Repurposed stuff can become awesome furniture

I must be the coolest chick on the block if repurposed furniture is the hot trend of the moment.  Taking something you already have or can find inexpensively, and transforming it into something entirely different and usable is integral to the “going green” movement.  As it turns out, I’ve been repurposing things for as long as I can remember, so I guess I could be considered old school? Sure, I’ll take it, as long as it’s cool now!

Here are a few repurposed furniture ideas you may find useful around your place:

• Spray paint milk crates in a high gloss color that coordinates with your room, and then stack them on top of one another with the opening facing you. You now have a super modern bookshelf, bam!
• Take an old dresser (probably a smaller one), paint it one color, stain it, or get as fancy as you’d like. You can pick up extra pieces of granite or other types of countertop inexpensively in these small sizes at your local home improvement store.  Simply adhere with calking, place in the center of your kitchen and you’ll find you have a kitchen island where you never had one before.
• Place an old filing cabinet on your patio and paint that sucker so it doesn’t look like it belongs in an office. Next, stagger the drawers so they form a sort of stairway and fill the drawers with potting soil. You should know what to do from here; plant something!
• Spray paint an old pitcher or other glassware (they make special spray paint for glass) in whatever color you choose and use them as flower vases or candleholders. You’ll have a collection of a matching set that rivals anything at Crate and Barrel in no time.

Modern décor has turned the corner from the mandatory Z Gallery art hanging on the walls, to an entirely different world of painted tree limbs hanging from the walls, and pieces of funky fabric pasted over canvas.  Unless you can afford an original Kandinsky, the trendiest art we can have decorating our homes these days are the truly unique, and as it turns out, extremely inexpensive to do on our own.  Simply use double sided tape to adhere strips of wallpaper or funky stationary to the inside of cabinets, especially in the bathroom. If you’re feeling really artistic, pick up some colored duct tape available at home improvement stores and use it to create geometrical patterns on your walls; remember it’s removable!

Be sure to check out pinterest.com.  This site is a do it yourselfer’s dream come true.  You can find an endless amount of ideas on this site and I must warn you, it is extremely addictive; proceed with caution.