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Have you ever thought about recycling your unwanted items into crafty creative projects?
I love walking around my farm to see what treasures I can find to recycle. My eyes immediately go to chippy paint finishes, metal, or rich wood tones. Anything that can be brought back to life usually ends up in my home. I find that items that are recycled often look better the second time around. Whether it is just cleaning up the item or adding chalk paint, here are a few items I have added to my home:
This treasure came from the front of one of our temporary hog pens in the barn. I needed something long to fill this very narrow hallway wall. I dry brushed the gate with some white chalk paint and added these cute hooks.
This came from another pen we had taken down in our barn. It took me a few weeks to decide how I wanted to use it. I found the “Be Our Guest” words and decided this would go in our guest room. Once again, I dry brushed white chalk paint on it, painted the letters black, and glued them to the fence. My guests always compliment me on it.
These items came from a few different finds. The black window frame came from my neighbor. She asked if I could get rid of it for her. After looking at it for a few days, I knew it needed to go on a wall, chippy black paint and all. The white frame actually came off the front of a cabinet that was removed from the garage. The cabinet sat in our burn pile and after a month of being rained on, the front fell off. It caught my eye a few days later and landed on my wall. I love that I still have three open spaces to add items to.
My first year on the farm, I met a few neighbors that made quilts. After making my first quilt I knew I needed something different to display it. After all, my farmhouse is over 100 years old and I wanted something that was part of the property. One day in our barn, the old ladder caught my attention. It was hanging over to the side and too short for us to use to get to the hay loft. I brought it in, mounted it to the wall and it now displays my quilt.
Walk around your property and see what you can recycle. Recycling encourages creativity and innovation. Reusing items is not only cheaper but it also cuts down on the amount of waste going to landfills and shows off your creativity at the same time.
And remember…
