Living with Recycled Furniture

How to Save Money and the Planet with Recycled Furniture

by Caroline Smith

When I moved into my first home, I was enthused about making it warm and comfortable. I soon found, however, that good quality furnishings for the home were way beyond my meagre budget. Determined to do the best I could with the available resources, I began begging friends and neighbors for old furniture that they had hiding in basements, attics, outbuildings, and barns. Most of them gladly donated to my cause because they wanted to get rid of their accumulation of clutter almost as much as I wanted to use it. I was delighted and even ventured further afield to my local online Freecycling site to collect several other freebies.

When I assembled all of my goodies into the rooms in which I planned to use them, however, I soon realized that while most were functional and would make my home comfortable, they certainly would not result in a beautiful, inviting place to live. The couches and chairs were stained, ripped, and outdated in style, and the tables, desks, and bookcases looked scarred and well-used, to say the least.

I was excited that I was being environmentally-sound in recycling so many old pieces of furniture, but my heart still yearned for a beautiful home like those I saw depicted in home magazines. Then, someone suggested that I consider slipcovers for the couches and chairs. I immediately went online to see if this inexpensive solution could be right for me. The sofa slipcovers I found looked great, but I was concerned about whether they would fit my old furniture.

Thankfully, my mom gave me some fantastic tips to guarantee a nice fit. She suggested that I used old towels in areas that needed more padding to fit. She also helped me roll up some magazines to put behind each cushion to help keep the slipcovers in place. When an area sagged, she helped me attach a simple circle of Velcro to hold it in place. These ideas worked like magic and I also like the fact that slipcovers can be removed for easy laundering and I can easily change them to give my home a different look according to the season.

After polishing all of the wooden parts of my hand-me-down furniture with a good staining wax, I was so proud of my efforts. I’d succeeded in changing the look of the old furniture so drastically that some of the old owners did not even recognize it when they came to visit. I’m pleased about the money I’ve saved in my eco-friendly, recycling efforts and love the thought of prolonging the life of old furniture and keeping it out of landfill.

This is a guest post by Caroline Smith, who strongly believes in reusing and recycling old things rather than throwing them out.  She has a website that features a selection of sofa covers and also offers tips on getting them to fit well on old furniture.  Caroline believes that if we all take small steps to living a greener life we can collectively make a big difference.