Ideas for repurposing things...

Thought I would start this thread and see where it goes. I repurpose everything that I can.

Cobia posted in another thread about selling a mattress to someone for their dog and that got me thinking. Several years ago I had a thrift store next to my work. One Monday we came in and someone had dumped several couches. The couches themselves were pretty broke down but the cushions were not in bad shape. My dog needed a new bed so I asked if I could have one of the cushions. That started a wonderful union between the thrift store and one of the local animal rescue groups. The thrift store has since closed but this gets me wondering if you could market couch and chair cushions as dog beds?

Whatever I can do to squeeze a few more bucks out of my locker I am willing to try once.

Lets keep the ideas going...

There is a guy in south GA that purchased a large number of used matresses from some of the auction guys a few years back.  He used them in his barn.  He had a few horses that liked to kick in the stall.  He mounted them all over the stall walls to help protect the horse.

Those shelving rack things that go ON the counter at like 7-11 for gum and stuff.
Those work great as shoe racks and stores are always throwing them out.

And the carts that super markets started using. Like mini shopping basket.
Broken ones are behind store and they usually don't have a problem with you taking.
Depending on design they double as a veggie bin for your kitchen or pantry.

Tried to post a pic of a re-purposed trampoline. Crash..


We turned one into a green house. It was free. 

Jeans, curtains and sheets can be cut up and sold as quarters for sewing.

Friends wife's project.....
Dresser with broken drawer.
Tore out the insides. With staple and glue gun lined the inside with 1/8 inch sheets of wood. Put in brackets and shelves. Stained.

Depending on the insides you would have vary the process I think......but the basic idea is dresser to shelving.

She's working on another to put the old kitchen cabinet doors on the front.

On the great search of re-purposing. Found one turning a dresser into a bench. Kinda the same idea of the shelving, little added stuff. Used the front of the drawers for the back. only added paint and piece of plywood for the seat.

Like the shelf idea.

I'm always using old curtains and certain sheets (anything with a good pattern) to reupholster old chairs that have fabric covered seats that are all dirty.  Makes a chair look like new and you basically have nothing into it except about 20 minutes labor for four chairs.

We like to repurpose too. Toni takes end tables and makes 4 poster dog beds out of them and I like old windows to make shadow boxes out of. You can google them for images.

I haven't been totally sitting on my A$$ this past week....  



Chair from locker, top of metal trash can for plants (came out of a parrot cage we cut in half).
About $8.00 in the planting material. Vine in the back cost a little but will be nice growing up or over the chair.



Metal chair out of locker, dish drainer $1.00 at junk place. about $6 in plant stuff.  have three of these.

I like those. Might have to snag that idea.
Got some chairs that were heading to wood pile so maybe.....oh, who am I kidding. I'll never get around to that.  But good idea.   

in the same line or repurposing things people do some really cool stuff with recycled furniture or recycled art. ive seen adarandack chairs made from old baseball bats as the backing seen old shopping carts turned into chairs. these are just some examples...

http://weburbanist.com/2008/03/26/20-eye-catching-pieces-of-recycled-urban-furniture-geeky-and-ecological-reuse-of-ordinary-objects/

not only is some of this stuff cool but its recycling and you can probably make a good buck reselling it to people who buy into all this green stuff

I like those. Might have to snag that idea.
Got some chairs that were heading to wood pile so maybe.....oh, who am I kidding. I'll never get around to that.  But good idea.   

If you had not gotten the house gig, would have said it is easier than cell phone fixes. 

ive seen adarandack chairs made from old baseball bats as the backing seen old shopping carts turned into chairs. these are just some examples...

Like the Adirondack chairs made out of the skies. Those are cool.

If you had not gotten the house gig, would have said it is easier than cell phone fixes. 

Hey. That's not totally off the table.....yet.   
I've learned a lot! I mean.....not enough to make money at it but it's a process.