Our Upcycle of Grandma’s Shepherds hook Carousel

This upcycle started back when I first moved in to Grandma’s house. This shepherds hook carousel resided over by the barn for about as long as I can remember. My Grandma hung tin cans from the hooks and grew flowers in them. For years it just sat there kind of sad with its little empty, rusting, tin cups. It was always on my list to do something with it. First I moved it into the front yard but really needed it to be taller. At three feet it was nice and easy to add anything to its hangers but a pain in the butt to mow under so I improvised at the time and used what I had which was some extra conduit from a different project.

The conduit was WAY too small for the post of the carousel itself and also the large pipe that was supporting it… Think half inch as opposed to just over an inch. Meaning: it always leaned one way or the other which drove me nuts.

So I did the only thing I could do without having to make a run to the store… I duct taped it lol.

Its been leaning ever since.

At some point I moved it from the front yard to off our back deck staircase so we could actually see our feathered visitors from in the house.

I made several attempts to “fixing” it mostly with pipe clamps and even more tape and also painted it red a couple of years ago.

I also added a flowering plant to the top of it one year too which I am still convinced is an awesome idea but it was basically impossible to keep it watered.

So I finally set out one day this summer to actually fix it.

I was determined for it to actually stand STRAIGHT and not just until the tape failed!

It also needed a new coat of paint so I grabbed a can of gloss Sunset red Rustoleum too.

The biggest issue is no pipe in this situation is a standard size. I have NO IDEA where the bottom pipe came from though it does have holes through it suggesting it was meant to be height adjustable for a second pipe inserted inside of it.

I even attempted to drill into it at some point but it was beyond THICK compared to most steel pipes I’ve come into contact with. A couple of screws in either side would have allowed me to keep the piece of conduit I was previously using and then just literally screw it into place.

HOWEVER, because the conduit was only half inch that would have still left me with the carousel on top flopping around because its interior diameter is nearly an inch and a half.

So I was out to find the right fit pipe to slide into the base and replace the much to small conduit.

I didn’t do great but I did VASTLY improve the situation. I ended up grabbing black gas pipe from our local fleet store getting what I was crossing my fingers on the perfect size after a lot of measuring.

Bummer… It was SO CLOSE I even considered just hitting it on a couple of sides with my angle grinder!

I went back and got the next smaller size pipe and slid it into place. It was much better than the conduit but there was still a little gap that meant it still was leaning a little. Enter some random rubber washers I had on hand to slide over it and make it just a tiny bit thicker.

FINALLY ITS STRAIGHT AND GOING TO STAY THAT WAY!

I gave it a brand new coat of paint and am very pleased with it.

Our hummingbirds were voracious this year and, for the second year in a row, the oriels also blessed us with their happy presence.

I had always thought the carousel would make a great hummingbird feeder which is one of the reasons I painted it bright red so they can find it really easily!

OMG I know its going to keep on happening to me running into old pictures now that the barn is gone but – look at the barn you guys! That picture was taken back in 2016 – wasn’t she beautiful?