Save, Recycle and Repurpose

Save, Recycle and Re-purpose 

Our extension is not, as you may imagine, the cheapest undertaking in the world, and, as with all building work, the cost is never going to stay what it says on the quotation!!  So, in an effort to save pennies we have been looking into the worlds of secondhand and upcycling.  We have taken stock of our current furniture and worked out what can be reused somewhere else, perhaps with some creative painting or a bit of sanding.  We have chests of drawers being swapped from one room to another.  A kitchen unit (which was bought secondhand for the kitchen!) being converted to a sink unit in the bathroom, along with a large kitchen dresser which came from my parents coffee shop!  

We have kitted out the bathroom completely with shuffled furniture and reusing the old suite, bar the sink, that will need to be new, or at least new to us!  The spare room is done thanks to some shuffling of furniture and a donation bed from my parents who are having a change!  The family room has much of its furniture, moved from elsewhere in the house!  Things are looking good!

One thing we couldn't repurpose from elsewhere in the house was a sofa for the family room.  We have a suite but it is staying in the old lounge to make seating for the library-come-sitting-room- come-sewing-office-room!  We knew what we wanted; colour scheme in the brown area, corner sofa, good lounge-about-ability!  We looked all over the place at new sofas, thinking that that was the easiest way to get exactly what we were after, even if it did go against our save, recycle and repurpose philosophy.  But we weren't without hope for a miracle so kept our eye on the Small Ads.  And would you believe it... we found the perfect thing!  A tiny fraction of the cost of a brand new one, 2 years old but in great condition (not sure these people spent much time sitting down!), corner sofa, right colour and!.. just 15 minutes away from our house!  We hitched up the trailer.....

The thing is huge, 9ft on the longest side (which adds to the miracle as this was exactly the size we'd been catering for!) and the seats are deep, great for lazy afternoons, just what we were after.  It did however, completely fill our trailer, thank goodness there was no more of it, and the cushions stuffed the back of the car!

This is a photo, not the best light but gives you an idea. (This isn't our house by the way, this is where it came from).

We have been very much enjoying the chase of getting our furniture and not having to pay through the nose for it!  Hunting down exactly what we want and then fitting it into our home!

I'll do more updates on each of the furniture transformations as they occur.  There will be more house renovation updates this week, it is coming along very quickly!!