Project Restyle: Upcycling Ideas for the Home A Beautiful Mess

Project Restyle is bringing together the online community with a great platform for inspiration and motivation when it comes to reusing and adapting existing items you might already have at home.

The Restyle series will continue until the end of the year — which means eleven more months of checking out the flickr group and following the series' progression on Elsie's blog. Anyone can participate by adding their own before-and-after photos to the flickr group, from which Elsie will be selecting her favorite home and wardrobe upcycling projects to feature on her blog.

Find more details about Project Restyle on Elsie's Blog, A Beautiful Mess.

Images: 1- House of April; 2- Dear Whimsy

Comments (9)

lol the books in the tv looks so cool.. not in a million years would i have thought of that

http://fengshuiitaliantranslation.blogspot.com/2010/07/spaghetti-style.html

possibly the best idea I have ever seen for recycling an old t.v.

I have seen an old TV converted into a dollhouse with wallpapers furniture etc.
A bookshelf is also a nice idea.

I guess I have a problem with the whole concept of "upcycling". Unless the end result is something so awesome that I would be willing to pay money for it, it seems to me just a way to store something that will land in the trash a bit later, anyhow...

Most upcycling I see doesn't convert the trash into treasure, it just creates an oddity that is very taste-specific and obvious in it's source material and intent to be "green". So I don't see the point. Maybe the materials can be recycled into new products more effectively than simply declaring "now this is a VASE"! (or whatever.)

On rare occasions I see upcycling that repurposed something in a really intelligent way to make something beautiful, eco-friendly, and desirable, something that could become an heirlook, cherished by generations, rather than a piece of kitsch that even the owner will tire of in a year -- and discard. (For example, I have seen beautiful furniture made from reclaimed shipping pallets. The final pieces would be amazing no matter what they were made from. THAT's UPcycling.)

The TV "bookshelf" looks ridiculous taking up more space on an actual bookshelf than if the books were just there by themselves. It took me a moment to realize that this WOULD actually be clever and useful if for example, you have a full bookshelf and placed it on top, where there are no sides to hold books in place. Then the TV has a function, of holding the books up and in place.

i love people who like to take things that are otherwise trash or trashy and turning them into something that they adore.

I love people who come on AT just to stomp on others' aesthetic taste</sarcasm>.