Rough Linen I wish i were more computer-competent Becky, I don't know how to get photos from ideabooks into comments! (or I would show you salvaged wood, wood and more wood)

Henry Thomas Ltd I salvaged an old fire door that came out of a basement boiler room and used it as a home office door.

Henry Thomas Ltd This dining room table's top formerly served as horse stable walls somewhere in Wisconsin. The nail holes and weather cracks are filled with black epoxy.

Henry Thomas Ltd I also added a half bath to a home office in a loft and salvaged some old railroad restroom stall doors to use as they were historically intended. The TP holder was the main part of a cable pully on a warehouse elevator.

Jules This old table that would otherwise been left at the curbside in it's original finish of bright gold has been transformed from everything from faux copper to faux crocodile. More facelifts than Joan rivers!

Pine Street Carpenters & The Kitchen Studio This wine cellar was originally the ice cellar in the sub-basement of an historic home built in 1845. The wooden staircase and band board running along the top were made from floor joists salvaged from another remodeled area of the home.

ortizemilia Question plz. Where did you find salvaged or reclaim material? I had been trying to find some salvaged reclaim or recycle material in Staten Island, NY area. Thanks.

the_misfit Houzz is not kind to me. It never uploads my photos. It limits attached photos to four and just now it ATE everything I wrote :(.

But I really do love the salvaged projects linked here, and I have a few things of my own I really enjoyed. (I have way more than four, but I'll stick with that.)

I found an awesome vintage cast-iron sink with a drainboard on craigslist (obviously, I have some dishes to do and I still had to put up the beadboard backsplash - now done).

I also found a giant piece of century-old built-in cabinetry. I think it was the uppers from a butler's pantry. The whole run had six doors, but I could only fit half on the roof of my car, so that's what I bought :). It was beat-up and filthy, and warped by the damp.

I cut it down, replaced missing parts, and cleaned and painted it, and made it into my main bit of upper cabinetry (small kitchen). It's 52" high!

Then I took its third door, cut it in half, and made a cabinet box for it. (Below that, I attached a vent hood and made a coordinating wood vent hood cover. I don't just have a fancy for cabinets higher than my head. But I can't fit a picture of that...)

Becky Harris Misfit, I HATE it when that happens - sorry! You can certainly add more comments four pictures at a time, I'd love to see more of your salvage ideas at work!

Ortizemelia, perhaps try Built It Green NYC - they have spots in Queens and Brooklyn:

http://www.bignyc.org/what-we-do

the gudhouse company We've used salvaged materials to give our new homes that "old home" feel. The transformation is amazing. Just these few touches fool many a guests into thinking this house was original (it's all new construction). The corbels and oak door were found at a re-use center and refinished. The maple floor in the kitchen was reclaimed from the original house, cleaned, installed, and then refinished. Some of these boards where over 16' long!

gsxrsquirrel One of may salvage projects: I have two 10 month old Mastiff puppies, they are over 130 lbs each already, so finding a bed for them was next to impossible. I found this crate on craigslist, made a couple of cut outs, stained it, and added some bedding. They love it!

Jules This cheap vinyl patio table was about to make it's way to the garage sale pile when I thought about transforming it into a huge wall clock. By simply adding some stick on numbers, hands and a hanging bracket it was given new life to fill an empty wall.

Ruth I love repurposing old wood, stone, metal pieces. I found a cast headboard and frame on the curb for garbage pickup, rushed home for my husband's truck and got it before anyone else could. It is over my mantel and I love it.
I have three original doors from my house and am thinking about using them for a privacy screen in the corner of our yard. Any pictures out their of similar screening ideas?
Keep up the great work, houzzers!

lynnsmith57 We salvaged an old theater coming attraction display from our town and turned it into a one of a kind mirror. We bought it at an auction for $5.00.

summilux Most of my projects have involved some sort of salvage/reclaiming/repurposing. My first attempt at furniture was (typical for a woodworker) my shop worktable. The top was made from a ugly but sturdy front door I was replacing covered by leftover oak flooring strips attached by glue and nailcleats left over from floor installation

summilux This is going tobe a series of posts as that's the only way to have the photo immediate follow the blurb. Keith Brown's Bargain shed (sadly no longer in business) had a large supply for a while of purpleheart planks from dismantled railroad cars. It was dimensionally stable and required no planing and only a little sanding. It lives on, among other things, on my wife's desktop, various bookcases, a trestle table and cabinet shelfing

summilux Another source of materials for a while were land clearing contractors. The price was a 1/3rd of cabinet grade hardwood of the same species. It has irregular coloring and is not as dimensionally stable as the furniture grade stuff. It resulted however in one-of -a -kind furniture, supported home businesses and the stuff lives on as furniture vs carbon footprint data.

summilux Two examples of repurposed object. A railroad jack used as base for a table that can be used either at chair or barstool height. and a rolling cart purchased in it's grimy-commercially used state cleaned up and altered to use as a flat file cabinet base.

ikwewe We tore out two bed and bath units that had been added to our garage, used the lumber to add a shower to a half bath in the garage, then add the whole unit to the master bedroom. We took out a paneled wall between the living room and kitchen and saved the paneling. We took out a breakfast bar in between the kitchen and dinette and moved it to the space between the living room and kitchen where the wall had been. We then used the saved paneling to face the living room side of the bar and the wall where the bar had been.

We salvaged the bath fixtures from the two bed and bath units and they will be donated to ReStore. We also reused the fixtures from the half bath.

We plan to salvage the screen porch for a neighbor to use when we rebuild a more solid porch so my dog won't run through the screen on the bottom.

I am not on the computer that has my pix in it, will see what I can do to post some later. I do have pix in my blog. http://elaineswhim.blogspot.com/

tcufrog Our former flat screen TV bench has been reused as a window seat and is now being used as a changing table. It's nice to sit down when changing a heavy and squirming kid.

archlynn Used beautiful reclaimed Southern Yellow pine for this floor

Holly We live in an 1851 stone farmhouse which formerly had a poorly constructed addition on it. We demolished the addition, leaving the original stone house and added a new addition on. The beams from the former kitchen we repurposed as columns for the kitchen island. We salvaged all of the longer, larger boards from the rubble and my husband built us a beautiful farmhouse kitchen table with them! Kind of repurposing - we removed all the plaster from the former exterior wall to expose it in our new kitchen. Photos attached.

rosecottagehome I like to call them Faux Headboards made cheap and at no cost. I salvaged a panelled turn of the Century interior door, painted it white, turned it sideways, added two 2 by 4 legs, screwed it to the wall, screwed on 2 wall scone lights a friend was throwing out, bought 2 new shades and painted them white. Voila! Now I had money to by the new bedding.
Second Faux Headboard is an old iron piece painted black and just screwed to the wall. Fun!

meddler Three salvage ideas,two for a bathroom redo and one for a patio. We had to remove an old kitchen chimney and cleaned and saved all the bricks from it. At the same time we continued to collect bricks with writing on one side and also 1/2 bricks that were old and an interestesting color. In old neighborhoods people always seem to have a few brick that they would like to get rid of and will just give to you to get rid of. We laid our entire patio using all these bricks in a random laying. The bricks you collect need to be about the same thickness. At the end we filed the spaces between the bricks with polymeric sand and watered in. It is a beautiful and very unique brick patio.

The second and third salvage ideas were in our recent redo in a midcentury house. The double sink base is an old woodworkers bench that used to be in our garage (we bought at an auction) we removed the old vice and had to shorten it. We had the gouged filthy old top sanded with a large belt sander. Then it was restrained and 3 coats of poly and topped with vessel sinks. The mirrors above the sinks were salvaged from the very large mirror that used to hang on the old bathroom wall. The old large mirror was on the wall horizontally. We got it off the wall without breaking it and had a glass company cut 2 long skinny section out of it and polish the edges. They also reinstalled the two skinny mirrors vertically over the new vessel sinks. total cost for glass company was $75. Dramatic finished product I think.

Jo White Home & Garden/Blairsvillager.com Here's a funny one for you -- these solid iron French inspired handrails around my cottage door are actually day bed end pieces found free at the county dump!

trixylarue Oh Becky...buying a house almost 6 years ago that wasn't finished has let us use our reclaimed treasures! I will have to do two comments and only show a couple areas. These pictures are the guest bathroom. We took flooring out of a house (that was later pushed in a hole) that was built in 1881. After hauling it home, taking the nails out, stripping it twice, putting poly on it, it became the countertop and flooring! The wall above the vanity is beadboard from a lakeside cottage, all original paint/stain colors. The vanity drawers were made from thin plywood...so we added some trim pieces and my grandma's old music :) Old music from my parents and grandma is framed on the wall. We added the old mirror and a light that was on our old windmill! We used an old French door for the linen closet. First is a picture during the redo...the floors were down already. Then a picture of the boards on their trip home. The vanity after and the linen closet.

trixylarue Another big project we took on...we pulled flooring from an old Iowa farmhouse....5 rooms to get enough good wood to do our master bedroom. In the future we may do the master bath! This wood had nails removed, planed,layed, sanded, stained and polyed....lots of work. One of a kind look...perfect no, but if we had wanted perfect we would have bought new and had someone else do it :) We also put an old barn door (from our prior acreage) on our bathroom!

Terry Widner I had been carrying around an old laminated computer desk that was no longer used since the age of Laptops. So far... I have made 4 'art' panels from the desk... which has a core of MDF (pressboard).

On the last piece, I took it to a friend's house in the country and had him blast it with his shotgun from 35 yards or so.... which left the buckshot exposed. I used stains and dyes for the colors.

otteroo In 2007 we moved across country leaving many of our household item behind to save on moving costs. Every year my family stops in for a night on their way to Florida for the winter. Our dining room consisted of a plastic folding table and plastic chairs. Three times with three different family members a plastic chair simply collapsed. One family member was my elderly father, who bit his tongue after hitting his head on the wall behind him. That was the end of our plastic dining room, I I knew I HAD to do something. I started scrounging chairs off garbage piles and repairing them. Later we found a table with two chairs in a garage sale for 50 bucks and a china hutch at a good will store for 50 bucks. I refinished them in black Lacquer adding touch lights to the hutch. We now gave a beautifully "scrounged " eclectically decorated dining room.

kellik59 We took an old waterfall dresser and made into a vanity. The handles and sink and lights from Habitat Restore. Door was free and we frosted with spray paint. Mirror was from another dresser we made into vanity.

Eclectic Design Source Sometimes a salvage can be something very, very simple! Our client had sentimental attachment to this sideboard, but it wasn't going to fit in with the design scheme in which we were headed. We painted it a rich espresso and gave it a very, very subtle metallic faux finish; coupled with glass knobs the entire look of the piece completely changed.

We always love the challenge of salvaging items large and small, its great to work with clients who feel the same way, isn't it?

Ronda Potter Found this 100 year old chippy paint cabinet at an Antique barn in Phillipsburg, Ohio. Put a thin whitewash coat over it along with a clear coat of Polyeurethane. Had my husband cut a hole in the wall for it to be inset. Took an old picture frame and painted it black with a silver edge and used it to frame the cabinet to give it that finished look. I love the character it gives to my newly remodeled guest bathroom.

Wine Country Craftsman In my continuing effort to be environmentally conscious and recycle (and also make more awesome projects), I came up with this fun filled idea to re-use Napa wine barrel rings in a unique way.

I took one of my best selling ring globes and made it smaller and gave it a double cross pattern.

Modern and chic yet wonderfully rustic. Completely made from recycled materials and stylishly sexy. The Edison bulb really pours out warm inviting light.

ddelora We found an old grammaphone at a yard sale for $5.00. My husband connected an old broom handle and a galvanized elbow. I then painted my giant "flower" and used it as garden art! In this photo, the paint is drying in the sun, but it found a home amongst my rose garden.

lima I love repurposing and am amazed with all the clever ideas. I recently made a decorative accessory from a rain barrel that no longer held water. I used three rusty metal rings and after cleaning and spraying with a satin poly, mounted them on scrap two by fours that I made look old. This is what they look like.

jdemque Love to see a reclaim/salvaged site on Houzz.
When remodeling my kitchen, I used drawers from an old sewing machine to fit under the microwave. I use them for putting coffee pods for my Keurig.

lindagreg We took an old sea container and added windows with Barnwood shutters and old horse shoes for decos on shutters. Made a fake roof out of old rusty tin and painted it RED! Now hay barn.

American Barn and Wood We have a reclaimed barn wood business and have been using reclaimed barn wood for a number of projects of our own: remodeling our bathroom, custom bar ,frames and more. There is nothing like the look of weathered wood and we research which barn it came from so we have a history to tell with out projects.

Our customers have been making wonderful things with this wonderful wood as well: dining room table, mantles, shelves, mud room cubbies, or just hanging a barn door on the wall as a piece of art

Kira from American Barn and Wood

lindagreg Boring beige metal barn now covered in Barnwood. The far right was my first attempt at faux painting side of barn to look like wood as the horses graze next to the barn and would have eaten the wood....now I'm getting pretty good at it! Green Ag gate now wrapped in old 2x2's. remember the old redwood hot tubs? This one is now a beautiful working fountain! Great fun!

summilux trixylarue- Doing your floors in the manner described is really a labor of love and winds up being more expensive than if you bought new flooring. That said, photos of your flooring renewed feeling remodeler's remorse at not having done my upstairs floors using old materials. I did learn my lesson and have stuck to using salvaged materials subsequently. Like many folk posting here I've done way too many things with this approach to post here. More of my stuff is at
http://smortegav.blogspot.com

Clements Interiors The floors we installed into our clients home were made from wood reclaimed from an old broom factory.

Curtis Conkey We are two years into our 3 year home remodel project. One of the big projects was to replace the 4foot aluminum windows in the living and bed rooms with wood windows. I ended up with 4 sets of functional "slider" windows. I am recycling them into my barn instead of sending to the dump. (Actually I am doing it this weekend so the picture shows the siding still needs to be adjusted).

I am also replacing rotted barn doors with steel doors that we recycled from the house remodel.

Additionally, I have converted the build-in garage into bedrooms which left me with large piles of insulation - perfectly good so I recycled it into the attic of the main house.

Finally, I have been residing the house. During which I discovered that much (though not all) of the original 1" foam was infested with bugs (they discovered it makes a great home). The foam that was not burrowed through I recycled into the barn to improve heat retention and reduce noise.

darrelldog Junking for something to make into a vanity, I found this old Eastlake mirror frame. It was missing the mirror and since I didn't need the mirror, it was better than perfect. I took it and my idea to carpenter Mike East. The second photo shows the vanity he built for me. The dark wood is the salvaged frame and the light wood is the new box. I painted it using a multi color layered technique finished with a few coats of wax. The third photo shows the completed bath. Wonderful!!

the bohemian kitchen of Gozan Interiors It is my goal to use as many salvaged objects as I can in the jobs I design as long as it fits and enhances the space. This one is an old cast iron door off of an old stove that I used for the backsplash accent. The rusty, old door was cleaned and oiled and surrounded by Artistic Tile and Daltile's rusty iron border. If the picture doesn't show, it can be found on my houzz page under Gozan Interiors. I'm having some trouble copying the picture.

mirandahastings We found these doors from a 1930's movie theater in Portland and hung them on barn door hardware in a long hallway as pantry doors.

Jasmine Larmour We took an old cabin down to the studs and rebuilt it while trying to maintain the charming feel. Some of the wood from inside the walls were removed and replaced with insulation. We made the boards into a barn door that slides to become the bathroom door, or conceal a closet made into an 'office'. The old headers from the windows were replaced with new ones to accomodate new windows. The old headers became legs for a counter-height table.

JB Architects There are some wonderful projects here, I'm very impressed and glad to see people with a similar love of creative reuse. Attached are some of my efforts; reusing an old timber bridge in new cladding and frames, old winery racks into a stacked timber wall and in the uk turning spiral stairs into book shelves and old copper pipes into apothecary kitchen shelves.

EcoFirstArt.com There is a lovely history attached to this piece. My good friend London artist and writer Harland Miller gave this piece to me when the artist started working on her collection. It had been in his studio for some time and he wrote his first novel at this desk- "Slow Down Arthur, Stick To Thirty." The inspiration for this piece came from a favourite Kandinsky painting that the artist loves. She especially likes the creation of furniture into a multidimensional painting - it becomes a work that you can use and view almost like a sculpture.

Casart Coverings Some clever examples. I salvaged all of the double hung windows from our original porch before we put on an addition. I reuposed them into dining room mirrors by brushing a coat of metallic gold paint over the original, aged base paint and replacing the glass with mirrors.

I have more of these salvaged windows in their original state than i know what to do with. I was going to but them on Craigslist or eBay but little time. If anyone is interested, let me know.

And of course, I also remove and repurpose my reusable wallcoverings all of the time. They are meant for such a purpose.

ljfq An Iowa tornado in 2010 destroyed a 1930's cypress water cistern on my husband's family farm. We planned to just nail the weathered lumber haphazardly as a rustic ceiling treatment in a recent kitchen/dining remodel. Because it was 2" thick, we ripped it. The beauty of the fresh- cut interior surface made us totally rethink our plan. Many long tedious hours of cutting, ripping, "tongue-and-grooving", and mathematical planning resulted in a gorgeous, refined, wood ceiling (plus mountains of sawdust!). We learned through research that old growth cypress like this is very hard to come by anymore. We could have sold the wood for a tidy sum but our ceiling has great sentimental value to us. We joke that once again, the family farm is putting a roof over our heads!

Alexandra Interiors This a house that myself and my husband @ the time built. It is situated on the top of a mountain, with a track so narrow that it was hard to get deliveries up there. The stone is the stone around the Finque (small Catalunyan farm). The wood is recycled from containers from Italy which housed large gas turbines for Barcelona. All wood from the outside, the joists, the flooring,the furniture, the stairs, We made, we laid, we recycled, we were completely off grid, completely self sufficient and it was a wonderful but hard life. Gathered our water from the roof into a cisterna under the house. The house was rustic but wonderful.

Pamela Foster & Associates, Inc. When I renovated this home, I found that the old roof decking was heart pine. I had it white washed and installed in the kitchen/breakfast ceiling of the project. Since the supply and return vents for the HVAC system were in the ceiling, I had my trim guy make return and supply vents out of the same material.

cjo2 We had some architectural salvage that had made the rounds in a couple of homes in our family and I turned one of them into a place for random pieces of jewelry!!

JTBaldwin Don’t be afraid of trying something new -- you never know what will happen! A couple of years ago I reclaimed some old audio equipment that my husband was taking to Goodwill and deconstructed a turntable and some speakers to make a cake pedestal. One thing led to another and since then I have started a new business of repurposing vintage pieces, and the cake pedestal idea has turned into an Audio Buffet Line of serveware. Now, I am repurposed as well and I love it!

Angela Cameron Can't find the before photo, but this was an old file cabinet I found at a Salvation Army store (it's marked City Bank of St Louis on the back). I stripped and stained it, added hardware to the drawers and a glass rack inside. It's now acting as a drink station/bar in my living room- the deep file drawers are perfect storage for ice buckets and punch bowls!

John Whipple - By Any Design ltd. I used this linear drain we ripped out of a failed installation to save my buddy $850.00. Then just to make it custom we added some LED lighting!

camperoo Love all the clever upcycling, thank you all so much for sharing! Here's how I recycled our crib when the kids outgrew it--the slatted sides became a Ballard inspired drying rack for my laundry room, and the springs are decorating the mantle until I can afford a piece of the appropriate scale for the space.

Felicia Krumbeck I have a couple of beautiful pocket doors that I wish I could repurpose.

Wild Deer Crossing We have a 100 yr old Bukyvenian log farmhouse in Canada with too many salvaged items to picture. However, this is newest ....old rusted Canadian egg collecting basket used as a kitchen fixture on salvaged tin ceiling.

Living Space Landscapes My wife bought a small house in Minneapolis before we were married and this workbench was in the basement. The table looks like it was originally pieced together with scrap lumber and was actively used in a dusty basement for decades. It now proudly is used in our living room.

leesgang Well done all of you. Inspirational!

Architecturally Speaking The coffee table here was once a drive pulley from a old belt driven factory. A friend had given it to me since he couldn't find a use for it. For several years it looked good just up against the wall as an oversize artifact.

By enclosing one side of the spokes, attaching 3 industrial casters and having a round piece of glass cut for the top surface the pulley was easily converted to a coffee table. The interior space made for a great shadowbox for family heirlooms.

Nearby is a hanging stained glass lamp fixture which was made from tall vase. A drilled hole in the base and a pull chain lamp hardware was all that was needed. The lamp provides reading light and ambient glow for the room.

Jim Butz with Architecturally Speaking

Architecturally Speaking The coffee table here was once a drive pulley from a old belt driven factory. A friend had given it to me since he couldn't find a use for it. For several years it looked good just up against the wall as an oversize artifact.

By enclosing one side of the spokes, attaching 3 industrial casters and having a round piece of glass cut for the top surface the pulley was easily converted to a coffee table. The interior space made for a great shadowbox for family heirlooms.

Nearby is a hanging stained glass lamp fixture which was made from tall vase. A drilled hole in the base and a pull chain lamp hardware was all that was needed. The lamp provides reading light and ambient glow for the room.

Jim Butz with Architecturally Speaking

Erin Contour We are currently building so it will be awhile before we have photos, but we have re-purposed a music amp for the base of a bathroom vanity in my husband's man space and a wall guitar rack as a towel hook. In another guest bath we've re-purposed a vintage scale with a brass bowl. The scale is being modified by a custom metal worker to add a drain line, it will sit in the highest position and mounted on a base cabinet so that brass bowl will be the sink, the spot where the weights sat is a perfect spot for a soap dish. Complete April 2013.

Jessica Petelle My boyfriend and I were at a friends house for dinner and she had this sign leaning up against a tree. Her father was the editor of the Huron Expositor newspaper but she had another more substantial sign that she was planning to keep - and was planning to put this one on the fire pile! I asked if we could take it, and cob webs and all it went into the trunk. Because the sign is two sided, I chose to hang it from the ceiling a few inches from the wall to maintain its original integrity. I love having a story to tell in this room, as opposed to making it a pass thru.

helenscho I put used laminate flooring on the ceiling of my garage conversion (in progress). Furring strips screwed perpendicular to the joists provided the support.

Constable Construction inc You can see the edge of the dome ceiling I put in our dining room.
The form I used is an old aluminum frame of a 10 foot round satellite dish.
A little old school plaster work and a wonderful custom ceiling was created from something most people would have thrown away.

Gina Fitzsimmons ASID I salvaged the shutter panels from the dumpster. They were very old and made with wooden pegs holding them together. They are used here flanking some antique sea gull book plates that we framed. The wall was a stunner by the time we got it all put together!

Gina Fitzsimmons ASID, Annapolis, Md.

Constable Construction inc Reuse for Merlot wine barrels purchased from a local Virginia winery.
Wonderful conversation starter, French oak wine barrel Base cabinetry with reclaimed Italian marble tops.
Cafe table on casters to match.
All Custom made and installed by the talented crew of Constable Construction inc.

givbak I went to an open house in Watertown CT last night. They had custom made furniture there that are all one offs similar to what I've see here. Just one thing they're all under one roof and are exquisitely hand made by 7 or 8 Artisans who form the collective. Every piece composes at least one recycled part. Their name is ReworxCT.com and they deserve a mention here on Houzz. Take a look at this table.

Fran Vallone wow where to start - pine living floor salvaged from a demolished house 2 blocks away. Office,kitchen and upstairs bathroom floor plus siding for the garage i took out of a house scheduled for demo. Stain glass window in garage from a dumpster, front door and lock from a house in PA.

blairbec We recently relocated from a single family home to a condo and the dining room light fixture was not to our taste. We saw a LamLee fixture on this site that we fell in love with, but it is no longer available. Until we find something we love, we did a DIY fixture using a parasol I was given as a gift while we were living in China. I repainted the tip black and added the tassel and beads. We used the metal framework of a fixture that had been in our living area, and replaced with a ceiling fan. I made a fabric diffuser to cover the bulbs, and then added a band that I made with a discounted bamboo table runner found for $7.00. I cut it in half lengthwise and stitched the two pieces together with my sewing machine. Then I attached the band and parasol to the metal framework.

Casart Coverings Attention Houzzers! Sometimes it takes a bit of time to upload your comments; especially if there are pictures. The process seems to be unusually slow with this ideabook. Please try to be patient and not end up submitting multiple times.

Bradley Ross Upon finishing our front bath and shower remodel, I got an estimate for a glass shower wall that exceeded the entire cost of the remodel,.....so I found an old pocket door (french) that we have panted and sealed multiple times, tempered shatter proof glass of course. To finish the look and protect the glass from water spots we place a poly brocade curtain behind the door.
All for a fraction of the cost of a glass enclosure :)

Bradley Ross Upon finishing our front bath and shower remodel, I got an estimate for a glass shower wall that exceeded the entire cost of the remodel,.....so I found an old pocket door (french) that we have panted and sealed multiple times, tempered shatter proof glass of course. To finish the look and protect the glass from water spots we place a poly brocade curtain behind the door.
All for a fraction of the cost of a glass enclosure :)

pryncess_patrice I had an ottoman that needed a facelift! It was plain and the spots would not come out. I found some cute materials, did some measurements, and stapled to seal the deal.

uttara and adwait becky,
your feature made really very interesting reading.
we have been designing furniture, interiors, accents and accessories for about 20 years , all from reclaimed ANTIQUE teak-wood, from the rural tribal regions of the indian sub-continent.
pls browse through our FB page ' uttara and adwait furniture'.
seek comments and criticism.

erplaut We made these lower kitchen cabinets and the granite countertops from used hotel end tables and TV cabinets. (The upper shelves were made from bamboo.)

Rollin Fox, Sleeping Grape Wine Cellars We acquired 60 White Ash church pews which we estimated to be over 85 years old. The quality of the wood in them would be difficult to equal today. They are in 12 foot sections, perfectly clear and have no flaws - a woodworker's dream! We milled the material for building a series of wine cellars which we call our "Shrines For Wine". So far we have built three wine cellars using the milled pews (two of them are shown here). Some of the larger portions of the Gothic arch doors are from newly acquired Ash, but the majority of the pieces are from the "retired" pews.

B Taylored Designs, LLC I reclaimed and old dresser and made it into a great sideboard for a dining room. I refinished the whole piece then added a faux inlaid leather finish, finally I cut a whole piece of bamboo to make the pulls and split the other pieces for the decorative fronts on the doors. My client loves it!

Lea Kawabe I used some old crates to make my dining room table. It was a fun, easy, eco-friendly project.

Gina Fitzsimmons ASID Jo White, I love the railings the most in this idea book! Gina

Kootut murut For our kitchen cabinetry we used for the most part recycled or salvaged materials. Some of the cabinets were from a kitchen to be demolished and some were found in a barn. Here's how they looked before http://www.kootutmurut.com/2012/09/05/kitchen-remodel-part-i/

dpeyton64 My wife brought home this barn louvre she found for $20. After being stored in our garage for over a year we spent a weekend pulling nails and deep cleaning we were able to turn it into a headboard in our guest bedroom.

dpeyton64 Years ago I salvaged several pieces of leaded beveled glass from a closed restaurant. While finishing our basement, I was able to use it and incorporate it into a cabinet I built to house our billiard sticks and accessories.

michelekasper Reclaimed mushroom wood was placed on the inside of this double sided linear fireplace.

G3 Studios Decorative Painting We had an extra heated garage type building when we moved in that sat empty for too long. We finally decided to rebuild the interior to hold our multiple dogs and be an extra building for caring and tending to our animals without having to sacrifice our personal space. (We also have chickens and goats out back!)

The problem we faced was financial. We had a shoestring budget and had to do 98% of the work ourselves. This led to some creative thinking. We found some barns in the area which had collapsed and the owners gave us permission to use what we needed. We found barn wood, tin panels, farm equipment parts, doors, windows, etc. We also scoured roadsides and garage sales where we found more doors and windows. We used pallets, broken down outdoor decor which we repurposed. If it was free we found a way to use it. The only thing we really paid full price for was the drywall. We even found insulation left over from my job sites. (I'm a faux finisher.)

We love it so much we actually use it as office space for my business as well as studio space to paint faux tin ceiling panels for my jobs when the dogs aren't going too crazy!

G3 Studios Decorative Painting A few more pics of the dog building. Even the sign out front was an old rusted soaker hose we repurposed. Cabinets were found on side of road. I could go on like this all day. This project is dependent on roadside finds and generous people who don't mind us digging through their cast offs. We are still building onto this as we speak.

G3 Studios Decorative Painting To think that this project actuallystarted out as an empty building. Not a single wall, not anything. Just empty. Even the back of the garage doors got chalkboard paint and barn wood. Chandelier was found on craigslist for free.

G3 Studios Decorative Painting Oops! Here are last couple of pics I didn't get loaded. Sorry.

G3 Studios Decorative Painting Hallway from front to back and misc. materials we used. My wife who's vision this was.

Sharon McLeod I just found a lovely old wooden door with a plain pane of glass. I'm going to remove the glass and replace it with a stained glass that I create specifically for it. I can't wait, it's my next project.

What I recently did was found several antique ceiling tins, so I went out to the barn and grabbed a bunch of old wooden boxes and created a backdrop for the tins. I've made two, and a third is in the works. They will hang over my sofa when completed.
(Sorry for the photo quality!)

Carlo M. This teak table used to be a bridge from Indonesia . Now , we use it as an outdoor farm table and benches .
Another project that my partner did was to conceal the pool pump and motors by using reclaimed barn wood planks from Temecula

annaanddoug An old, white kid's toy and book shelf transformed by leftover paint into open storage in our Baja, Mexico kitchen.

annaanddoug An old, white kid's toy and book shelf transformed by leftover paint into open storage in our Baja, Mexico kitchen.

designanddine I salvaged our old industrial windows and welded them into an L shaped rolling 'screen' on casters to hide our storage area (which itself is 6' long construction platform)

David Lipchik Here are a couple salvage projects of mine.

The first one is making succulent wall boxes that hang vertically on the wall like art. I have made quite a few of them. All the wood is salvaged from other projects or tear downs. I have a tutorial on how to make them at http://designrevolver.org/2011/09/05/living-art-by-designrevolver/

I also have a couple reclaimed wood coffee tables I made. I made these out of old wooden deck materials, a torn down tea house and a ripped out fence.

cgorm This headboard was made from the back of an old sideboard. My carpenter created a tiled decorative firebox and surrounded it with this old cast iron fireplace from 1840's England. And the window seat is made from salvaged drawers.

trixylarue at Summilux...no it wasn't more expensive. We have new hardwood floors in our great room and two bedrooms. We spent $4000 on NEW wood plus we laid them, sanded them, stained and polyed them! The farmhouse was free wood and the 1881 house was $100 plus we did all the same things to the new wood. the only difference was pulling nails, planing (the farmhouse boards) and stripping (the 1881 boards)...so a little bit of stripper and a bunch of time----at least the work kept us from sitting on our butts at the computer then :) It also made our marriage stronger...nothing like hardwork to bond you together ;)

Monarch Stone International Reclaimed, salvaged antique cobblestone and curb for driveway, walkways, patios. If set on sand, you can salvage it again in the future!

summilux trixylarue- it's the time I'm thinking about. Free materials does make the thought process much more favorable toward repurposing! As for reno being a marriage-strengthening activity, my better 1/2 wound mutter- "that which does not kill me makes me stronger" ;)

trixylarue summilux, I see you are a doctor so you will understand the pain that happened with a frozen shoulder! Yeah, one of those trim boards in the pink farmhouse bedroom tried to beat me in a game of tug and war...still not sure who won. Having had one frozen shoulder ten years ago I thought I could prevent it...nope. I didn't go to a doctor though...I worked my way through the pain :) So yep, I agree with your better 1/2...that which does not kill me does make me stronger! ;) I am off to "visit" your house. pineneedlehill blog has some of our house stuff on it...haven't written for awhile though...

suemorris287 Hi from New Zealand, we had a marina replacing the sides on the wooden jetties during their maintenance program - the planks of wood are 12" x 2" x 15' long. nothing wrong with them, we found out that they were chainsawing them into 3' lengths and dumping them,we spoke to the guys and salvaged them in whole lengths and have built pathways and filled in the framing on our garage floor, it should only last another 25 years !!!

Workshop 152 This is a 1930s era dentist's drill that I repurposed into a desk lamp. The pattern on the cloth-covered wire I chose mimics that of the original string that drove the drill. The wood base is an exotic hardwood called Jatoba.

Workshop 152 These large pendant style hanging fixtures were made from speakers that once sat atop the snack bar at a midwestern drive-in movie.

Workshop 152 This industrial style console was made from vintage gym lockers, reclaimed beadboard and antique steel casters.

Workshop 152 The leather top on this modern coffee table was made from the drive belt of a turn-of-the-century Vermont lumber mill's huge buzz saw.

Workshop 152 This rolling coffee table was made entirely from reclaimed components: cast iron architectural panels, a sheet of zinc roofing, and vintage industrial casters.

Workshop 152 Two of these conference tables were custom-made for Etsy's Hudson, NY offices using reclaimed sections of vintage bowling alley and vintage textile mill machinery. The third is used in Etsy's Brooklyn headquarters.

Workshop 152 This whimsical side table was made by slightly modifying a 1950s era cast aluminum tricycle and adding a beefy glass top.

JTBaldwin Love the '50s trike table above! Mine was made from two Radio Flyers from the 1980s.

Betsy Giannini Design, LLC We are currently renovating our kitchen and added a peninsula to the room. My husband took a very large wooden desk top from work and used it to make the top. Saved us tons of money versus going with granite or other materials! He covered it in birch plywood and stained it a dark espresso color. Work is still ongoing in the room and the table will be getting some trim work added to the legs to match trimwork on the top of the cabinets. The granite countertop needs to be extended over the new small cabinet also.

Workshop 152 Brilliant! Very clever Radio Flyer table!

Cari Marshall We have been tearing walls out of our 1932 bungalow, and finding some amazing shiplap boards, and even some nice plywood. We had these tables built out of that wood, each set by a different carpenter friend. The square tables are like mini pallets made of the shiplap...they're on casters and have lots of fun nooks and crannies for games and puzzles. The round ones are dubbed the "Chloe table" in honor of our daughter, who can sit at them with her buddies in their little chairs. We love seeing that old wood live on!

carlajb Lockers found at an auction became a great console table with the addition of a welded base and an additional section was transformed into a coffee table with paint and casters.

carlwalkermill In the 70's we "salvaged" a barn as a residence. For kitchen cabinets we used poplar salvaged from a chicken coop which was to be demolished to make way for Marsh Creek State Park dam. The counter top is made from old truck bed flooring.

eCustomFinishes I love this topic. I recently made a wideboard farm table from reclaimed pine. Also, I took an old shutter from a 150 year old barn and made a fish painting / coat rack for friends summer home, and to top it off i found some reclaimed driftwood and painted a blue fish for another friends summer home.

Tons of reclaimed wood projects here: http://www.ecustomfinishes.com

karensynor hard rock maple from the floor of a roller rink made a porch ceiling to last a century, at least

Carol bought a used vivid blue vessel sink which had a tiny chip in it, plan to use it outside for birdbath or garden accent...open to ideas!

Carol Second Comment: We used an old satellite dish, removed the torn webbing, spray painted and mounted on four 4 x 4's....placed it outside dining room with wisteria, vines..Looks tropical and lush from dining room.

roxanns Roxann and John Spicer-New Glasgow, NS

We've been "re-purposing" for years. I love the creativeness involved. These pictures show freebee finds that we stripped and repainted. For less than $100 we now have dining chairs and a bureau.

The headboard was salvaged tongue and groove planks, two posts from a deck remodel and left over paint. This cost us $10.40-for the post caps.

Julie Saunders We're just completed a full reno of the main floor of our 1940s bungalow. Our general contractor, Greening Homes Ltd., was very creative in coming up with ways to re-use materials salvaged from our home. Floor joists removed due to repositioning of a new stairwell were re-used as window sills and counter tops. They also cut down an original wood closet door (no longer needed) to make a new attic hatch. And they secretly took some of the salvaged wood away to make us a gift of a beautiful serving board, which shows off the intricate patterns of the growth rings.

We are now in the midst of working with our carpenter, Phil Hogg, to integrate 2 storeys of built-in bookshelves with our new staircase and two purchased 1850s salvaged wood posts; portions of the bookcase are faced with the original maple flooring which he salvaged from areas where it could no longer be used. I'll have to post photos when this project is finished - it's shaping up to look pretty fantastic!

christina A couple of very simple re-claimed projects include taking an old school desk and inserting some wedges to make the surface level to use as a side table, and we framed a rubbing done by my hubby, Jeff, (years ago, as an exchange student in the Netherlands). Both are in the living room with some old chairs that I need to re-cover at some point. Jeff made a Nevelson-esque wall sculpture out of old woodworking tools that were his great-grandfather's, although the wood katana just got stuck up there for some reason. And we used some salvaged leaded glass doors on the cabinet he built for the top half of our hoosier--we didn't have to change a thing, since the green doors matched the green enamel on the hoosier very closely.

InterDesign Studio I made this table octagonal table top from reclaimed redwood fence boards, and an old coffee table - I always liked the Deco base details, but never found a good way to use it because the wood top had big screw holes as if there had been another finished top on it at one time.

christina @ InterDesign Studio: Beautifully done. The table looks great with that rug! I love octagonal & hexagonal shapes.

maddecorator Wow, people are so amazingly creative! I love it!!! Also, growing up on a farm, I saw a million rusty old barn roofs, so never thought I'd like rusty roofing tin on a kitchen ceiling, but I do!

Angie Ring I used old soda crates to build a pantry beside our refrigerator.

Jennifer Brown I salvaged an old Indian Wedding Table into our new bathroom vanity as well as incorporated a salvaged barn door and linen closet.

Ronda Potter Angie & Jennifer... love your creativity and your style!!

otteroo Update: recently acquired Bar stools, transformed into dining room chairs.

maura_ I found an old screen door and used the frame to add texture and color to my bedroom. I love the beachy chabby chic feel it adds to my city home

maura_ I found a 20 headboard at a thrift store and used the frame of it to create a custom fabric headboard. I padded the original wooden board and then upholstered using a basic staple gun. Cheap and Easy!

Carrie Boyajian Made a bar out of old metal cart.

Look Studio Erin Wright's use of reclaimed rusted tin as a ceiling and island accent in a modern kitchen is wonderful. Maybe Erin would appreciate my image "Metalmorphosis" of reclaimed "Stronger Barns" brand corrugated metal roofing.

ploefff found table shortened and tabletop recovered, locker gotten for free put on a little "trolley" - a piece of wood fitted with casters and backed with an pin board.

ploefff floor lamp turned hanging light and sweater unravelled to make a cowl

ploefff $2 painting rewamped with cartoon characters and jam and juice made from fruit pick for free in various forrests in jars from a recycling bin. Lamp made from old doll.

ploefff sideboard built with my old bookcases and legs from a table and chair and finally cutting boards made from a plank of wood which was the back of an old electrical installation. Some of my materials I find at fleamarkets but most I pick up just passing them on my way around the city.

orangecamera @Carol with the blue vessel sink: The color is gorgeous. You asked for ideas...the one I had was to use it as a lamp shade somehow. Light shining through would really show it off. Could it be used with a ceiling fixture, like this type of thing?

If you've already used it somehow, please post a picture :)

Carol thanks for the suggestion! it is very heavy, however, not sure it could be used on a ceiling but great idea...turn it upside down and lit from underneath. Color would really show through. Will definitely keep that in mind and post when I do actually do something with it. House is being built so additional projects will have to be done later this summer....

maddecorator In case anyone doesn't know, there is a web site called junkmarketstyle.com that shows thousands of repurposing projects. The projects range from amazingly clever to just plain weird, but it is very inspiring to see what so many creative people have made. I have posted many of my things there under the user name MakinItHappen.

Sway2this Photography & Design I'm in the process of installing salvage doors to create separation between my part of the house and the part I rent for short-stay guests. I had great luck finding wonderful doors at Significant Elements Salvage Warehouse in Ithaca, NY. I also saved the cabinets in my kitchen when I remodeled. Paint does wonders!

Jeanne Bolds We have been renovating the basement in our 1940 home. We re-purposed a door that we were no longer using into a bar shelf. Saved money and it already matched our 1 wall of paneling. We still have some trim pieces to add.

Pine Street Carpenters & The Kitchen Studio Salvaged floor joists demoed from another part of this old home renovation make for decorative beams in this remodeled sun room.

Clark & Zook Architects, LLC This dogtrot cabin in North Georgia our office completed included many "reused" and re-purposed architectural items. The front door for this house came from a house from the 1860's. The logs were from the 1820's. Paneling above the fireplace was from a room divider our clients bought in Miami in the 1960's. Many were things our clients had held on to for 20...30 years, knowing they would build their dream house one day. What a joy and deep honor to incorporate a life time of treasures into one building.

jeanniedrawer Great ideas! My motto in life must certainly be "if we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs...if we had some eggs"!
I found these figures many years ago and all I knew about them is that they were Welsh and 350 years old. I got them and they leaned in a corner for years until we used them as caryatids for a fireplace surround.

über iron Lots of great ideas folks! We love to give new life to materials and as a design house are able to create many unique pieces in doing so. It occurred to us that there are countless pieces of beautiful granite and other varieties of stone that are cut out of kitchen and bath countertops (for the sinks) that are perfectly suited for use as a top for a plant stand or side table. We like to work with metal and complement it with other materials so we created an assortment of legs and bases for the pieces. Here are a few examples.

über iron We would love to hear your ideas for these sink cut outs!

über iron Here is a patio railing and a wine rack – affectionately called the “Scrap Rack” both put together from scrap metal. There is an endless variety of shapes and patterns left over from cutting tables that we reconfigure into a wide array of end products. The design exercise is always fun as the possibilities are virtually endless.

maddecorator I used some sink cutouts in my walkway made from salvaged stone.

zazelloven In the Hudson Valley of New York State, Robert Sherman turns 19th-century local barnwood into unique pieces of furniture. Our newest dining table hosts ten guests.