One of the things I love the most about creating a chic home is working with unconventional decorating materials. For instance, discarded wooden pallets that are unfinished and unappealing in their natural state can be transformed into fabulous functional furniture. Add some wheels and you’ve got portable furniture that makes a statement.
A couple of gorgeous examples of daybeds with wooden pallet frames. These supports are probably sturdy enough to hold anything you’ll put on them!
{ image Prudent Baby }
{ image Ashley Ann }
The rustic, industial pallet below gets paired with smooth glass, making this coffee table versatile and elegant. The addition of wheels makes it easy to vacuum under.
{ image Apartment Therapy }
A little deconstruction goes a long way in this repurposed recycling bin. Clever and useful! Visit the Simple Home life link below the image to view the instructions and make your own.
{ image Simple Home Life }
This double tiered pallet table has been stained and used in a cozy outdoor patio setting.
{ image Joy Ever After }
Most of these projects are super simple to construct and inexpensive too. For a detailed deomonstration on contructing your own pallet table/ottoman watch the video below. Then if that gets you really excited, hop in your car and start searching for discarded pallets!
This past spring I started my first official garden in Phoenix with help from Greg at the Urban Farm. Since space was limited I grew the cucumbers and pole beans vertically by tying them to bamboo poles. And that has been my knowledge of vertical gardening. Until now.
Yesterday I saw that Melissa at The Inspired Room wrote about creating a vertical garden by repurposing and old wooden pallet to make a vertical flower garden.
{ image source The Inspired Room }
This inspired me (haha, get it?) to research more about vertical gardens, the various types and how to make them. First, here is another DIY pallet garden. The plants are growing from inside the pallet. Complete instructions for this garden can be found at Life on the Balcony.
{ image source Life on the Balcony }
And then today I noticed a post on Inhabitat featuring a large scale vertical living wall in Spain. Wow! Now this is something! Wait, hold up! We’re not ready to build that yet!
{ image source Inhabitat }
Here’s a standard looking set up using fencing with wooden supports. If you’re planting in the ground this option looks nice and tidy. The building plans are available on Instructables.
{ images source Instructables }
For an uber chic interior vertical garden have a look at this one from the New York Times. Inspired by the rainforest of South America, Michael Riley designed this garden to grow without dirt.
{ image source New York Times }
Another unique outdoor garden wall uses good old fashioned gutters attached to the side of a house as vertical planters. So creative! Just proves you don’t need a large plot of land to grow plants.
{ images source Vertical Gardening }
A hydroponic garden wall by name may sound like a difficult thing to build, but Neville Passmore explains how to do it in this informative video. Why not give it a try?
One of my dreams is to live on the the beach in a quiet, soft and comfy cottage. I would grow flowers, ride my bike to the market and watch the sunset from my back porch while listening to classical jazz music and drinking wine. Here is what it might look like.
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Photo by tracie7779 on flickr
The back porch. And the view.
Sometimes we end up with pieces of furniture we just don’t know what to do with. Recently I blogged about decorating with apothecary cabinets, but if your cabinet frames are broken or too large for your space the whole piece can seem useless. Not to worry. Creative repurposing can turn your otherwise broken, outdated and mismatched dresser drawers into beautiful home accents with a purpose.
A little bit of paint can brighten the drawers (just be sure to sand off the lacquer before painting). You can even paint the drawer bottom or line them with wallpaper or contact paper to create interest. In the photo below, dresser drawers are used as a display/bookcase sitting on the floor.
For extra kitchen storage space, try mounting the drawers directly to the wall and fill with jars of spices and dry goods.
Combine legs from an old chair or table with your dresser drawer to create a useful storage table. Set it next to the bath to keep your bath salts and towels handy! (If you don’t have any old legs for this you can buy new ones at the home improvement store.)
Here’s how one company got really creative. These funky repurposed drawers can create a focal point and make great conversation starters.
Make your own Self Watering Drawer Planter
This project is really clever and stylish too. Make your old drawers super functional and grow your own plants! Get the complete instructions here.
{ image sources 1. Manolo Home 2. Nest Full of Eggs 3. My Lovely Life 4. Inhabitat 5. Instructables }