Turn around a table that may be on its last legs (pun intended) with these DIY ideas.

We all know that there is no need to replace most less than perfect furniture. So, what if your furniture is just a little worn? Or if you come across a really great table at an estate sale, but it needs a little love? We know you are on board with making due, repurposing, upcycling, and doing-it-yourself, but sometimes that is a little easier said than done.

Read on for some easy DIY ideas for dealing with a kitchen, coffee, or end table that just needs a little TLC.

DIY Ideas for Reviving a Lackluster Tab

1.Chalkboard Paint – For those with budding artists (or anyone young at heart) in the home, consider painting a wooden table with chalkboard paint. Turn a functional piece of furniture into a work of art with a couple of coats of chalkboard paint.

2. Stencils – By the same token, non-chalkboard paint can be used on a wooden table that has seen some action. Rather than just painting the whole table, use stencils to create artful designs to cover the worst of the damage. Have a table covered with water rings? Hide them with paint and some thoughtfully arranged stencil painting.

3. Decoupage – Not that into the painted look? Create a completely customized tabletop by decoupaging it. You can use repurpose everything from wrapping paper, greeting cards, newspaper, magazines, and more. If you plan on using the table on which to serve drinks or food, you will want to cover it with cut-to-size glass to protect your handiwork. Decoupaging can work on a variety of surfaces, like wood, laminate, or plastic.

4. Wallpaper – If you have any of those particleboard or laminate tables (you know the kind that you can get at IKEA), one clever idea is to cover the tabletop with wallpaper or shelf paper. This works best with a tabletop with square, as opposed to rounded, edges. Use a fauxbois print for extra DIY points.

5. Milk Paint – Like the idea of repurposing a table, but not of using paints containing VOCs or of utilizing wood stripping chemicals? Consider milk paint. Milk paints are water-based paints made from milk proteins, lime, and added pigments. Milk paint has been around for thousands of years and is a much safer and greener choice for painting–especially for furniture on which you plan to eat.

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Repurpose your Christmas cards and gift wrap this year.

When the holidays come and go, that means its time to clean it all up and put everything away. Of course, every year our family always wonders what to do with all those thoughtful and pretty Christmas cards and leftover and used gift wrap. This year, I vowed to discover some clever repurposing ideas for reusing my gift wrap and Christmas cards. Here are some of the most unique and useful ideas I came across.

Repurposing Ideas for Christmas Cards and Wrapping Paper

1. Card Gift Boxes – Make gift boxes from old holiday and Christmas cards that can be used to package small trinkets like jewelry and ties!
2. Paper Holiday Card Garland – The patterns and prints of holiday cards are perfect for making a festive paper garland that can be used year after to year to save your cards.
3. Wrapping Paper Wrapped Candles – Use wrapping paper to make decorative pillar candles for a table centerpiece or to gift.
4. Card Bookmarks – I always love it whenever someone gifts me a book with a bookmark inside!
5. Christmas Card Wreath – Use this year’s Christmas cards to make a wreath for the next holiday season.
6. Wrapping Paper Bows – Stay away from those plasticized paper bows and instead make your own from leftover wrapping paper.
7. Festive Card Centerpiece – Use Christmas cards for a pretty and decorative centerpiece.
8. Wrapping Paper Wrapped Tin Cans – Turn recycling into practical storage containers.
9. Christmas Card Trees – This is a really clever idea to make decorative paper trees from cards.
10. Wrapping Paper Beaded Curtain – Use all that used wrapping paper to make paper beads and turn them into a beaded curtain.
11. Card Gift Tags – An obvious idea it to use cards to make DIY gift tags.
12. Card Luminary – A awesome idea for a decorative centerpiece.
13. Wrapping Paper Decoupaged Drawers – Leftover wrapping is perfect for decoupaging furniture pieces.
14. Geometric Card Ornaments – Make pretty ornaments from all this year’s Christmas cards.
15. Gift Toppers – Use Christmas cards as pretty gift toppers for brown paper wrapped packages.

Related on EcoSalon

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10 Deceptively Simple Ideas for Last Minute Homemade Christmas Cards

Top Image: Montclair Made

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We may have mentioned that traditional perfumes are toxic. (Missed that? Why here it is!) Sometimes it seems like traditional fragrances can contain more hormone-disrupting cancer-causing chemicals than the bottom layer of the local dump. But organizations such as the Environmental Working Group have our backs, keeping us informed on what’s safe and what’s going to give us three eyes. Perfume (properly researched by Skin Deep, experts, and possibly eco aliens from Saturn) is safe for us once more!

So now, what to do with all your old perfume bottles? They are often comprised of delicate cut glass and make great flower or bud vases. This puts them to the front of the line for a myriad of uses. If the openings are large enough, you can use them for containers for small objects like jewelry. You can even use them for kitchen containers – imagine how pretty Tabasco sauce may be inside glass? You can use them to contain homemade room sprays. Better yet, consider refilling the bottles with organic perfumes, purchased or homemade. (Check out a simple recipe for homemade perfume here.)

Perfume bottles can use be used as centerpieces for weddings – check out this creative conglomeration of flowers here. Heck, you can even go onto eBay and resell them to artful crafters. But before you do, check to make sure the worth of your bottle. Some antique perfume bottles can catch a high price.

So how to prep your bottles for reuse? First off, you may have some bottles with old perfume still in them. Your first inclination may be to dump them down the sink, but we strongly discourage this. Anything you dump into the sink is ultimately returning to the water supply. Yes, we consider traditional perfumes THAT toxic – check out the rating Skin Deep gives to a certain “happy” perfume available at a department store near you. This product is linked to cancer, reproductive toxicity, allergies, neurotoxicity and more. Want to shower with that down the line? Didn’t think so.

But you can take your perfume to a hazardous waste disposal site. While running to the dump over a few ounces of perfume might seem ridiculous and anti-carbon footprinty, consider dumping the perfume into a container for your yearly or biyearly run to the site. That way you can bring your electronics, batteries and more at the same time.

So now you’ve got your pretty, empty vases. Rinse them with water and vinegar to clean, and allow the bottles to dry completely in the sun. Then use them as mentioned – or just slip them in the blue recycling bins for a new life!

Image: Stepheye

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We hope we are making a dent in consumer behavior – helping to foster changes that will save us money while slowing the destruction and pollution of resources – our oceans, habitats, energy and wildlife. Are environmentalists making inroads in bringing it all to a halt?

Results of a survey measuring global progress shows some of the wealthiest nations which have a greater impact on the environment – Japan, the U.S. and Canada – come in last in this effort.

The second annual study by National Geographic and the international polling firm GlobeScan monitored consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption in 17 countries around the world, evaluating a total of 17,000 of us.

Are we conserving energy, driving hybrids or taking public transportation, opting for green products over traditional ones, recycling and reusing and gaining knowledge of environmental issues?

In answering “yes” to those crucial questions, the developing economies of India, Brazil and China ranked the highest, just as they did in 2008. But this year, Argentina and South Korea, both new additions to the survey, tied for fourth as top-scoring consumers, followed by Mexicans, Hungarians and Russians. Europeans and Australians are next. The Japanese, U.S. and Canadian consumers are the lowest again, as they were in 2008.

The survey did find there has been an increase in environmentally friendly consumer behavior in 13 of the 14 countries that were surveyed in both 2008 and 2009. (This year’s survey added consumers from three countries, for a total of 17.)

According to the results, the Greendex survey identifies several types of eco-friendly behavior that have increased and resulted in cost savings for consumers.

Consumers in 11 of the 14 countries surveyed in 2008 and 2009 are saving energy in their homes by controlling the heating and cooling thermostats. You’ll also be glad to know washing laundry in cold water and air drying to save energy is catching on in nine countries surveyed in both years. And choosing used household items and repairing broken items rather than tossing and buying new is becoming more widespread.

Observers of the survey say the upside is that scores overall are up from last year, despite the collapse of the economy as we knew it. The results also send the message to manufacturers that if you build it green, we will come and get it. Consumers want to make the right choices when given the chance.

Interested in taking your own Greendex survey? Go ahead and let us know how you are doing in the green department!

Image: Insider

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