Ideas For Spectacular DIY Garden Balls

Visiting the gardens of friends or even professional displays at public and private installations, you may have noticed a certain eye-catching sphere glinting in the sunlight. These are called garden balls, and they come in a dizzying array of styles. The best part is, you can make your own!

We hunted down an assortment of DIY guides across the internet to bring you the very best projects to add some sparkle and surprise to your garden. There are an assortment of methods for creating the balls and making them sparkle, and we’ve shared our favorites below.

One of the major methods of creating these fabulous attractions involves the use of old bowling balls. Another involves repurposing old light fixture globes. The surfaces can be made to shine via a plethora of methods, from gluing on baubles to spray paint. The point is, there are a nearly endless variety of ways to go about creating your own garden balls.

Let’s dive into the gallery and check these beauties out! We’ve provided a brief description, but remember to click the attached links for the full breakdown of instructions needed to create your own garden ball in a given style.

Mosaic Garden Balls

Source: Thegardenglove

The mosaic garden ball is a general term covering a range of different styled balls, all with a common element: pieces of a material are applied to the surface by hand, for a truly detailed mosaic look. The above images showcase a handful of the possibilities.

Source: Diyforlife

This truly unique take on the mosaic design requires an abundance of multicolored marbles, but the results speak for themselves. The whimsical and absolutely eye-catching design evokes a bright, playful sense of style.

Source: Flickr

The bold arrangement of mosaic garden balls on this lawn showcases the intricate designs possible, when you start off with a plan and stick to it. Using specifically colored and mirrored pieces during the crafting process, you can add beautiful designs to the surface of your garden ball.

In addition to these individual projects, we’ve got a great how-to guide found at DIYNetwork that can be used to craft a mosaic garden ball of any style.

Mirrored Garden Ball

Source: Thegardenglove

Here’s another project making spectacular use of old bowling balls. With some silver chrome metallic spray and filler to conceal the finger holes, you can have a stunning gazing ball, mirrored to perfection.

Painted Lamp Globe

This project involves a minimum of fuss, so long as you can part with a light fixture globe. All you need is spray paint in the color of your choice to produce this fine garden addition.

Source: Empressofdirt

Living Garden Balls

Here we have a project that neatly combines succulent gardening and decorative ball design. Using a spherical planter and some skill with succulents, you can have a perfect round array of beautiful greenery sprouting from your garden ball.

This grapevine garden ball is deceptively simple. Using virtually any inflatable ball, you can begin wrapping the vines and get started on a perfectly spherical and natural garden ball.

Crystal Ball

Source: Flickr

This final idea isn’t so much DIY as “buy it yourself,” because we generally like the idea of leaving glass blowing to the professionals. However, with the purchase of a nice gazing sphere like this, the placement and framing possibilities are up to your imagination.

How to Attach Mosaic Tiles on a Gazing Ball

You can use any kind of tile on the gazing ball, creating a pattern or a design on the ball. It’s important to have something like the thin-set on the ball so that the tiles don’t fall off when it gets wet from sitting outside. A styrofoam ball can be used under a layer of the thin-set, which is similar to cement, in order to decrease the weight of the ball. This makes it easier to lift after the tiles are in place.

This informative video is about 15 minutes in length, it gives several details of how to mix the thinset and apply the tiles to the surface