apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My roomate and I in college had a Dryer's Ice Cream banner that served as our rug in the dorm rooms.

It was great until someone spilled punch (we think) in the room, and didn't tell us... man, that stunk when we removed it at the end of the year!

-Ruth

All I can think right now with my recent decluttering is, "thank God I don't have to figure out how to get rid of a 40-foot banner...."

the obvious stuff I suppose...

1 - wall hanging
2 - shower curtain
3 - area rug
4 - cover a head board
5 - cut in half for awesome block out curtains
6 - an outdoor shade sail
7 - kids craft and painting mat
8 - table cloth or cut out a word or two for a table runner
9 - to hide unsightly flooring in any room really
10 - try gluing a cool looking one to a door for a talking point
11 - glue it to the back of shelving or cupboards instead of the wallpaper trend
12 - cut it into strips and DIY a chandellier, hanging one or like a artichoke shape?
13 - lamp shades would be the next obvious step

That's about all my creative juices can conjur up right about now... but you have me wanting a colourful one so I can make stuff!!!

I'm a graphic designer and a billboard rep I once worked with would save our vinyl billboards and give them back to us. Some of the more interesting ones make interesting shower curtains. Depending on how thick the vinyl is, you could sew it and make a ton of reusable bags. It might be interesting to cut them into strips and weave them into an easy-to-clean kitchen rug.

Again some interesting chunks could be frameable if you cut a smaller, very graphic part out of the whole.

Some of the cooler street banners I've seen for sale :

http://www.betterwall.com/index.php

I just don't have the room. Or the money.

My girlfriend used to work for a billboard company; they sold their old billboard vinyls for really cheap. They were sold mostly to farmers to put over their fields... at some point... I don't know what the purpose of that was. Buy some of those! No shipping!

I have seen messenger and tote bags made out of old vinyl banners.

retractible sunshade or awning for dog run or outdoor cat structure

Gosh, I should cash in on this. I am sitting on a gold mine.

PS if you want an even cheaper (possibly free) banner, go to your local sign shop and talk them up. They're just going to be thrown out otherwise.

I had a banner that we used to make a waterslide out of. The vinyl was pretty thick, we tied it to several trees in a roughly diagonal way, poured water down from the top and sort of slid down. It worked until our weight ripped out the ripped the tarp apart.

Car cover (tie around and underneath)? Wrap around a frame for a mini-shed/storage space? They'd be great for putting under a kids' art area...

Here's how my friend recycles old billboard vinyl:

www.vyandelle.com

What about umbrellas?

M2JL: Brilliant idea!

I'm thinking reusable shopping bags, or any kind of bag really...

Waterproof outdoor fabric/pillow covers?????

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