Also, you like building, designing, and decorating with recycled materials? Oh, we'll be doing plenty of that coming up at my workshop....which is just about sold out.... so get ch'ass moving if you're interested. November 15-17th, 2013. We'll be building and outfitting TWO mini-cabins this time. Fun!
Speaking of which, here's a section of my small home that I "funkily furnished" with roadside crap and yard sale items. This blog is about diy tips and ideas in general, in addition to tiny houses and cabins, but it often dips into the realms of repurposing items, yard sale thrift, and heck, even dumpster diving. Yes, (shock! shock!) I have gone dumpster diving before- Love it, in fact.... its a pretty bad-ass counterculture/underground movement with some GREAT books on the topic as well (check out the hilarious and very informative book "The Art And Science Of Dumpster Diving"). I don't need the money, or am cheap, I just dig the concept and ideology behind it.
Anyhow, what you see here is....
-FREE console table I found on the side of the road that I painted black ($0.99 spray paint), added new pulls to ($1.99 at Ikea, and I only needed two of the four in the package), and gave the drawer a coat of green I had laying around (lets call it $2.00 of paint).
-Vintage Drafting Light- $1.00 at a yard sale. If I wanted to, I could easily resell this on craigslist for fifty bucks or more. I do a lot of American Pickers-style junk-flipping for profit and fun on the side, and many of these items come and go from my household- which does keep things rotating and interesting.
-Weird wall hanging/art piece made from scrap junk wood. These were leftover small pieces from wood that was already scavenged and free. The paint was from random cans I already owned, but in such small amounts that it can't have cost more than $5.00.
-Ikea storage stool. This actually wasn't supposed to be here in this set-up, but snuck its way into the photo. It is colorful though, and handy as a mini-seat, or step stool, WITH storage. I think it was $19 or so a ways back.
-Ikea solar light. In the photo it looks like the large drafting light's little orange "light baby"- the only reason I tossed it in. These solar lights are pretty cool though, and come in several colors. I can't even tell you the name of them- something "Swedish" I'd imagine- hyuk, hyuk. For each one you buy, Ikea sends one to a third world country for students (who otherwise don't have adequate lighting) to study-by at night. It is very bright. But enough on Ikea, because they were mentioned in the last post too, and people will think I'm paid to plug them- I'm not. Cost: $15.00 last year.
Style-wise, its not for everyone, but it has worked for me, and its look I dig- wild colors, the concept of this stuff being saved from a landfill, and it costing me so little.
-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen
