Some great DIY transformations you will just love – I hope…
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Here are couple – well more than just two – of great projects made with repurposed items. Hopefully these clever ideas will inspire you to try similar projects. Be creative! What can you make today?
Pencil bin from tin can. This is an easy to make pencil bin and a great deal cheaper – as it is FREE – than the recycled steel ones that you can buy for way too much money. Aside from the fact that it is free it also does not look out of place on any desk and thus why bother spending money on something that you can so easily make and which is free. Then again, theoretically, you have paid for it when you bought the product that was in the tin and therefore why would you want to throw that, against no return, into the recycling?
Making such a pencil bin is as simple as putting the clean can that you have had intended to toss into the recycling bin onto your desk and adding pens and pencils.
CD coasters: This must be, along with the above, one of the simplest DIY recycling project for home and office as it is just as simple as use. Nowadays we don't actually have as many useless CDs anymore as we used to when the Internet was in its infancy and when everyone was giving away the free connection CDs for dial up Internet connections but, I am sure, you will still find old CDs that can be used in this way. I find those much better than any bought ones and no loss when they, finally, give up their ghost.
Making those coasters is as simple as using them as they are ready to roll as they are.
Colander Lamp: This easy to make lamp, or more precise, lamp shade, once a kitchen colander, is the perfect accent for a breakfast nook. It is also quite suitable in other locations, I am sure, and properly made can look very good indeed. You could even go very funky and paint it red or green or even polka dot.
In order to make such as lamp (shade) you will need, and that should be obvious, one old colander. You then need a tool to cut a hole into the bottom of the colander where the bulb holder goes. Once that is done all you need to do is to put it onto such a bulb holder hanging from the ceiling and – viola – one funky lamp.
Cork Noticeboard: Collect some bottle corks, even plastic corks can be used for this, and arrange them in an old picture frame with the glass removed. Ensure the frame has a solid back, such as hardboard, and not cardboard. Glue the corks to the backboard of the frame in alternating pairs, ensuring a good grip, let dry and when finished you have a cork pin board to which to affix notes.
Water Bottle: Create a reusable water bottle from a Snapple lemonade bottle or other such kind of container as container for your tap water. There is no need to reinvent the wheel and buy a recycled glass bottle for this purpose. While the bottle may not be toughened glass it is cheap though.
Storage Jars: Many folks will go out, in the same way as those buying a pencil bin instead of repurposing a tin can for this purpose, and buy a set of recycled glass storage jars for somewhere in the region of $18, when they could simply use the glass jars that they toss regularly into the recycling bin. Our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents used glass jars for many purposes, from keeping leftovers for a day in a cool place, to storing dry goods, such as legumes, rice, sugar, tea, etc., as well as buttons, nails and screws, and so on. There is no need to buy storage jars while you have some that you keep tossing out.
This is just a very small selection of ideas and I am sure that every reader can, theoretically, add some of their own ideas.
© 2011
