Reimagine Your Recyclables With These 3 Tips for Reusing Old Materials in Your Home

Reusing old materials to create home accessories is the minimalist’s way to manage clutter. This eco-friendly endeavor helps minimize waste and curb consumption.

If you have a knack for creating stylish and functional recycled material creations, you can increase your home’s value through sweat equity.

Reusing Old Materials

Artisan home accessories made from recycled materials have a place in any space. Draw inspiration from these three project ideas and get creative.

1. Make Bulletin Boards With Wine Corks

Wine connoisseurs should stop throwing away used corks. Collect them instead, and make a bulletin board from scratch once you have enough.

Such a corkboard makes a natural spot for pinning bills, pictures, letters and messages virtually anywhere in the house.

Here are the supplies you need:

• Frame
• Utility knife
• Glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Nails
• Hammer
• Sawtooth hanger

Follow these steps:

1. Choose a cool pattern.
2. Line up the corks inside the frame to form your desired pattern. Use corks of the same size for visual consistency, which shouldn’t be a problem if you generally bring home piccolos, demis, standard bottles or magnums.
3. Cut corks to fill in the remaining space.
4. Use hot glue to bind the corks.
5. Flip the cork piece over to hide its messy side, and put it back into the frame.
6. Hammer nails into the back of the frame to secure it.
7. Attach a sawtooth hanger to the back of the frame.
8. Find a perfect place to hang your masterpiece.

You can paint the frame beforehand to lend it more character. You can also apply topcoat spray to your cork piece for extra protection before nailing it into the frame.

Do it outdoors to avoid releasing contaminants inside the house.

2. Create Table Lanterns Out of Old Jars

Artists love upcycling discarded glass. Fortunately, you can turn scrap jars into enchanting lighting fixtures that add drama to your space without artistic talent. You only need the following:

• Old jars
• Tape
• Marker
• Drill
• Safety goggles and gloves
• Disposable cake pan or newspaper
• Paper towels
• Fairy lights

Follow these steps outside the house to protect everyone from splinters and serious infections like tetanus:

1. Clean the jars.
2. Soak them in water.
3. Put a piece of tape on a jar. It should be where you want the cord to come out.
4. Mark the tape where to drill.
5. Place the jar on a disposable cake pan or newspaper to catch glass particles when drilling.
6. Fire up the drill. Apply a small amount of pressure to make a hole.
7. Remove the tape.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for every jar.
9. Dispose of the cake pan or newspaper in the trash, not the recycling bin, because glass shards can injure workers. Keep your safety equipment on.
10. Fill the jars with some water and swish them around to remove excess glass particles. Discard the water in a safe location.
11. Clean and dry the jars with paper towels.
12. Insert a string of fairy lights through the jar hole.

The collective glow of tiny lights emanating from glass is mesmerizing at night. However, avoid using too many different light colors.

Simplicity is the key — glass art limited to three tones looks restrained but beautiful, much like the glass art of Juli Bolaños-Durman. Check out her work and other sustainable projects for inspiration.  

3. Turn Salvaged Drawers Into Shelves

Chest and dresser drawers make functional shelves individually or together. You can hang them to beautify and maximize a bare wall’s vertical space.

It’s a two-person job, but you can breeze through it with these materials and tools:

• Drawers
• Tape measure
• Stud finder
• Box level
• Pencil
• Drill
• Screws and anchors
• Screwdriver

Follow these steps:

1. Measure the width of the wall to find the center.
2. Use a stud finder when drilling on drywall to find beams where you can mount heavy items like drawers. If you’re working on masonry, proceed to the next step.
3. Let one person hold a drawer against the middle of the wall. Ensure the top of the piece is at eye level.
4. Allow the other person to determine whether the drawer is even by putting the box level on top of it. Adjust the piece accordingly until the bubble is between the two lines.
5. Drill a hole in each corner of the drawer.
6. Mark the edges of the drawer with a pencil.
7. Take the drawer down. Insert an anchor in each hole in the wall. Use one that suits the wall material and the amount of load the shelf would bear.
8. Hold the drawer against the wall in accordance with the markings.
9. Insert a screw in every hole, and fasten each completely with a screwdriver.

Repeat the same steps to hang the other drawers. The arrangement doesn’t need to have a discerning pattern, but place each piece in a visually appealing and space-efficient way.

Give Recyclables New Leases of Life

These project ideas may seem complicated but are actually enjoyable to do. You can pull them off with basic home improvement skills and by following the simple instructions properly.

Then, all you have to do is show off your masterpiece and be proud that you gave recyclables a new lease on life.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a very small commission if you click through and make a purchase. These links help to pay the editorial costs of writing a blog. For more information, please read my full affiliate disclosure here.

I also use Artificial Intelligence Image generators to create some of my images. These are to show you examples of my ideas and inspiration when I cannot produce the real images myself.