Saturday, March 20, 2010

Small Spaces and Green Ideas

Posted by That's What She Said at 11:46 AM
Now, as much as some of us would like, we don't have the fancy, nice big apartments that we see in movies these days (For example, Ginnifer Goodwin's character, Gigi Phillips from "He's Just Not That Into You" had a nice, spacious apartment with vintage items and an old telephone and a canopy-style bed . . .) We have tiny apartments that don't necessarily have a lot of room. To crush our creativity streaks even more, we don't have the money for nice, new things. So what do we do?

I was raised in a home that had a mixture of new and old. My mother was (and still is) pro at reusing old and seemingly useless items to decorate a home. For example, She took an old breadbox and painted it to look like it was textured, crackled, and pretty darn old - she got it at an antique store. And, it provided the perfect spot for hiding our dogs' leashes, our snacks, a stand for our microwave and our unscrupulous 'junk drawer'. I also remember going to stores full of thrown away items such as tiles, old wood, sinks and hardware. We frequented that store quite a bit, because it was cheap, my mother's kind of style and recycling (although I'm not sure if that crossed any of our minds while we were shopping.)

So where do you start? DIYs are usually fairly easy, and there are always great tutorials that you can find online. What about storage-that-doesn't-look-like-storage, such as nifty coffee tables that magically open up to reveal a nice place to store items for your living room? There are all sorts of DIYs - and items for sale - in order to create the illusion of a coffee table, when really it is a storage device.
Try searching in your town for stores such as the one I'm about to mention. With such a grand movement, there's bound to be a few stores nearby that are full of used items for a good price, such as this one.

Second Use is a Seattle-based store that has been reclaiming old building materials since 1994. They are a community business, meaning their items come from their local region.
The great man who started this business would be Roy Hunter, who is a contractor and an environmentalist. He started this business due to his frustration of watching all sorts of material being thrown away, when it could've easily been used elsewhere. You can see what is available right now here at their site. Also, check out what they've done with this great small garage room here

Where else can you find great deals? As always, I suggest garage sales and thrift stores. As long as you know how to sift through the garbage, you will almost always end up finding at least one treasure - maybe even something that can be used in many different ways.


Any questions or comments? Comment below or email me at elleaditce@yahoo.com, subject "Dear Jolie-Miette"


Salut!


Jolie-Miette

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