I bought my first home during planting season. The interior was as cookie cutter as the hurricane-proof concrete block was cold, and the whole place desperately needed some greenery to bring it to life. So I sped down to my closest home improvement outpost to grab some inexpensive ceramic pots to put them in, and alas, discovered those don’t exist.

Torn between spending money my newly mortgage-holding self didn’t have on fine artisanal clay pots or buying what seemed like hollow, overpriced junk, I got creative and looked for items I had on hand that could serve just as well. If only Houzz had been around at the time, I would have had all these beauties for inspiration too. Here’s a room-by-room guide to where in your own home you might “shop” for new planters. Becky Bourdeau @ Potted From the Kitchen

You probably have one in your house already, and if you’re doing the low-carb thing and haven’t needed your pasta strainer much lately, you’ve got an instant hanging planter on hand, for free. Need a few more? They’re easy to come by and easy on the wallet, making them a prime alternative to pricey pots. Colleen Brett Happily, some companies still sell their teas and spices in charming little tins like these. They’re too cute to trash, but what do you do with them after their contents have been consumed? If you’re handy, you can turn them into candles, but it’s so much easier to turn them into tiny planters to grow herbs on your windowsill. They’ll look right at home in the kitchen, where they were probably hiding in the pantry all along. Melissa Mascara Design Ditto for old coffee cans. In fact, once the seedlings have sprouted in your tea tins, transplant them into vintage coffee cans to give them a little more room to grow. The cans can be nailed to a fence or propped on a windowsill so the plants can get all the sun they need to thrive. Singing Gardens From the Bedroom

That papasan chair your teen has grown out of? Keep it out of a landfill by filling it with organic matter and then kick back on your patio to watch it teem with new life. Between Naps on the Porch Possibly the most creative repurposing of an old bed that I’ve ever seen, this antique iron frame has retired to the garden, where it serves as a planter whose size rivals entire patio gardens. Debbiedoo's From the Closet

Here’s a two-in-one idea: Convert a wood pallet into a DIY garden bed and top it with a pair of rubber boots that you’ve filled with dirt and festooned with greenery. Rikki Snyder Any vessel with an opening can house dirt and roots as easily as any other, so why not wood clogs or even men’s thrift-store leather shoes, if that’s what you happen to have available? Melissa Mascara Design From the Bathroom

There is so much creative potential in old claw-foot tubs, it’s a shame anyone ever throws them out. Even if you’ve got a decommissioned model that is rusting at the seams, a tub that looks like it’s being actively reclaimed by the natural world is a positively enchanting vessel for plants. Justina Blakeney From the Library

Like an old library card catalog, this repurpose job by the queen of the “Jungalow,” Justina Blakeney, brought in an element of surprise in the form of plants tucked into drawers. A textbook study in lively bohemian “Jungalow” style, it’s also an exhortation to see the design possibilities in even the most obscure thrift shop finds. As much as the archaic precursors to today’s electronics have come back in vogue, some typewriters and record players are simply too faded to be coaxed back into working order. They’re still relics of another somewhat simpler time, however, and for that reason deserve salvation as reclaimed artifacts, though not necessarily in the expected way. Here, an old typewriter lives out its second act as a treasured haven for plants. Its rust only adds to its charm. Donna Lynn - Landscape Designer From the Living and Dining Rooms

Often when we, the design-obsessed, move from place to place, we purge items that worked so well on, say, a mantel in our previous home but seem to have no place in our fireplace-less new pad. Small decorations like candleholders are a common outlier, and it just so happens their pedestals are usually the perfect size for those small candle-sized pots that can be had for a song at craft stores. Maynard Studios The Laax table by Hartstone Tile and Maynard Studios is composed of reclaimed timber and cast stone, and is actually designed to accommodate champagne and oysters on ice, or a bed of greens, if you so choose. Julie Ranee Photography From the Garage

Many of us have old, nearly empty paint cans lying around, taking up precious closet or garage storage space. Free up room on your shelf for a bocce set by transforming all those cans into plant pots. Just be sure to clean them thoroughly, as all that paint residue certainly isn’t organic. You may not be able to patch a blown-out tire well enough to put it back on your car, but surely used tires can find new life as wreath-like carriers of foliage on the side of your home. Lila B. Design Thanks to the curated, vintage interiors of the decorating world’s contemporary hunter-gatherers, outdoor shutters and old doors are other formerly functional accessories that are experiencing a major Renaissance. At flea markets everywhere, they’re being snapped up by bloggers and blog followers with visions of wall-hung mail organizers and unconventional substrates for increasingly popular vertical gardens. If you’ve been storing those old shutters in the crawl space since the last millennium, it’s time to bring them to light. They’re becoming a hot commodity! NATALIE SERDIUK From Around Town

Alternatively, if you happen to have a contact in the public works department, see about picking up a galvanized culvert that is being retired from its post beneath the urban jungle. Jake Moss Designs We think of cities as having everything, but if you’re looking to dodge the cost of custom-built raised garden beds, you’ll want to strike out on a country road trip to the closest feed store. There you’ll find livestock water troughs of the type featured here. They just so happen to be the perfect size for holding veggies and flowers without breaking the bank.