How To Make An Elegant Copper Stand For Potted Plants

Here’s how to make an elegant copper stand for potted plants. As a bonus, this post also describes a DIY accessory ladder that’ll look great in your home -- this follows after the first set of instructions. As you will discover, both are fairly easy projects to do on your own.

Supplies Needed

Tube cutter

Epoxy glue

Half inch copper pipe, 10 feet long
Eight copper T fittings
Eight copper caps

Step by Step Instructions

Here’s how to make an elegant copper stand for potted plants. As a bonus, this post also describes a DIY accessory ladder that’ll look great in your home -- this follows after the first set of instructions. As you will discover, both are fairly easy projects to do on your own.

On the copper pipe, mark out eight 2 inch long pipes - this is for the center base. Also mark out four 3.5 inch pipe lengths and four 6 inch pipe lengths.

Use the pipe cutter to cut the copper pipe at the points where you marked it. To do this, place the copper pipe inside the slot of the pipe cutter. Make sure the blade is placed at the mark. Tighten the knob to put the blade firmly against the pipe. Rotate the cutter around the pipe.

You’ll notice that the cutter fits tightly around the pipe at first, but then becomes looser. At that point, tighten the knob again to ensure that the blade actually cuts the pipe.

If you are new to this, rest assured that cutting the pipe is actually easy to do, once you have done it a couple of times.

On a table, lay out four T fittings in a square. The end with the T of one fitting should point to the longer end of the fittings on either side. This can be accomplished if you rotate each T fitting counter-clockwise from the fitting next to it.

Then place four 2 inch pipe lengths in between the four T fittings, to make a square shape pattern.

Apply epoxy glue to each end of a 2 inch length and slide the ends into the ends of the T fitting on either side. The glue is used to hold the structure firmly in place.

When you are done, you should have a square structure of copper pipes.

Take the remaining four 2 inch pipes and insert them similarly (using epoxy glue) into the free ends of the T fittings.

The base of the structure is ready.

Now you have four free ends of copper pipes. Take four T fittings and connect them to these ends. They should be connected such that the center hole in the T fitting slides over the free pipes. And the other two ends are oriented vertically.

Once you do this with all four T fittings, you will have a structure where the center portion of the base stands elevated on four ends of the T fittings.

Fix a 6 inch long pipe into each of the free ends of the T fittings on one side. And glue the four 3.5 inch pipes into each of the other four free ends of the T fittings.

The extension at the top of the plant stand will be made up of the 3.5 inch pipes.

You can decide how high you want the stand to be and adjust the lengths of the pipes accordingly. Adjusting the lengths of the 2 inch pipes that form part of the base structure can give you a wider or narrower stand.

Your structure is almost ready.

Take the eight end caps and glue them onto each of the open ends of the pipes. Allow the glue to dry and the whole structure to gain strength before you actually use it.

Once that is done, place the stand with the long legs towards the bottom and the short tends towards the top. Your beautiful copper stand is now ready and you can place your potted plant on it!

And here’s the set of instructions for the accessory ladder.

These are the materials you need:

1. Two 10 foot copper pipes
2. Additional copper pipe to make the center pieces of the ladder, length depends on how wide you want to make the ladder
3. Six T fittings
4. Four copper caps
5. Epoxy glue

Mark out the pipes into eight sections - two sections that are 20 inches long and six sections 15 inches in length.

Once you mark out the measurements on one pipe, just place the second pipe flush against the first one and mark out the same measurements on the second pipe as well.

Use the tube cutter to cut the pipes into these lengths, using the process described earlier.

Once the ladder is done, the bottom section of the ladder will use the 20 inches pipes and then three sections above that will use 15 inch pipes.

Cut out the three horizontal lengths of the ladder from the third pipe you bought for the purpose. Decide how wide you want the ladder to be and cut the pipe lengths accordingly.

Place the cut out pipe lengths into the form of a ladder and place the T fittings between the pipe lengths.

Apply sufficient quantity of epoxy glue (you could also use construction adhesive) into the T fittings. Then slide in the pipe lengths. Also apply glue to the end caps and fit the caps onto the four free ends of the ladder.

Let the glue dry overnight before using the ladder. You could use after-tone to finish the ladder and give it a sheen.

Your accessory ladder is done!

The plant stand and accessory ladder add a touch of class to any room decor. Make one or both items today!