When it comes time for a green refresh, you can fill rooms with vintage and sustainable furniture, embellish tabletops with recycled décor and spice up your walls with a couple coats of milk paint. But how can you reduce waste as you revamp your living space? All it takes is a little imagination to solve these common redecorating dilemmas:
A fresh finish isn’t enough to save your dresser. The wood is warped and it takes at least ten minutes to get the drawers back on their tracks every time you need a sweater or a pair of socks. There’s no way you can sell this on Craigslist, but you don’t want to send it to the landfill, either. Easy fix: just sand down the drawers and repaint them to create stackable storage units for displaying books and objet.
As much as you love the pattern on your cracked kitchen tiles, their dilapidated appearance is far past wabisabi. Instead of tossing them, spruce up your garden’s stepping stone path with the broken pieces for an artistic touch.
To let in some more natural light, you replaced your opaque curtains with something sheer. Well, you don’t have to be a master tailor to make use of your old window treatments. As long as you can sew in a straight line, you can easily transform them into fabulous new throw pillows – and if they don’t technically match (say you’re replacing multiple window treatments), that’s fine, because grouping them can look really cool on a sofa or bed. If the curtains are high quality, upcycle them into dressy wraps or tablecloths.
You finally decided to give your no frills neutral-toned bathroom some much needed color, and that means new accessories. But, what about your old set? You can use your tumbler as a pencil holder for your desk, transfer your hand towel tray to the foyer as a place to stash your keys and recycle your shower curtain into a stylish table runner.
How creative can you get? Here are a few more ideas: Old placemats and doilies can make clever wall collages. Rather than throw out old vases and pots that you no longer use in the kitchen, group them on the coffee table for an unusual artistic statement. Spruce up dining room chairs by painting them different colors. Let us know what you’ve done to refresh your space for free!