Thinking about tossing your old CDs? Don’t know what to do with your old furniture? It seems like all you need is a little inspiration and you’ll be well on your way to creating beautiful stuff for your living room without spending too much.
Recycling, up cycling and repurposing your old stuff is a great way to uniquely and creatively decorate your home. Not only is it innovative, you can save lots of money you’d have otherwise had to spend on new purchases, and taken one thing out of the landfill.
There are many DIY resources that can show you what to do with almost anything, and here we highlight just a few items around the house you can reuse creatively to decorate your living room. Visit http://www.adept.uk.com/ for more ideas on eco-friendly home construction and decoration.
1. Old milk crates
Take those babies out of the garage and spray paint them in different and fancy colors and you’ve got yourself beautiful bins to keep gadgets and toys in any room. You can also take a piece of wood, attach it to the top and cover them with foam and fabric of your choosing and behold – a footstool right there!
2. Old CDs
Once you no longer need to have as many CDs around, especially now with tons of other storage options available, you may be at a loss for what to do with them. Glue two CDs together shiny side up and use them as coasters on your tables. You can also glue them to candle cups to make effective candle holders, or paint them in wild colors and hang them on one side of your wall. For the more creatively inclined, painted CDs can be turned into custom wind chimes for your patio.
3. Old dressers
Refurbish old dressers by sanding and painting them over, making an ideal surface to place stuff in your living room. There are many tutorials on Pinterest and elsewhere that can show you how to get this done creatively.
Alternatively, take out the drawers, sand and paint them with colors of your choosing according to your décor scheme. You may or may not add wood dividers to create compartments in the drawer. Once done, mount them onto the wall so that the inside of the drawer faces into the room, and you’ve got yourself a storage unit.
4. Old silverware
Use vintage silverware in the most creative ways to increase the character and charm of your living room. You can attach ladles and serving spoons onto the wall by the handle, converting them to candle holders for any room in the house. You can also bend and reshape spoons and forks and use them as door handles on storage cabinets.
5. Large spools
Those large wooden spools – used to store electrical wiring – can be repurposed in several ways to make handsome additions to your living room. Simply sand, prime and paint in your favorite colors and you can use them as footstools (the smaller ones). Add a circular divider through its length and elevate it a little, then you can use it as storage for games and books. Alternatively, cover it with form and fabric and you’ve for yourself an ottoman.
The idea is to think big, there’s no limit to what you can do with ‘junk’ around your house!
