Chic decor for cheap
Students on a budget can decorate their residences by turning
recycled materials into functional and visually pleasing furniture
BY MOLLY COONEY-MESKER
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
Old furniture is no
longer ugly. It is fresh,
hip and aesthetically
pleasing, not to mention ben
eficial for a college student.
Furnishing a home or apart
ment no longer involves a
maxed-out credit card and a
Pier One catalogue. Today, fur
niture “shop
Warehouse in south Eugene
may be the final destination
for unwanted bicycles, bro
ken plumbing, cracked win
dows and forgotten children’s
toys, but students who take a
closer look will see it is real
ly a collection of reusable
items begging to be made
into tables, chairs, shelves
and art pieces. It is organized
chaos, sepa
ping can be
an adventure, a
project and an
expense-free
endeavor.
Making fur
niture out of
recycled mate
FOR MORE ^3
INFORMATION
To learn how to make more items out of
recyled materials, like CD spindles, visit
www.readymademag.com.
rated into a
workshop
full of doors,
another full
of jars and
vases and
yet another
packed with
rial doesn t require a degree
or carpentry expertise. Ac
cording to an April 17 Ore
gonian article, “The recycle
aesthetic,” this trend “is not
just using old stuff, but trans
forming it, often deconstruct
ing it, giving it new life, and
ultimately new identity.”
Collecting materials for
furniture does not call for
Dumpster diving or digging
through curbside trash and
recycling. BRING Recycling
old light fixtures.
BRING employee Greg
Mannin said “reuse is much
better than recycling; there’s
zero waste.” Old doors and
windows can be transformed
into ideal tabletops. When
perched atop an old work
bench frame or mounted
onto reused wooden legs, a
window becomes a coffee
table complete with funky
hinges and latches. Doors
can act as a bed frame: Two
OREGON DAILY EMERALD
your independent student newspaper
doors secured onto solid-end
supports such as wooden
boxes can form a queen- or
king-size bed. Fruit, milk and
wine crates can be trans
formed without setting a fin
ger on a hammer or nails. A
crate flipped on its side can
make a sturdy bedside table;
stack two on top of each oth
er, and a bookshelf is born.
One of the most under-used
resources for creating practi
cally anything is the shipping
pallet. This is a good source of
solid wood that can easily be
converted into chairs, tables
and shelves.
When it comes to decorat
ing, buying small trinkets can
be costly and time consum
ing. Instead, look for jars to
use as vases. Wire can be
bent, warped and twisted to
create a light fixture.
Reused furniture design is
about more than just inex
pensive, original, cutting
edge decor. It is also about
being part of a growing trend,
a new generation of
consumers who are making
sustainable choices without
sacrificing style.
l
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