Welcome Home

My husband and I have now lived 8 months in a very unique loft apartment in a small town. It is a huge 2,000+ square feet with huge open spaces, 100+ year old brick walls and pine floors. It is our dream place with room for everything we want. Unfortunately, the space can be a bit overwhelming, and the small furniture we brought from college dorms and apartments are too small to fill the space. The other major downside is the lighting. There are only windows on the front and back wall, which makes for a windowless bedroom, bath, and kitchen, and a dungeon-like hallway. As you can see, the hallway is very wide and dark. Our runner rug looks awkward and dwarfed on the floor. We use the space as storage for bicycles, unfinished furniture, and other unattractive junk. You can also kind of see my husband's bookcase. One of three, the bookcases are kind of long and awkward, but they look nice and were handmade by his dad. I hated walking through the entry door (in the back) and seeing this waste of space everyday. Finally, I figured out that if we rearranged the bookcases we could use the hall as a reading area/library, and use them to disguise the bicycles/create a foyer area instead of an endless dark alley of junk.

Ikea Remix

I love the clean, modern style of Ikea. I like the storage pieces, and I love the prices. It looks great in the store, but I think too much Ikea creates a kind of generic, sterile look. It doesn't have the eclectic "homey-ness" I really want in a space. I love the possibility of customizing Ikea furniture, and I hope to use more in my future home.

I just got the Mikal desk, which looks a bit collegiate, but it has lots of storage, a built-in magnetic/marker board, and it only cost $109. It goes with the other white modular storage pieces in my office/studio.

My chair also came from Ikea. I loved the look and the color of it, but the hard plastic is not very comfortable after about half an hour. So I am still in search of a comfortable and nice looking office chair. I am still planning to use the chair somewhere else in the room. I customized it a bit with some decals from Urban Outfitters. They are origami cranes, one of my favorite things.

My only other Ikea pieces are a few picture frames, my secondhand Klackbo chairs, and a secondhand duvet I found at a consignment shop. I loved the pattern, and since it didn't work in my bedroom I took it apart to make a curtain and a couple of pillows.

Remixed Remix?

Last summer I found a $30 chest of drawers at Goodwill. It was unfinished wood with wooden knobs. I don't have a before picture, unfortunately. I switched the knobs out for black metal knobs. I painted it a bold turquoise and used a black stamp to add a design to the drawers. I loved it in my old apartment. It brought some needed color to a room with a lot of black and white. Now it is in my bedroom and I want something softer. I am thinking of repainting in a pale blue with glass or chrome knobs. I spent about $45 when I originally repainted the chest, mainly because of so many knobs. I don't really want to shell out $3-5 each for 12 knobs again. Especially since it was only a year ago that I redid this the first time. I may try spray paint, my favorite go-to redecorating tool. This is my before picture for the second time around, and I'll soon post the after.

Lucky Find: Klackbo Chairs

I was at a flea market near home and a couple of these chairs caught my eye...not the typical flea market find. They didn't look much like the picture at all-the mod black and white cover was faded and stained...ick. But, I like how wide and modern the shape looked. And we needed some comfy and inexpensive chairs for our reading area. We asked how much they wanted for them, considering the condition of the fabric, and we got them both for $8.00

As soon as we got them home I turned them over and worked on removing the covers. I knew I would absolutely have to recover them. That's when I discovered an IKEA tag. That made me giddy for three reasons: 1. Possibly finding new covers online! 2. Not having to make covers myself! (Especially since I don't have any sewing skills) 3. I am amazed to find modern furniture in such a small town, and that I knew I had found something cool.

So, then I began scouring the net to find info on the chair, which, as I kind of expected are discontinued. Most of what I found out is that the chair is in fairly high demand, and many people were looking for covers. I ended up going to ebay to find some neutral colored covers, which were $29 each. But they made the $4 chairs look brand new. Not a bad deal. They are comfortable, in good shape, and have a little rock/bounce in them, which is fun. Here's a (pretty bad) photo of one of them in our reading/library area. It is a work in progress in our loft apartment. More about that in later posts.

Recycle//Remix Project Recap

IKEA Klackbo Chairs $4 each

Chair Covers $29 each

Shipping $9.59

Cost per chair:

About $38

Time:

30 mins (removing and replacing covers)

Dated to sophisticated: End Table Makeover

I found this little end table for $15 at a flea market. I loved the tiny drawer, and I thought with a fresh coat of paint, this table could work anywhere-a nightstand, next to a couch, or in a reading nook. The legs are solid wood, which made it easy to sand and remove most of the dark green paint. The top of the table and the shelf are unfortunately made from particleboard. As I worked on cleaning it and sanding it, the veneer coating on the particleboard top began to peel, revealing the nasty chunky texture beneath. I went ahead and painted it using white spray paint. I love spray paint for quick makeovers, and it is sooo much easier to cover things like this.


After I painted it, I thought of a good way to solve the problem of the rough edges around the top. I measured it, and found that is was a common width in ribbon, so I glued ribbon around the top and bottom. I used a clear glass knob from Target ($4.99) to class it up a little. Finally, I took some pretty metallic scrapbook paper to line the drawer.


Recycle//Remix Project Recap


Recycled End Table $15

Spray Paint $6.99

Drawer Knob $4.99

Ribbon $1.50

Decorative Paper $0.75

Total Cost:
$29.23

Total Time:
About 2 hours

I'm here in the blogosphere...

Welcome to Recycle\\Remix!
I am an art teacher and crafter interested in all types of recycled arts and crafts. I love turning discarded junk or yard sale finds into unique creations. I keep a large collection of bottlecaps, jars, and cans, and I am always looking for new ways to use them. I also like to tranform old furniture, lamps, and household items with reclaimed fabric or my personal favorite, spray paint! I enjoy the fact that I am keeping some items out of the landfill, and of course it is an economical and satisfying way to enjoy my hobbies. Come here to see before and after photos of different home projects I've been working on, simple projects with recycled materials, and the occasional kid-friendly activity. I'd love to share ideas and tips, so please comment if you have a similar blog.