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5 Reclaimed Wood Projects share

Have you been on the lookout for reclaimed wood projects? Check out these awesome ideas!

Some of the reclaimed wood projects on this list use pallet wood while other call for other unconventional sources of wood, like old bedroom doors. Of course, the list below is just the start when it comes to reclaimed wood projects! Here are a few from our archives that you might also like to try:

The important thing to keep in mind when you're planning your reclaimed wood projects is that you want to be sure your wood is truly reclaimed. If you snag a wood pallet from behind a store, for example, and the store was going to keep using it, you're not reducing waste. It's only upcycling if you're giving something a new life that would have otherwise been landfill-bound, right?

5 Reclaimed Wood Projects

This list of reclaimed wood projects doe a great job of offering you options for each project, so you can work with what you have. Check it out:

graphic via Jarrimber

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, crative reuse, DIY, reclaimed wood, recycled wood, reuse, upcycling

Jan

5 Upcycled Home Storage Ideas share

Need some help getting organized in the new year? Check out these DIY home storage ideas!

Sure, you can hit the big box store for shelves, bookcases, and storage boxes, but those commercial solutions come with a big carbon footprint. When you create your own home storage from reclaimed materials, you're doing double service to the environment. Not only does your DIY home storage have a lower impact than the sort produced in a factory and shipped all over the world, but you're also keeping waste out of the landfill.

5 Upcycled Home Storage Projects

Bike Frame Shelving - Did your bike bite the dust? Turn the frame into hanging shelving !
Dresser Drawer Shelves - Go vertical for efficient storage made from old dresser drawers.
Burlap Coffee Sack Box - Instead of baskets or soft boxes, turn an old coffee sack into a pretty home storage solution,
Vintage Suitcase Drawers - Did you pull the drawers out of a dresser to make shelves? Replace them with vintage suitcases! Bam!
Crutch Shelves - I love a ladder shelf, and I love this ingenious one made from an old pair of crutches even more!

Have you made any cool upcycled home storage solutions? Tell us about them in the comments!

Image Credit: Crutch Shelf photo via Mamie Jane

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, DIY, DIY home storage, DIY shelving, home storage, reuse, upcycling

Jan

Spotted: Vertical Storage from Old Dresser Drawers share

If you live in a small space, storage is at a premium. Vertical storage is a great solution for fitting more stuff into less space!

Just like vertical gardening, vertical storage takes advantage of height to help maximize a small area. Store-bought vertical storage solutions can be a little bit pricey, but when you make your own from reclaimed materials you save money and reduce your environmental impact! Bing, bang, boom!

I love these sweet vertical shelves that Samantha at the Douangphilas made out of salvaged dresser drawers. She ran across these empty drawers at a Habitat Restore, and it's surprisingly easy to find drawers without homes. So many folks leave old dressers out by the side of the road, and the outside gets ruined, but the drawers are sheltered and remain intact.

Keep an eye out for dilapidated old furniture, because even if you can't salvage the whole thing, this tutorial shows that you can even use parts to make something wonderful.

To make your own vertical storage from old dresser drawers, you will need:

old dresser drawers
damp rags, to clean your drawers
paint and paint brushes
sandpaper
fabric or contact paper
coat hooks and screws (optional)
long screws to mount the drawers to the wall

Ready to make your own vertical storage? Click here for the tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, DIY decor, DIY storage, reuse, upcycling, vertical storage

Dec

Window Crafts: Make a DIY Dry Erase Board share

We love window crafts, and this simple DIY dry erase board is a perfect way for you to get organized for the new year!

Bonnie - one of the writers I work with at Crafting a Green World - created this sweet upcycled dry erase board using an old window that she found, and I love the simplicity of it! She used her board to write a sweet saying, but you could use yours as a to-do list or even to keep track of your groceries and reduce food waste.

The genius of this project is that a window is basically already a dry erase board! A dry erase marker will wipe off of glass almost as easily as it does off of proper a dry erase surface, so there's no need to treat the glass at all.

This Crafting a Green World window craft doesn't require sanding and painting, but if you want a more modern look you can grab some medium grit sandpaper and zero VOC paint to refresh the window that you're using. To get clean lines, use masking tape to cover the glass and remove any hardware before painting. A vibrant jewel tone or fresh coat of bright white would look great!

Once you're painted - or not! - you just need to gather the short list of supplies that Bonnie calls for and make your dry erase board! Here's what you'll need:

an old window
recycled paper
glue or tape
a dry erase marker

Got your supplies handy? Head over to Crafting a Green World to get your window crafting on!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafting with windows, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, reuse, upcycling, window crafts, windows

Dec

Pallet Crafts: Make a Tea Light Holder share

Pallet crafts are such a fun way to keep waste out of the landfill, and this tea light holder is beautiful in its simplicity!

A lot of pallet crafts call for a lot of special materials, and what I love about this one from our friend David Quilty at The Good Human is that you really don't need special tools or woodworking skills to make this candle holder. The finished project has a rustic look, so even if you're using a hand saw, you'll end up with a very nice-looking candle holder when it's all said and done.

I know, I always talk about this when I talk about pallet crafts, but it's so important! When you're sourcing your pallet, you want to be sure that you're using one that's headed for the landfill. Don't just nab a pallet from behind the local big box store. Make sure you pop inside and ask. If they don't have any pallets that are being discarded, ask them to contact you when they do have one. You're saving them money on disposal fees, so don't be shy about asking!

This simple project only requires a few simple tools and supplies. You will need:

A wood pallet
A way to cut the pallets to size - David used a miter saw, but you can also use a hand saw if you're patient
Wood glue
Spade or hole drill bits
Wood clamps
Sand paper
Tea lights

That's it! Just a few basic tools, and you're ready to get crafty. David has detailed instructions, including plenty of images to help you along the way over at The Good Human. Click here for the full tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, pallet craft, pallet craft project, pallet crafts, reuse, upcycling, wood pallets

Dec

Reader Questions: Coffee Cans for Crafting and Recycling Old Shoes share

One of the things that I love most about this site is the amazing community of readers that we have. I enjoy receiving your emails with questions, comments, and suggestions! Over the past couple of weeks, I have gotten a couple of great questions that I wanted to share here in case anyone else was wondering the same thing or has additional suggestions for these folks.

Question 1: I would like to know if you would know where I can get about 100-200 tin coffee cans for a project I'm doing.

Finding reclaimed craft supplies in bulk is always tricky, and I have to be honest: I was pretty stumped here! Chances are most coffee shops get their coffee in burlap sacks, but smaller places that brew less fancy coffee might use cans. Maybe trying gas stations etc is her best bet? The other options I came up with were placing a "wanted" ad on Freecycle or Craiglist's "Free" section.

What do you guys think? Any ideas on where this reader can get a huge amount of reclaimed coffee cans?

Question 2: What about fabrics too worn out to be worn or sewn, and old shoes? And when locations say textile recycling do they generally mean that stuff too?

I found a very helpful article on Apartment Therapy (AT) with some resources for fabric recycling. The main article is about an artist using reclaimed fabrics - the list begins about halfway down the page. A lot of places that talk about "recycling" old clothes really mean donating them, but the AT list has companies that actually recycle worn out fibers.

Recycling shoes can be tricky as well, and right now no shoe is 100% recyclable. Earth 911 shares a great resource for recycling old shoes - the Nike Reuse-a-Shoe program.

Have you guys run across any organizations that recycle worn out fabric or old shoes? Let's keep the list of resources for both going in the comments!

Image Credits: Creative Commons photos by Jeffrey Beall and Martin Lopatka

Posted: | Categories: coffee can crafts, fabric recycling, Living, Recycling, recycling fabric, Recycling Services, reuse, reusing old shoes, Shopping+Services

Dec

DIY Planter from a Repurposed Trash Bin share

Can you believe that this super cute DIY planter used to be a humble waste basket?

Hit the thrift store for a wire waste basket, pick yourself up some eco-friendly yarn, and you are ready to make a cute planter for your favorite house plant! This is kind of a time-consuming project. Tranae at Becoming Fabulous says it took her about 10 hours over three days to complete it, but this DIY planter is what I like to call a "couch craft." Put on some bad TV or a favorite movie, kick back, and weave.

I love how Tranae used a mix of bold colors for her bin, and you could really play a lot with your colors to get different effects. She's got a lot of contrast, but I think you could get a cool ombre effect by using a few yarns that are different shades of the same color. You could also have fun with art yarn or even play around with mixing in some plarn or newspaper yarn to add extra texture.

This DIY planter tutorial uses a waste basket from a big box store, but you can make this a green craft by hitting the thrift store for your waste basket instead. It might take a little bit longer to find, but you'll save money on materials and you'll be upcycling, so it's totally worth the extra leg work!

All that you need to make your own DIY planter are:

a reclaimed trash bin
plenty of yarn
tape
scissors
a plant in a pot that's slightly narrower and slightly shorter than your basket

Got your materials together? Head over to Becoming Fabulous for the complete DIY planter tutorial!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, DIY decor, DIY planter, green decor, planter, reuse

Nov

Spotted: DIY Vase from a Glass Bottle share

How sweet is this hanging vase made from a reclaimed glass bottle?

You know that we're all about indoor plants, even if you're dealing with a small space. This hanging glass vase is a great way to get a little bit more plant life into your life without sacrificing an inch of valuable shelf or floor space.

You can't stick just any plant into this hanging vase. It's specifically for air plants. As someone who is a frequent killer-of-plants, I will say this for air plants: they are beautiful and delightfully hard to kill. You really just need to mist them with water occasionally to keep them happy. Air plants also don't need a lot of light to thrive. They're a perfect low-maintenance house plant!

This tutorial uses a vintage bottle, but you could also use a reclaimed glass bottle to make this hanging vase. Fancy ginger ales come in some very beautiful bottles, for example. They'd work great for this project!

Caitlin of The Merrythought shared this awesome hanging vase tutorial over at Poppytalk, and I am in love with it! You only need a few simple materials for this project. I'm going to list them here along with one small substitution to make this project even greener!

Ceramic/Glass Drill Bit (I used a 3/16")
Spray bottle with water
Vintage Bottle
Jute
Leather Lace - leather isn't the most eco-conscious material, and you really don't need this to do the project. This is really just for looks, so you can use more jute, some reclaimed ribbon, or hemp twine instead.
Hot Glue Gun

Easy peasy, right? I bet that you have most of these materials in your stash right now. Head on over to Poppytalk to get the complete step-by-step!

I'd love to hear from you guys, too. Have you created any fun DIY vases or other upcycled planters? Tell me about what you're making in the comments!

Posted: | Categories: bottle crafts, Craft Recycled, crafty reuse, creative reuse, DIY, DIY vase, reuse, upcycling, vase

Nov

Pallet Crafts: The Ultimate Graphical Guide share

You know that we love ideas for pallet crafts around here, and we're loving this graphical guide from Terry's Fabrics.

We've talked about pallet crafting before and even shared some amazing resources to help you start building with pallets. This graphic introduces you to some of the different sorts of pallets that you might run across and some projects for each difficulty level.

Of course, when you're crafting with pallets, you want to put safety first. That means examining your pallets to make sure that they are safe for crafting before you use them.

You also want to make sure that your pallet crafting is legitimate upcycling. Don't just snag a pallet from behind a store. If the store is planning to keep using it, you're not upcycling. Instead, head inside and just ask! Do they have any pallets that they're planning to discard? If so, you can take them off of their hands. They save money on disposal, you get free craft supplies. True upcycling is a win for everyone.

Right, but enough about that...you are here for some pallet craft goodness, right? Here's the graphical guide to pallet crafts (you can click to see a full-sized version):

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by splorp

Posted: | Categories: crafting with wood pallets, DIY, pallet crafts, pallets, reuse, upcycling, wood pallet crafts

Oct

Grocery Bag Crafts: Make ‘Em and Make with ‘Em share

Want to make your own grocery totes or try your hand a grocery bag crafts? We have project ideas for you!

You know that you should be bringing your own reusable grocery bags to the store, but sometimes you forget, right? We all do! Here are a couple of craft ideas for DIY grocery bags that you can make and a couple of grocery bag crafts to make the best of a bad situation when you forget your reusable bags at home.

How to Make a Grocery Bag

There are lots of ways that you can make your own grocery bags, and we've got a couple of simple ones for you!

DIY Mesh Grocery Bag - Got an old t-shirt? Turn it into a mesh grocery bag that's easy to stash in your purse.

Coffee Sack Grocery Bag - Transform an old coffee sack into a sturdy market tote. If you don't have one in your stash, try asking around at local coffee shops. They're often happy to part with any extras they have.

Grocery Bag Crafts

Did you forget your bag at home? Instead of beating yourself up, get crafty! We've got two options for you: one for paper and one for plastic.

DIY Paper Fruit Basket - This project uses old-school basket weaving skills to turn a paper grocery bag into a cute counter top fruit basket.

Fused Plastic Place Mat - This is the simplest plastic fusing project ever. Grab your iron, and make yourself some place mats!

Do you have a favorite tutorial for making a grocery bag or a favorite grocery bag craft? Tell us yours in the comments!

Posted: | Categories: Craft Recycled, DIY, DIY grocery bags, grocery bag crafts, reuse

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