Remember when you first moved out for college and all of your relatives happily gave you their once-loved but now outdated, scraps of their former living room, bedroom sets, patio furniture, appliances and so on? Well, being a first-time homebuyer is kind of like that all over again. Ideally, you’ll be able to afford all of the luxury items on your wishlist, but if not, take the donations and transform them into something that will have your family members wishing they’d never given them away!
Crate bedside table
Via hammersandhighheels.blogspot.ca
Wooden crates are widely useful in home décor. They can be used as shelves in living rooms for picture frames, vases and other trinkets, as shoe shelves in laundry rooms, or towel holders like we mentioned here. However, they can also be refinished and turned into creative bedside tables that will give your room a soothing boho vibe. Stacking three refinished crates on top of one another (ensuring that there is enough support beneath them by securing the wood with reinforcing nails), these crates are ideal because they’re cost effective, stylish and easy to build!
Old barn doors
Via diyinspired.com
Not everyone has a pair of old barn doors lying around, but if you love that rustic country style, you can find some on Kijiji or eBay for under $200. Using them as sliding doors for bedrooms, kitchen pantries, washrooms, offices, etc., these doors bring a lot of character with them and can be adapted to almost any kind of space and style. Our favourite is the classic barn door, cleaned up with a good sanding and varnishing attached to a sliding panel that will be sturdy enough to sustain the weight.
Armoire-to-vanity
Via littleboyhowdy.etsy.com
Let’s face it, every make-up lover lusts over the luxury of having a personalized vanity from the moment we started collecting multiple shades of blush and lipstick. This is what makes this armoire-to-vanity concept such an incredible idea; there is enough room for all of your supplies including jewelry. It all depends on what priorities you, the designer, have in mind. This one in particular showcases how simple it is to create the ideal space in an armoire by removing most of the drawers, keeping one at mid-level (or adding a more stable plank) that will serve as the desk. You can easily hang a mirror at the back of the armoire. Along the doors, you can attach cork and hooks of different sizes to hang items of your preference (such as: scarves, necklaces and earrings). Leaving one of the drawers in the lower part of the desk serves as extra storage, but if this proves to be too difficult, fret not, you can always use the space of the desk to place decorative boxes and containers that will fit in with the theme.
Old dresser to new entertainment unit
Via hometalk.com
This idea won’t help you if you need a dresser, but it will make your living room look mighty spiffy. Depending on the style of the dresser, you’ll have to employ those creative thinking skills to customize a design that works best. For standard, square drawers, one of the easiest, most efficient designs we discovered involves simply removing the drawers from the centre to make room for Blu-ray players, speakers, satellite boxes and other systems. The dresser might require new planks for support, but most will just need a new paint job. Leaving the drawers along the left and right sides, these will give you plenty of storage room.
Additional tips: if your new entertainment unit is still looking dresser-ish, you can paint the top or the exterior side panels in a different colour or style then the main frame, adding interesting dimension and contrast. You can always change the handles on the drawers as well, which can help change the character of the design.
The coffee table
Via adoreyourplace.com
Saving the best for last, all of us here at Newinhomes.com agree that this is an amazing DIY idea. This table can be built using vintage doors found online for around $30. Without having to sand and repaint the old wood, this is a quick and easy project that can accommodate different styles. For a cleaner look, you can always embellish the doors with a new paint job, but the one displayed embraced the previous lives of the repurposed wood, only wiping it down and adding a top layer of varnish to add shine and protect the wood from future drink spills.
For refurnishing wood help, click here.
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