How to use old furniture and thrift-store finds to decorate your home

 

While some owners prefer the convenience of selecting home décor pieces and furniture from a show room, others don’t. Often these pieces are expensive and outside your budget. Even if money isn’t the issue, some homeowners prefer one-of-a-kind pieces that allow them to express their individuality and sense of style. If you’re a crafty person with a good eye for potential, you can turn old furniture or thrift-store knick-knacks to create fabulous home décor pieces for your home. Here are a few ideas you might try.

Turn an old door into a headboard

Headboards are expensive, especially custom upholstered ones. You can make your own for a lot less by using some reclaimed wood, such as from an old door (or two for a larger bed). Using old barn doors and bracketing them to the wall where your bed is can be a quick way to add rustic charm to your master bedroom.

Make a bench out of an old bedframe

If you can find an old bedframe that has a footboard and headboard, you can turn it into a nice bench that you can place out in your garden or on your front porch. The head board will form the back of the bench to you lean back against. The arms of the bench are made by cutting the foot board into two halves (one for each arm of the bench). For a larger bedframe like a queen- or king-size, you will probably need to cut out a middle section of the footboard since you’ll have excess length to work with. Take the planks from the bedframe that supported the mattress to fashion the seat of the bench. Using screws, nails, and brackets, assemble your outdoor bench. Give it a coat of paint and waterproof it and your bedframe is now an outdoor bench.

Convert crib springs into a wall organizer

Who couldn’t benefit from having a large wall organizer in the home office or kitchen for keeping track of coupons, appointment reminders, field trip permission slips, and other papers that tend to get lost? If you have an old crib laying around, or if you can find one in a second-hand shop, you can make an over-sized wall organizer in no time at all. Simply unscrew the springs from the crib frame (or use bolt cutters, careful not to leave any sharp or jagged edges) and mount the springs in the desired place. Get some clothespins and you can now clip important papers to the metal wires that make up the springs.

Create a collage frame with a cabinet door

If you can find an old hutch or glass-paned cabinet, you can remove the door and give it a fresh coat of paint to make a large collage frame. It’s perfect for making a gallery space on an especially large wall in your home. Choose a photograph for every window pane in the cabinet and attach them to the back of the cabinet door so the pictures are against the glass and then mount your cabinet door/picture frame to the wall.

Other ways to transform your home’s look on a budget

If you’re not especially crafty, there are still simple ways you can transform your home’s look with minimal cost. Repainting your home’s interior, installing new cabinet hardware, swapping out light and sink fixtures, or installing baseboard heater covers are all quick and inexpensive home improvement projects that produce noticeable results.

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