pansies can even provide some color and loveliness in the wintertime.

Surely, we haven’t exhausted the list of what can be done with old guttering, but now we’ve got a good spot to start and perhaps some inspiration to get our creative juices flowing. Old gutters have real potential for becoming something new and exciting.

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