Reuse, refurbish, recycle, reinvent

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A place to showcase and discuss your projects that reuse, refurbish or recycle existing objects/ideas, or how you reinvent existing objects/ideas. 3D printed additions or fixes to existing products are allowed. By reusing, recycling or reinventing, we often manage to reduce our footprint.

It must not be YOUR project, it can also be a project that you're impressed with and like from another creator, whether it be from Youtube, blogs or other sources.

Rules:

  1. It must be a project that you are planning, have done or participated in. OR it can be a finished project from another creator that you feel inspired by.
  2. Projects that you are planning but have no pics of must be marked as [planning]/[plan] in the title.
  3. Every post that isn't marked as [planning]/[plan] must have at least one photo, screenshot or other pic.
  4. No direct links to Reddit in posts or comments (archive links are allowed though).
  5. Don't downvote posts or comments just because it doesn't appeal to your aesthetics.
  6. No nudity or NSFW content.
  7. No monetizing links (Amazon, Ebay, Etsy etc).

Rules are subject to change depending on the needs of this community (to prevent spam etc).

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One inspiring youtuber (although they don't do furniture flips as of late), DIY Wife channel (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I really was inspired by some Youtube channels to dare repaint, re-stain or reinvent and reuse furniture, both mine and my friends', that was otherwise going to the landfill or trash burn pile. The DIY wife was one of these inspiring YT channels. As of late, they are designing their own furniture, so they might not be as relevant to this community. However, their older videos with restyling might be relevant to other people like me who are trying to save old furniture that is too worn out or doesn't fit the current aesthetics of your home.

Link to YT: DIY Wife

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Hallway cat litter box from old IKEA bridal chest/toy chest (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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We had an old IKEA chest from the 90's that we didn't like. It was practical for storing winter gear (helmets, knitted hats and gloves, overalls, boots etc). But it was made from laquered pine, which (to us) was fugly.

We tried to give it away through different ads, but nobody was interested. Picture below is not my OC, it's another give-away ad (they probably considered it fugly too). IKEA chest made from laquered pine

Below pics are ours: IKEA chest from side IKEA chest from another side

As I was preparing to throw it into the "burnables" bin, one of my kids asked me: "Can't we reuse it as a cat litter box?" I didn't like wasting usable things, so we decided to reuse and reinvent it.

First we took the lid and chest apart, cut out a hole where the cats could enter, sanded and then primed: Chest is cut, sanded and primed

Then we painted it in our preferred paint colour, reassembled it, added water proof lining (glued and caulked) and a litter mat. We also tested the fit and looks of the intended litter box: Then we painted it in our preferred paint colour, reassembled it, added water proof lining (glued and caulked) and a litter mat

This is how it looked when the lid was closed, masking tape is still attached as we wanted the caulk to finish curing while the cats were eager to explore their new litter box: How it looked when the lid was closed, masking tape is still attached as we wanted the caulk to finish curing while the cats were eager to explore their new litter box

The cats totally approved, they loved the box, and with daily emptying/cleaning there was barely any smell in our entry hallway. Even visitors didn't notice the box or any smell.