Did you know National recycle week is celebrating its 13th year this year! We have always encouraged the children to recycle where possible and are huge fans of upcycling, crafting with the kids is a big part of our life as they all take after myself and love to make things. From decorated jars to keep their pens tidy to reusing old clothing to make sock monkeys etc.
Part of the Recycle Now website talks about larger household items and how you can recycle, repair or donate any unwanted furniture.
One of my hobbies is renovating furniture and long before this became popular (Grrr all those people who jumped on the bandwagon and snap up the dressers, paint them and try to sell for ££££) I was making fabulous pieces even prettier for our home. No, you can never have too many dressers!
I picked up most of these via Freecycle (now Freegle) or local charity shops and Ebay. None of them are too pretty to first look at but boy when you put the time and effort in to sand them down, treat them, paint and stain etc they become something of beauty and amazing talking points when you have family and friends round.
Moving home is expensive enough and if you can pick up some pieces of furniture that would otherwise be in landfill or at the tip then it is worth putting the work in for something that will be unique!
This telephone table and dresser were picked up at the same time from a local second hand sales shop (who would let me know when new items came in as I was in that often! lol) The telephone table was £10 and dresser I think £30, without blowing my own trumpet too much I think the finished pieces look like something you would pay a fortune for in some of the larger department stores! All for the cost of some sand paper, fabric and paint!
This next dresser was a freecycle pick up, it was advertised to go immediately otherwise it was being taken to the skip!! EEK! I managed to bag that one quickly and talked hubby into picking it up for me – I was so glad he did as look how it turned out with a little paint and time spent on it! I surprised the kids one day when they came in from school with a cookies and milk bar – yes they loved it too!
Having a love of vintage and shabby chic, when this singer sewing machine table came up on Freecycle I almost squealed with delight! Imaging my reaction when we were told we could have it and pick up that night….I have to be honest and say I didn’t touch it for days, just spent time looking at it (it worked perfectly too!) before picking up the trusty sander and paints. It fit in so well with the rest of the decor and had a much loved update.
It even had a box of old buttons and threads in the drawer which I kept in place!
Another favourite was this dresser from Ebay which I think I paid £11 for (that rings a bell for some reason!) Sanded down and painted with Laura Ashley eggshell, I lined the shelves with polka dot paper too which gave it that finishing touch and it ended up housing all of our glasses and table wear.
Next time you see a piece of furniture that looks a little worse for wear, don’t immediately give it the brush off, take time to see what it can be instead!
It has been a long time since I did these and creating this post has made me want to start again – I’m off out to go scour the local charity shops and will pop back with any finds!
XOXO
Debbie
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[…] space to work on pieces of furniture like I use to love doing – you will have seen some of my dressers that I have renovated. There is no better feeling than getting an old piece of furniture, cleaning it, sanding it down […]