These are great and gave me some good ideas for problems in my place. If done well, pipes can be a great part of decor without looking like you just didn't have the money for anything else.

Plumbing stuff rules. We put some pipes up to hang drapes in our bedroom last year... really did the trick, and cheap too.

http://baldmanmodpad.blogspot.com/2008/06/drape-pipes.html

I love these pieces, and have been toying with the idea of recreating the desk (black pipes/silver fittings).

I found a piece similar to this on a bunch of design blogs, craved by the bloggers. Then I found this one for a cool $999.99! Aiiee! I think you could recreate it with pipe fittings pretty darned cheap:

http://tabletalk.com/products-page/?product_id=677

Go forth and build, AT friends. I'd love to see us all outdo them at their own game. :)

Mary

i made a shower curtain rail for clawfood tub out of copper. worked great. looked great. super easy. (and i couldn't find an ready alternative for the space)

Love seeing all these great ideas! 13 years ago, I needed a desk for my college apartment. I "reclaimed" the top of an old wood drafting table, bought some pipe and fittings and make one. I still use that desk today and have gotten complements ever since then.

We started our house when we had toddlers and when we finally got around to finishing the shower, our son had grown so tall we had to put a pipe on the outside of the wall to make it high enough for him. I like the quirky look of it. It also has a waterproof watch on it, in a feeble attempt to shorten his time in there.

I have installed something like the first picture over my bed.

It provides something sturdy to hold on to when...ahem..."s-exercising", so to speak, with my beau.

You can attach lots of things and yourself to it, hehehe ;-)

We just installed a bunch of copper pipe fittings in our awkward second bedroom to make it into a dressing room. The room has five doors and two almost floor-to-ceiling windows, and is over 100 years old so no closets. We didn't really have the option for storage funriture since the space is so weird, so custom DIY to the rescue. Because black pipe and galvanized steel are so heavy (not the best things to screw into a wall as weight bearing closet rods) we chose the copper pipe. It wasn't that much mroe expensive and it was SO much lighter!
If you're not a fan of the bright copper look as in the pot-rack above, pick up either some antiquing glaze (comes in many colors) from your local art supplly store or some Liver of Sulfur for those more chemistry-inclined. The Liver of Sulfur immediately oxidizes bright shiny copper to a black patina, and then can be polished to your desired finish and sealed. We had a lot of fun with it and love how it looks!

We too used copper pipe for our stair rail...the patina came out great and it gets a lot of compliments from guests. Cheap to boot!
http://modfrugal.com/2009/01/hold-on/

I built a curtain rod. Shopped carefully for the fittings, but discovered at home I'd mixed up my materials and said, "Oh, rats. I have one black n!pple!"
Husband responded, "I think you're perfect, dear."

Sassifrassi...great idea! And it looks so innocent!

I have instructions ready to build a rolling clothes rack out of pipe. Just waiting for the time to go forth and build!

Pipe fittings are AWESOME! All the possibilities... pot racks, table legs, candelabras, chandelier, door pullls, clothing storage, bookshelves... omg the possibilities!

ps. sassifrassi i <3 your idea too!

Building with pipe is so easy that anyone can do it.. that's one of the things that I love about it. Threading is one thing, but the bed is build with Kee Klamp pipe fittings. Definitely check them out if you're trying to build something with pipe.