Spoon chandelier

A chandelier made with spoons, by Daisuke Hirawa. Each spoon has hundreds of holes to let the light goes through.

Recycling/upcycling thrift store painting

I think this concept is based on a wonderful idea: adding monsters or funny characters to paintings that inspires no interest for most of us.
I must admit, you have to be gifted to do that, but at the end, this is a really fun project that could end up in kids bedroom instead of a trash.
This is some painting made by Chris Mc Mahon

 

A different style, made by Thyrza with prints available here on Etsy:

This is really inspiring, and I'm reading to go to thrift store and get my own painting to give it a try!

A fold-up pallet desk

One more shipping pallet project, but this one does not need any disassembling, only sanding, staining and adding a piece of plywood with hinges to make the desk. Very ingenious to save space.

Bike saddles

from Jeremypetrus.com

Pallet Furniture at its best

This beautiful 2-seat sofa is really made of shipping pallet. This French design company Studio-aparte aspired for a new recycled pallet aesthetic that can match any contemporary interior. When painted in black, it's hard to guess what this sofa is made of.

For people who like to travel

Found at www.apartmenttherapy.com

PVC pipes used for water play!

Summer is coming, and here in Baltimore, we had a sample of the hot temperatures we might have later on. So I made this easy to make water play, to refresh our little ones when swimming pool is not an option.

This is really easy to make:

This is what you need to connect the pipes, pipes are 3/4 inch diameter. You need 3 stoppers, 2 T-shape, 2 elbows and one hose connection. For the pipes you choose whatever length you need. Most of the water play I have seen are kid-size, but this one is more than 6 feet tall. I have glued most of the pipes together except the 2 connections on the top to be able to store the structure in my basement.
To cut the pipes, you can use any little hand saw you want, it's really easy.

The most difficult part of the project was to find the connection from the hose to 3/4 inch PVC pipe. It must look like this and you can find it in the irrigation aisle:

To glue most of the pipes you have to use PVC primer and cement glue that you can find at the home depot or Lowes:

The top bar needs to have these special mister that will give you a very thin cloud of water, you can put as much as you want by drilling a hole (9/64) and then screwing them in.

And more importantly, kids love it!

Upcycled stools

These stools are found here made with pieces of hardwood. The pieces are tightened up with long bolts.
You can make your own stool by using long bolts used for building decks:

Or you decide to pay 500 euros for this original stool named "Bits of wood 2.0"

Using PVC pipes to make a bike seat

There are a lot of front mount-bike seats on the market. Most are available on line but you can not try them on your own bike. I found this one on Amazon that I like but was concerned about the geometry of my own bike to fit this device. This front mount seat was $99 and is not available anymore on amazon.

I then decided to make my own using only PVC pipes and zip ties.

The main pipe is 2 inches PVC pipe that I drilled at each extremities to fit the seat post and on the other side where the stem is. I used hole saw attached to a drill to make clean holes all the way through the pipe.

On the seat post

On the stem

For the passenger feet, I had to design a T-Shaped structure made of 1 inch PVC pipes, I happened to have 2 holes in the frame where you can attach a bottle holder, instead I attach the foot rest pipes, with an extra zip tie to help the screws that are a bit further down:

I attached an old saddle to the main pipe by drilling little holes and using zip ties:

At the end, the PVC pipe is very sturdy and does not care about a 40 pounds kid seating on it. I did not put any handle for the passenger, I think it's not safe in case of a fall. it's too close to the chest.

Also, one downside with my version: it's not as good looking and It's not quick release, but I do not care.

The good side: it cost almost nothing to make it: $5 if you have to buy the pipes... and I feel very safe to ride with. But even if it looks safe, if you try your own version, I'm, in any case, NOT (thanks geembob) responsible for any injury that might occur...

Upcycled inside walls

From here

I love the idea of reusing pipes, bottles to create walls and separate inside spaces with an refreshing touch.

From Recyclart

Upcycling naval mines.

Naval mines are probably the most unexpected upcyling you could think of.
This is made by an  Estonian artist named Mati Karmin who collects the mines left from world war II.

A Firelace:

A bathtub:

A chair:

A baby carriage:

With upcycled "toys" for the baby!!

Creative downsprout

Found here

Upcycling old boat into bookshelf

This is just an original way to display your favorite books. I just have to find a boat now...

Upcycling cardboard into a bike!

This bike is 95% made of cardboard and 100% recyclabe material, and can support riders up to 480lb... The development took three years, two years spent on figuring out cardboard complications. The strength of the bike is based on a "simple" principle: If you fold cardboard once, you are not getting twice the strength but three time the strength!
It's also waterproof and guaranteed to last five years.
Best of all, according to its creator Izhar Gafni, the cost of the Alpha bike would be around $10 per unit!
This is a great upcycling but a bit too much work to try at home.

You can see the bike in action in this short video:

Yellow pages upcycling

Once again, I got this Yellow Pages book an my front door... I don't understand why they spend so much money on something that is never used by most of us...
Kristiina lahde has a better solution, she makes sculptures out of these yellow pages, this is few pictures from her Hive serie:

© Kristiina Lahde

© Kristiina Lahde

Upcycling oil cans into ....electric guitars

The people selling these guitars at Bohemian Guitars were inspired from "the resourceful residents of the townships in South Africa who re-purpose materials into playable instruments".
A percentage of all guitar sales goes to donating instruments to schools and youth organizations.
Now they also have their own oil cans. It's a bit less eco friendly but I guess these vintage oil can might be hard to find and collect.

 Here is a video from Bohemian Guitars:

Upcycled Apple Jewelry...

You can find them here

and here

Using Sugru

You might already know Sugru but for those who don't know about it:
I have discovered this great "air-curing" rubber that can fix anything. So instead of trashing a power supply, shoes, racks, hooks. Just try Sugru, it looks to me that you can fix almost anything with it and I'm not getting any money or free stuff from this company.
It looks like some play-Doh, it can be formed by hand and once it's exposed to air it cures to a tough flexible silicone rubber overnight.
It looks like the possibilities are endless.

You can protect your cell phone:

You can prevent breaking from your cables:

You can have ergonomic handles:

You can fix shoes and laces :

You can make a camera kids proof and colorful:

You can upcycle stuff too and make:

hooks:

from instructables.com

Or lego bracelets:

from Instructables.com

I fell in love with this material... I had to share with you!