Sheetrocking too expensive and time consuming? Answer = Yes. One alternative is to build a wall with doors. Much more interesting than sheetrock and takes a minimal amount of skills.
Posts tagged recycled
Stone House Compound
The Stables (our rental)
I’m baaaack! This reclaimed chick couldn’t have stayed at a more appropriate accommodation in County Mayo as an appreciater of reclaim-ed-ness. Who knew? Twas my brother in law who picked the cottage, not moi.
The 100 acre farm has been in the Keane family since the 1600’s. There are still cattle roaming about. As a vegetarian, this made me sad, but I will say that at least these guys looked as happy as they can be even though their lives will be short. 🙁
The idea of converting the barn, granary and stables into vacation rentals was the idea of this generation’s Momma Keane. These impressive “country folk” have an awesome sense of design and style. Or they just hired realllly good architects and builders.
On to my horrible iPhone pictures!
The Main House (not for rent)
The Barn
The Granary
Our Stone Fireplace with gorgeous beam
Sliding door that I want to show my carpenter (pay no attention)
Pitch Pine floors reclaimed from a nearby town
Antique tools and parts act as sculptures throughout the property.
Stone patio overlooking the cattle. They come to get treats just like dogs.
Reclaimed Wood Walls
Six Uses for Dresser Drawers
Refacing Furniture
Hey kids! Here are more ways to save those pieces of furniture from the landfills. Plus, your friends will envy you for your kick-ass creations!
Idea #1: Plaster some vintage signs on that sh*t.
Idea #2: Old rulers and yard sticks! I’ve made frames and small pieces from rulers but never thought to do an entire surface. Pretty cool.
Idea #3: Laminate. Gorgeous laminate. I wouldn’t even know where to find stuff like that.
Idea #4: Got time on your hands? Bottle cap it.
101 Shutter Uses
Shutter upcycling mania! All found via Pinterest. Please click on images for sources as the Pinterest embed code doesn’t work with this blog. (Is it me?)
You didn’t really think I was going to post 101, did you?
Silo House
People convert churches and barns into homes, but a silo? Why not? I was adoring this listing when I saw it last month but Shandaken is out of my 2 hour radius so I didn’t even go look at it. It may already be off the market as the only thing I can pull up is an old listing. Oh, but let’s swoon over the pictures anyway, shall we?
The silo house is only 750 square feet of claustrophobia but sits on nearly eight acres. It was built in 1975 and taxes are only $1379! It’s located about three miles from Belleayre Ski Center. Sweet. Oh yeah, it’s $158k. Not bad.
Bedroom Upcycling Ideas
This is a guest post by Jeremy who loves writing about living green, saving money and DIY. He is from EasyApplianceParts, a DIY resource and retailer of appliance replacement parts.
We spend almost one third of our life in the bedroom. The bedroom is our space to relax, unwind and leave the stress of the world behind. Creating a bedroom that is your own sanctuary can be done without having to spend a fortune redecorating. How? The answer is upcycling. This means taking existing items and repurposing them to build the bedroom of your dreams. The recipe for an upcycling designer is a layer of personal design style, followed by a cup of creativity, two cups of the materials you’ll need and a sprinkle patience, topped off by a do-it-yourself attitude.
Create your own furniture
Buying a brand new bedroom set can be expensive. Most of the bedroom sets currently available from furniture stores are made from particle-board based wood. Create your own durable and stronger bedroom set by using previously used wood such as boards, planks and wood pallets. Solid wood pieces can be found in antique stores, yard sales, estate auctions or old barns.
Making your own bed – Wood pallets used to transport goods can be obtained from nurseries or home stores. They can be transformed into just about anything – desks, chairs, end tables, benches and beds. Homedit has developed a stylish and easy to build platform bed made from wood pallets. The best part of this idea is that it costs next to nothing to build. The only materials that are needed are wood pallets, hinges and casters. Add your mattress, paint and you’re done. An extra added benefit to a wood pallet platform bed is it can be enlarged or reduced as required.
Extra seating – If your bedroom is large try adding in a bench at the edge of the bed or by the window for a window seat. Old coffee tables or a small garden bench can be used to make your own bench – just add some paint, cushion and the bench is ready.
Recycle Your Christmas Tree
Missed the Mulchfest this weekend? Do not fear. As long as you get your tree curbside by January 14th, it can still be recycled. Who wants to schlep their tree to a park anyway when you can just put it out with the trash?
The Department of Sanitation is asking residents to remove all stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments before placing trees out for collection. Don’t place trees in plastic bags or tape them. Just-the-tree. They will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields, and community gardens throughout the city.
Get ‘er done. You really don’t want that thing up in your house until Easter, now, do you?
Marble Window Sill
This is a work in progress and it doesn’t look like much now, but I’m excited that after oh, about four years of plywood window sills, we finally cut the marble to install. The plan has always been to use the recycled marble that came from our fireplace hearth. Two slabs were sitting in the backyard. Don’t know what took so long.
The pieces are not wide enough. We’ll use smaller cuts on the sides and fill it in with grout to make up the difference. Wood molding will be added to the front, painted to match the radiator cover.
It will take about another four years to for the finished product.
Upcycled Etsy Finds
There are only 53 days left until Christmas! And Hannukah starts even before that! Here are some lovely upcycled Etsy pieces for the home.
The garden faucet wine stopper from All Things Reconsidered is less than 15 bucks ($14.99 to be exact).
Howzabout a wall clock for that cyclist in your life? $149.99 from Upcycled Bicycle. Say that 10 times fast.
Swimming Deep created this starburst mirror out of recycled magazines. $25.
Chic Retro makes pillows out of old sweatshirts. You can send her your favorite old shirt and voila…a pillow! $19.99
Reclaiming Our Roots
Reclaimed Home is going back to its roots! After moving back to Brooklyn, where space is an issue, we stopped collecting larger salvaged items for reuse. Well, it’s time to expand again.
Starting a tiny home based business was a breeze. Starting a small business with a team is a bit more challenging. But you know what? It’s important that we do this now for a variety of reasons.
Saving building materials from the landfills. Mother Earth is screaming for help. Tons of demolition rubbish goes into dumpsters every day.
Presenting restoration options for folks of all income levels. We’re going through some rough economic times. Why shouldn’t everyone have the same access to beautiful architectural details and furnishings for their dwellings?
Preserve our history! Old homes are being torn down to make way for new construction. Historic details are discarded of during renovations. The skilled craftspeople who created these materials are long gone. Let’s give their work a second life.
Here’s what you can do to help us achieve our goals. If it can be recycled, please don’t throw it out! We’ll take reusable materials off your hands. If you’re doing a renovation or know of someone who is, contact us before you allow your contractor to destroy house parts and throw them in the dumpster. We’ll carefully remove the items for you so someone else can make use of them.
It will save you demolition fees. It will save you disposal rates. Most importantly, it will save our planet from overflowing landfills.
You can email us by hitting the “contact” link at the top of the middle column. We thank you and Momma Earth thanks you.
Sustainable Surfaces
I’m loving the look of Torzo Sustainable Surfaces, but even cooler than that is what their product lines are made from. Post agricultural recycled sorghum, sunflower hulls and hemp? Yeah, they use post industrial recycled fiberboard and chip board too, but it’s way cooler to say “Look at my hemp floor.” now, isn’t it? I mean, let’s get our priorities straight.
Torzo products aren’t 100% green. It’s tough to be fully green when you want a countertop or floor to last. Depending on the product line, 25%-50% of it is acrylic resin. The good news is that the resin used is manufactured by Torzo’s parent company, an Oregon based, family run, woman owned business.
Looks like Stone Source is the only place that carries Torzo locally.
Recycled Sukkahs
Sukkot begins tonight. For those of us unfamiliar with this Jewish holiday, it just means that alternate side parking rules are suspended this Thursday and Friday (Woot!). Sukkot is the shed holiday. Yeah, NOW you know what I’m talking about!
According to Rabbinical code, the sukkah (shed) cannot be located under trees, Stars must be visible from the roof, which must be made of material that is cut from the earth. For a better explanation, please visit the Babak Bryan website. They are the guys who created the Fractured Bubble sukkah above. The bubble is not really made from recycled materials, but rather invasive species that were picked from local wetlands. The design won People’s Choice in 2010’s Sukkah City and I love it too much not to include it.
Each image links to more info on that particular sukkah.
Past Sukkah post.
Reclaimed Lumber Shipped Nationwide
We usually try to stick to local reclaimed wood resources but new advertiser Reclaimed Lumber (see link on the sidebar) has a warehouse in Pennsylvania. That’s local enough. Plus, they do ship nationwide.
The wide plank pine shown in the above photo is $5.95 per square foot. That’s not bad! The website says that shipping should cost less than $250.
One can get lost on the site. There’s all sorts of reclaimed flooring, including pine and oak from barns and wine barrels. But flooring is just the start. There’s paneling that’s not your grandma’s 1970’s wall paneling. Ceiling panels, reclaimed wood furniture, beams, frames and slabs. It’s the go-to source for reclaimed wood in any form.
You can buy and sell barns on the site. No sh*t! And old log cabins!
Kind of makes me wish I was restoring an old country home.
