You’ll get blown away when making a windchime from Goodwill-found items!

Dress up your outdoor space by upcycling Goodwill-found items into an eye-catching- and ear-catching—windchime.  This easy DIY project is a breeze to create.  A metal Eiffel Tower decorative piece is paired with silverware to create a windchime that will make you say, “Tres Magnifique!” each time you see and hear it.

You can make your own, too, following these five simple steps.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Find Your Good—and good items at Goodwill

At this point, many folks have completed some of their Spring cleaning, so now is the perfect time to visit your nearby nonprofit retail stores to shop for treasures and to find your good there.  

Before you start your shopping, consider donating items you no longer need, which will be resold there to support Goodwill’s life-changing programs.  Load up a bag or two with similar items in each bag, then donate them to the great team at Goodwill, who will happily take them off your hands and give a receipt for tax purposes.  Your donation also keeps items out of landfills, so your efforts are helping our planet, too.  A win-win-win for everyone!

On a recent trip to Goodwill, I picked up an Eiffel Tower accent piece.  It was made of metal and reminded me of beautiful Paris, so home it went with me, along with silverware picked up there, too.   A metal sugar bowl with curvy handles was purchased there at an earlier visit and now had a new purpose as a part of a windchime! 

Step 2: Drill holes with care and patience

Place your silverware on a piece of wood, then carefully drive a hole in each piece. You will need a drill bit designed to penetrate metal. Most hardware stores will have several on hand.

If possible, put on protective goggles or eyewear, then drill away. Apply light pressure and be patient while your drill does its thing. The metal near the drilling spot will be very hot, so don’t touch it until it cools down.

Place it aside and continue to the next.

Expert Tip

While you’ll be drilling the blade part of your knives, you will be adding holes to the handles of the spoons and forks, so look for silverware that is slim in the handle section.  The pieces which felt less sturdy actually worked better for the drilling step.

Step 3: Use chain & key rings to connect

Now that each piece of silverware has a hole in it, insert a key ring’s circular, metal fastener through the hole.  These are also available at most hardware stores.

Fortunately, I had leftover chain on hand with small links in gold-toned metal (I think it was from a discarded window blind). However, if you don’t have any, add it to your list of hardware store purchases.  Cut the chain into similar length pieces so that the spoons/forks/knives will hang at the same position and touch each other when the wind blows on them.  Attach one end to the key ring on your silverware then at the other end, add another key ring.

The handles of the sugar bowl came in handy now, as each received a key ring. A chain was attached to one handle’s ring.

Step 4: Secure the silverware to your tower

The four pieces of silverware, now attached to the chain, were fastened to the Eiffel Tower on its inside.  It was easy to do so given the design of the Tower as there were lots of places to hang them.  The sugar bowl was hung up in the center of the tower, so when it hung, the silverware was outside and around it.  The sugar bowl now serves as the windchime’s clapper, also known as the striker, which provides another surface on which the spoon/fork/knives could bump up against to make noise.

Also, found in my stash of treasures was a chandelier’s glass crystal which was attached to the lower handle of the sugar bowl to catch light and reflect it.

Step 5: Add a hanger

You want to find something to use as your windchime’s hanger.  Ideally, it will be a chain that matches the other chain used.  Enlist wire cutters to trim a piece, eight to ten inches long. 

Attached it to the top of your Eiffel Tower using two more key rings.  Viola—you know have a wonderful windchime that will be ready take on the wind and attract attention from all who see it!

Your windchime makes for a memorable gift this time of year, full of weddings, graduations, birthdays and other special events.  You might also gift it to you so it says “Bonjour” each time you see and hear it!

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Tim Kime

Artist, Motivational Speaker, Life Coach

Tim Kime is an artist, life coach, and connector. He is the President of Kime Leadership Associates, offering executive coaching, meeting facilitating, and motivational speaking. He is also the Chief Creative Force of Transformation Junkies which upcycles furniture and other household items into functional works of art. He combined his two passions—unleashing the potential in people and transforming items with the launch of the Art of Possibilities Workshops. These workshops are part upcycling, part dreaming, and part goal setting.