Fishbone Chair Project Plans and Tutorial

Upcycle us is what comes to my mind when I look at the full recycling bins before trash pick up.

Upcycle us is also a blog featuring upcycled items from the same trash pick up. The items you will see are highly influenced by designers who use minimalist designs and concepts, such as making an Ipad holder from chopsticks or a chair and trunks from shipping pallets. Because upcycling is a long process, Upcycle us also features projects made by others.

The fishbone chair is the most sophisticated project of my blog in terms of work and design and it's using a bit more than one 4X8 piece of plywood. I salvaged this wood after finishing my basement.

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Built in Banquette from Recycled Cabinet

Budget Breakfast Nook using Recycled Cabinets! By Rachel 

I have the most super best friend from college. Smart and funny, she's the only one that can get me out of a funk when I am having one of those days. Now that we are "grownups" we live 3 hours apart but still talk a million times a day. She is what I'm not...I am what she's not. We joke that when you put us together we make the perfect woman! We started this blog several months ago to give us something fun to do together. Marlene is into fashion, wine, dining out, skin care, and the finer things in life. She's a wife, mother to two adorable little boys, and a private jeweler at Ascot Diamonds. I, on the other hand, rarely get out of exercise clothes, love projects, and welcome a challenge anytime. I love to clean, build, create, paint, and generally have 5 projects going on at the same time. We are Accessorize and Organize!

This is the story of how I transformed my breakfast nook in my 60 year old house...

Can you believe this use to be my laundry area? Seriously!

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Recycling Glass Insulators Into Pendant Light

Recycling Glass Insulators Into Pendant Light 

Contributed by Girl In Air

 

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Oh how I wish I had all these fabulous colors!!

  

Ever wonder what you could do with those old glass insulators??

How about a pendant light!?

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Neirmann Weeks Lighting Look Alike DIY

This project has been around the blog-o-sphere a little bit, but I still had to share it because it is quite genius.  I love it when people have the ability to make from two separate, out of fashion pieces a unified, updated  whole, that is just plain awesome I really respect them!  So, this fabulous lighting remake comes from Amy of Playing Sublimely.  I also really liked it cause it reminded me of college and looking through all the awesome Neirmann weeks collections no budgets in mind. They even still have my favorite light that looks like a decadent piece of jewelry the Biarritz Chandelier. Here is what Any did:

Oh how I love the look of a Niermann Weeks chandelier, and oh how I hate the price of them. My friend Karen who is one of the most fashionable ladies walking the planet, got me thinking about how to create the look of a Niermann Weeks chandelier. She is a girl after my own heart and loves to decorate fabulous for less. I have told you before that I am a "faux, faux finisher". I pretend a little with decorative finishes, but I had never experimented with applying any products to a fixture before. So I gave it a shot.

Here are a few finishes I liked from the Niermann Weeks collection, all priced over $5,500:

Here are a few of Brooke's table lamps from her Giannetti lighting collection, love the finish of these as well:

And this is what I wanted to transform into something lovely: a $25 brass consignment store find. I liked the lines of it, and it was large enough to go in my foyer.

Everything I used was products that I had around my house (Faux Effects plaster), but you could use regular plaster and tint it any color you wanted. I scooped the product up in my hands and smeared it all over the chandelier. My first plaster color was a bronze shade. I let that dry and then I repeated the exact same "technique" with a neutral color plaster (I am using that term loosely as my five year old helped me cover the chandelier in plaster with her hands). Once both layers had dried I sanded it a little by hand to let the darker shade underneath show through.

We did change out the glass because I wanted an "old look". We replaced the plain glass with "seeded glass" for a vintage feel. I considered not putting any glass in it at all. I think that would have been a nice look also, but ultimately the "seeded glass look" won me over.

Then my cute carpenter risked his own life to hang my creation. He is a good man.Isn't she lovely.

Can you see the finish and texture?

The seeded glass reflects specks on our walls at night...it's dreamy.

I love not having to spend $5,500 to get the look I want, and I love Karen for convincing me to try this.

Didn't she do a great job?

It is so inspiring, it makes me want to get out and work on a project right now!

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From Crib to Plate Rack; Up-cycle project

I was just surfing blogs when I came upon this project, and I had to ask if I could share it with you!  It is from Erin at The Little Apartment on the Prairie.  Anyway, she had a crib that her little one just didn't love!  So she made a beautiful dish display it is TOO COOL check it out:

Once Upon A Time I had this baby.

The baby that I waited nine years for. This baby with the polka-dot nose. The baby that sings songs to herself and tries to train the dog. The baby with the grandma name.

The baby I refinished a crib for when I was 8 months pregnant.
Who also happens to be one of those babies that screams in enclosed beds like cribs or playpens.



 No it wasn't a stage, the behavior never went away. So the crib did.

But on the upside, it became a farmhouse style plate rack:

I saw this picture in an inspired by post over at the Brabourne Farm blog.

Pretty, Simple, and Rustic. So I went to work to see if I could create a plate rack for me!

I took the two sides of the crib railing and removed the hardware. 

I put them side by side to to determine where I would need to remove the rails.

I even held them up against the wall while measuring to ensure my plates would fit into the space.

And removed the pieces that I needed out with a small hand saw. 

It was really a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I used Gorilla Glue to cement the two side pieces together.

 I even caulked a little and touched up the white paint where it was needed. But I don't think the caulking was highly necessary. The Gorilla Glue that I used expanded a little while setting and filled the space in between the two pieces very well.

Below is a picture of the bottle top. A bit was on top from my last use and dried. See how it's bubbled? It expands as it dries. I just thought this looked cool. I know I'm weird. And you think the lid would be stuck on tight. But no, it slid right off. 

 I wasn't going for a finished look.

This is me attempting to cover up an extremely poorly placed phone jack... in the center of the dining area wall! What?!

Here you can see the general idea of how the plates are supported.

Here is my plate rack. I might add a shelf to it later, we'll see. Or maybe paint it green.
No not turquoise or hammered zinc. I think I'll have to find some cute plates with color for it too.

Isn't that just plain awesome? 

And for those old school cribs that aren't up to code, 

this idea is perfect!

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DIY Serving Tray From Old Cabinet Door

Sharyl at The Little Brown House has created a great project using an old cabinet door as a serving tray.  I think that this is a great way to reuse and repurpose something.

So, my oldest sister has a birthday this month.

And she mentioned to me that she would like a serving tray.

Don’t tell her you saw this!

She doesn’t read my blog but others she knows do -

you know who you are!

I decided to make the tray out of cabinet door

(big suprise!)

And where would I go for one but the Habitat Restore Store!

I found an incredibly ugly one – not on purpose, but it was the right size and shape.

Ugly? Am I right or am I right?

I sanded it with my palm sander -

(Quite the tool Diva aren’t I?)

Then sprayed it with a primer coat of….

wait for it…

Heirloom White! (heavens own color)

Then I brush painted it, so that I could get the look

I was going for. I used a Behr paint that is really close

to Heirloom White (heavens own color)

It is called Table Linen if anyone is interested.

Please forgive this photo – night, small dark room, that is all…

I knew that I wanted to put something vinyl on the tray, and was planning

on ordering something, but as usual time got away from me!

I went into my never fail dollar store, Dollar Tree, and found this great

vinyl with the word Welcome on it. Perfect! Guess how much it cost?

That joke just never grows old.

While I was at the Restore I picked up some cabinet hardware to use for tray handles.

They were .25 cents each, and the cabinet door was a dollar.

My sweet hubby screwed in the handles, and then all that was left was putting on the vinyl.

Isn’t it too cute!

She can display it when she isn’t using it as a tray.

Here is is ready to serve coffee and treats to guests!

What are those treats, you ask?

Why, those are my failed attempt at Bakerella’s Cake Pops,

I call them Cake Bombs…

So there you have a Diy serving tray -

Not bad for $2.50 huh!

I really like it, and of course now want to make myself one!

I just think that this is a cool idea.  Great job on making a serving tray from an old door!

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Feeling Spindle-y, Re-purpose, Guest

Gail from My Repurposed Life sent over this little project and I love it.  I think they are beautiful.  And after reading her post I am wanting to move to a place where you find such great junk on the side of the road.

Jamie told me that I needed some height on my mantel. I was thinking candlesticks. I looked at the store (Meijer) and I saw that they are VERY expensive. I braved the cold in the garage and rummaged around to see what I could find.

This is a bedpost from a full sized bed that Cathy and I found on the curb. It wasn’t really bench worthy, so I parted it out. I cut off the posts and legs, and threw the headboard away.

This is another bed post, not sure where the rest of this bed ended up. :)

While in the garage, I also cut some 1x’s and some 4x4’s into squares for bases.

Then I sort of just started playing around with the configurations. A lot like I do when I make totems.

This is a 1x5, and part of a bed post/leg.

Here I added the top of another bed post.

I sanded the rough edges, and cleaned up all the saw dust.

This is the bottom part of the bed post pictured above.

This is a 1x5, and a 1x4, a part of a staircase spindle, and the top (finial) of an old chair.

This little cutie is a 1x5, 4x4 and a chair leg!

This is the other part of the stair case spindle, with another chair finial on top.

I used gorilla glue to hold all the pieces together. I could not decide what color I wanted, so I chose 3 different colors.  Here I have one of those cute little glass ashtray pieces I picked up at the peddler’s mall.

   

This is the same turquoise I used on my last window cabinet I made. I watered it down so it was more like a glaze. I used Kilz on all of these before I painted their new colors on them.  This white one is the free Glidden “Crisp Linen” with a wash/glaze of raw umber over it. The browns are a glaze of raw umber. The candle I got on clearance this week at Walmart for .25 cents.

 

I put them in my gynormous firebox and lit the candles.

I am not sure what configuration I will use. I don’t know whether I will keep them in the firebox, put them on the mantel, or on the hearth. I may change up the colors. I tend to change my mind a lot. Ideas? Suggestions? I’m sure you true junkers have lots of items in your stash that you can make these from. They sort of remind me of chess pieces.

I am still enjoying my fireplace and can hardly believe I actually made it!

Love it!

Does anyone else have any clever re-purpose ideas?  

Send them in to me.

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