From Guest Blogger Izzie: How to Include Repurposed Wood in your Home

It can seem at times that humanity is in a desperate race to use up all of the earth’s natural resources. Whether it be oil, trees, or food, we’re using more than we are recycling. It’s a shame, but it can sometimes be hard to know how to do your part to at least curb your own resource usage.

One way we like to champion is the recycling of wood. Or, as is this case here today, “repurposing”. Similar to recycling, it doesn’t tend to involve as long a process as is typical with recycling. No, repurposing involves taking wood, either off-cuts made during manufacturing or pieces of disused wooden furniture, and crafting it into something else. There isn’t usually any need to mulch the wood down, refine it, and then rebuild it – a saw, a sander, and a bit of carpentry, and you’re away.

So how can you include such items in your house? Where can you start? Here are ideas for each room in your house.

Living Room

The living room is perhaps the place where opportunities for incorporating wood are most abundant. You may have a living room now that is currently overwhelmed by plastic – a plastic coffee table, a plastic TV unit, etc. All of these can be replaced by wooden alternatives from repurposed wood retailers.

You could even consider doing it yourself! If you are having some trees cut down in your yard, don’t let it go to waste. A coffee table isn’t a difficult manufacturing job, especially given how many “how to” videos there are online, so a few weekends worth of work in the shed could result in you making your very own coffee table! Alternatively, see if you can rustle up some pallets, and build a table out of those.

Kitchen

You’ve likely at some point in your life had wooden cabinets in your kitchen. This is a good start (if they are recycled or repurposed, of course), but you can expand upon this. On the small scale, crockery is likely the best direction to head in. Specifically, containers. Instead of having a mass produced metal or plastic cutlery holder, why not branch out and get a wooden one? They can be just as long lasting if treated with a modicum of care.

Want to think bigger? Why not turn your attention up to the ceiling. Plastic ceiling fans are the norm, but it may be worth seeking out wooden alternatives. The universal push to appear eco friendly will mean that ceiling fan manufacturers are almost guaranteed to carry a recycled wood model. All you have to do to find these products is to be mindful that they exist, and look for opportunities to make the eco switch whenever possible.

Bathroom

Again, you’re not short of options for the incorporation of recycled/repurposed wood in the bathroom. The toilet seat should be the first port of call. Just as comfy as plastic, wooden toilet seats are usually more inviting too. Even if you live in rented accommodation, this is usually something you can change without incurring any trouble, as switching it with the previous seat is usually a nice and easy job.

This can kick off the rest of the work, too. Wooden cabinets, shelves, even wooden bath sides. All of these are readily available from recycling retailers. You can even work down to the nitty gritty, like toothbrush holders and toilet brushes. You can even include some repurposed wood ornaments! Root sculptures are particularly beautiful.

Bedroom

Finally, we end with the most difficult room. As most of the furniture in your bedroom is likely to be big, from the wardrobes to the bed, doing the repurposing yourself is unlikely to be a reasonable job to undertake.So you’ll be relying on retailers, but luckily there are all manner of recycled wooden bedsteads to choose from.

So as you can see, the opportunities to use repurposed wood are abundant – you just have to know where to look. It’s a great way to save some of the earth’s natural resources. As no new trees would have been cut down to accommodate your new wooden furniture. Now if only everyone would make the change!