Repurposed, Upcycled & Better Than Ever!

I love the concept of upcycling things or repurposing as some call it. Basically taking some old weird crap and turning it into something fantastic. Maybe even better than what it was in it's past life. Take these truck springs for instance. Pretty dull as truck springs but don't they make cool stools?

Okay, so maybe we don't all have access to a local scrap yard and the ability to weld so here's a really easy one, herb pots from old tea tins...

Here are a couple of interesting ideas with old suitcases. The first one is a really cool shelf system found on Apartment therapy by Ki Nassauer, editor-in-chief of Fleamarket Style magazine and founder of JunkMarket, a monthly sale of vintage and repurposed finds.

And this assemblage is by Swedish artist Bo Christian Larsson The dollhouse/hotel suitcases shown here are more prosaic than much of the rest of his work, but the commonality is definitely the use of old strange things. He explains: "I feel uncomfortable as a human in our time. That's why I hardly create new products, but try using already existent material." (SZ newspaper, 26./27.01.2008 in "Der Mann aus dem Wald").

I rather like that house... If I was the right size, I'd live there!

Now here is something fairly easy to do and I love the combination of old doors with a modern sliding capability. I found this on Traditional Homes

Here is a really beautiful light shade made from old door plates.

And here are some cool tennis racket mirrors

Finally, my favourite thing because of the sheer simplicity and endless possibilities for these...Repurposed bricks, made into beautiful books by Light Reading, a shop in Melbourne. Door stops, book shelf ends, cool stuff in the garden... I just LOVE these!

Upcycling or repurposing is all about attitude and looking at things in a different way. Don't look at things for what they are, which in most cases is some pretty boring old crap. Look at them in terms of what they could be. Think outside the box and when you're done thinking with the box stain it an interesting colour and turn it into a shelf!