The bookshelf has lost its molding at the top. Beside it sits a small oak table with pencil legs and a cracked surface. Wood glue and a clamp, please.
In the corner of my garage is a proud, old church organ missing a key and a stop. Ordered, the two parts are on the shelf, still in the package, awaiting their turn. An old walnut box, missing a hinge and a fancy key with a tassel, sits lop-sided, lid jarred open, like an impatient customer, if you ask me.
I’m a repurposer, no apologies given. What others discard, I hope to recharge.
For the bookshelf, I have scraps of molding in the barn and a handy dandy little hand saw that fits perfectly in my palm. Leftover paints sit in small containers on the wide barn shelf like soup cans in the cupboard. The sample size is purchased because just a “little dab will do it.” The molding won’t even take a little dab.
Every item in my small office is repurposed. I spray painted the small tables black and I hunted down the shades for my lamps. I find that “flat” spray paints show marks more easily, so I use a semi-gloss.
Once I paid $3 for a baby’s changing table that had Jenny Lind slats. With dark-green paint and beadboard to cover the surfaces, it morphed into a plant center. Add a decorative hook or two, and it had swag, I tell you. Button ferns sit on top while yarrow in tiny containers feather out on the second level. Underneath are my annuals in yellow. At Christmas, I might change it over to a holiday center and place all my white churches collected over the years (from thrift stores) on top.
One might think it’s cheap to upcycle, but often it isn’t. Small necessities are required: steel wool, sandpaper, adhesives, specialty knobs, finials, and the list goes on, but repurposers tend to stay away from credit. We don’t find much use for that kind of plastic.
My 10-year-old Flex brings home whatever I can stuff into its cargo area, and it never whines when I finally squeeze myself into the driver’s seat and head home.
No, I don’t watch hours and hours of YouTube videos or DIY Dollar Tree ideas, although many are ever so clever. Ideas for repurposing come from daily life. My goal is to repurpose the shine on items to see how their future unspools.
I’d tell you how old I am, but then, you’d say: “Well, no wonder she’s a repurposer. That’s what they did in those days. She’s probably unsure how her own future will unspool as well.” And you’d be wrong, because a repurposer feels this need in her bones.
We have a vision: What jumps out at us when we find an item is what can occur, not what has occurred. Our focus is rejuvenation, not explanation. We don’t want to know how the molding lost its grip from the bookshelf; we just want to restore it. We always find a way.
We are not hoarders either, no, but we do pick up items, like a metal funnel, that we know will come in handy later; we just don’t know when that will be. My barn, my garage, and my spare bedroom will vouch for that. We hang onto scraps of sandpaper if one granule of friction is left. No empty plastic milk container is disrespected. We cut them up, leaving the handles intact, and place paint brushes in water and Dawn to soak. Twine, differing in make-up and size, is rolled around paper towel rolls. Nothing gets “Heftied” until even the residue evaporates.
Why do we rescue broken things when it is so easy to buy new? To conserve? To be thrifty? To use what we have on hand? To find a way when there is a challenge? To be satisfied with less?
A repurposer lives by a mantra: Just a little dab will do it. Applied to real life, this could make a positive difference in how someone’s future, uh, unspools.
Basic Tips
Be safe. Fumes from spray paint can be toxic and adhesives caustic. Ventilation is important, as are gloves.A Garden Project for the Birds
I have enjoyed making birdbaths recently. Take an old sturdy vase and fill it with sand or rocks. I look for a thick floor vase that one would put tea olive branches in for decor. These are thicker and heavier vases that sit on the floor, not ones you would put freshly cut roses in.I also set the thicker vase, once in the flower garden, on a brick or on some type of stabilizer. I definitely use a level, because over time, soil shifts with the wind and rain, and the birdbath can tilt and look crooked. I use E6000 as my glue. It works well in all circumstances.
Let all adhesives set for 24 hours. Then, I carefully glue a shallow but wide bowl to the vase. A basin or a thick crystal bowl works well. I let this sit for 24 hours.
Don’t rush; I’ve broken many bowls by trying to glue all three at the same time.
Last, I spray with a clear, strengthening glaze.
The birdbaths need to be put in the garage or storage if temperatures drop low. I usually cover mine as well. Water will freeze and the birdbath bowl will crack.
