Projects From Salvaged Items

Restore or Refinish

• Before resorting to pressboard dressers and assembly-line sofas, consider restoring vintage furniture finds. Refinishing all-wood furniture is as simple as following the instructions and safety instructions on the wood-stripping and staining canisters. Those interested in restoring furnishings to their original condition will need to invest some time and money into researching and purchasing original or authentic wood finishes.

  Upholstered furniture presents an added challenge to salvage projects. Learning how to properly stuff, crease and tack upholstery materials is a painstaking, time-consuming process, especially in furniture with springs incorporated into their cushion designs. For authentic restorations, obtaining original fabrics or acceptable recreations of period patterns can be difficult and expensive. However, nonvaluable antique furniture in good condition can be refinished by simply painting the wood and tacking new fabric over the existing upholstery.

Repurpose

• Furniture and appliances that can no longer serve their original functions do not have to be relegated to the junk yard; creative environmentalists and antique enthusiasts turn junk into jewels by putting debris to new use. In the kitchen, stack old wooden milk crates on their side for extra storage or a makeshift wine rack. Turn vintage 1950's washers into planters to add height and vintage charm to outdoor flower beds. For the bedroom, flip an old door on its side to act as a headboard with an antique bed lamp wired through the hole where the door knob used to be. Bring repurposing into the bathroom by installing a dresser as the base for a sink instead of a store-bought cabinet.

Re-envision

• Sometimes called assemblage, artists often scavenge in salvage yards for abandoned items that can be re-envisioned into materials for found object sculptures. Objects discovered in nature and abandoned articles manufactured by man can come together in one work of art, or individual works can be assembled using only natural or man-made items. To be considered a pure, found object sculpture, no modification to their original state should be made, meaning that they should not be painted or manipulated into an unrecognizable state. However, the salvaged items can be crushed, dented or disassembled before being incorporated into the sculpture.