Wednesday, July 20, 2011

We-Design-Day: A Renovation Break

Last week, I was all prepared to commence the Great Demolition.

It did not happen. Sometimes I have a tendency to over schedule myself, my fantastic memory also occasionally forgets previous commitments, thus leaving me double booked! So instead of driving myself around a bend trying to get it all done, I bumped the demolition. As it was, I still had too many things booked on Saturday but I know now there is not possible way I would have gotten any demolition done.

I did however get to Ikea to get all the additional furnishings needed and I scored some flooring for a fantastic price! Brand new flooring, I might add, for $14 a box (which covers 24 square feet). It’s not funky linoleum or cork liked I’d hoped but it will be functional and clean and will allow me to put money towards extra furniture and better lighting!

The demolition is planned for the last week of the month. I’m planning to take three days off work to get it done. This will give me six days off (in a row) to complete the demolition, building and finishing the space.

This week, I’m featuring a great Upcycled Interior Chic project! I found the plan on Ana White and imagine my surprise when I blog I read and follow built the exact same plan – scaled down to fit any interior!

The genius of this plan is the availability of the materials needed to build it. It is a classic example of taking something that doesn’t always have a second use and making a fabulous piece of furniture out of it! The cost is minimal (often free) and it can be a grand or as simple as you decided. It is solid wood and if you’re lucky (and it fits your décor), it often looks antiqued or aged naturally! If your taste is more modern – it’ll take paint or stain and you can match it to other pieces in your home.

Are you excited yet? I am. I can’t wait for my neighbours to free up the five or so pallets they have in their yard!

Yes. Pallets. Typical, everyday crate-like resting places for goods being shipped anywhere and everywhere. Not a commercial shipper? No problem! Scout out the back of any industrial area in your city and there are likely stacks and stacks of good and broken pallets behind the rows of warehouse doors. Pallets are a dime a dozen (unless they are the fancy blue ones – those are hot commodities and you could get beat up trying to take one of those) but the usual pallets that a local big box store receives it’s good on are likely fair game. Furthermore, many companies can’t get rid of these things fast enough. When I worked in a warehouse, we’d spend hours calling companies trying to get someone to come take the hundreds of pallets away!

Check Kijiji, Craigslist or join a local Freecycle site and find them there.

So what do you do? Well, someone was kind enough to post the plans on how to build a full book shelf and Courtney from Cooking Up a Family built the most awesome wall mounted magazine rack!


Picture from Cooking Up a Family, used with permission










The uses for old pallets is endless… Coffee tables, tea carts, islands, picnic tables, dollhouses – the list is endless for this upcycled project!

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