Over time, the frequent usage and natural aging process of wooden type furniture will result in scratches, chips, or broken structures. Although light damages are easier to patch, a repair may not be realistic for severe cases such as structural damage. Upcycling is an excellent way of reducing our impact on the environment while promoting fun and creative thinking during the build of new projects that use damaged furniture. In this article, we will cover some of the top upcycling project ideas to maximize the use of old desks and furniture!
Upcycling Projects for Your Home
Both upcycling and recycling are practices that help reduce waste in our landfills. When possible, the practice of upcycling reduces our environmental footprint even further. This is because the extra factory processes such as shredding, melting, and re-molding are part of recycling to break down the materials. In contrast, upcycling skips these extra processes by reusing old materials more directly in their current state to create something new with a different purpose and higher value. Another benefit of upcycling is that many of us can practice this from home in the projects we do! Fun home projects can include:
- House decorations
- Seasonal décor and ornaments
- Custom tops for ryzer standing desks
- Wooden gadgets
- Repurposed furniture
- Wooden game pieces
- Wooden crafts and sculptures
Creating an entire project out of pieces from damaged old desks and furniture may not always be possible, however, using these materials for large portions of the project is still a great way to get into upcycling!
House Decorations
Reusing the wooden pieces from damaged old desks and furniture allows for usable materials in house decoration projects such as wooden picture frames and other home decor pieces.
Custom-made wooden signs can liven up the environment as stylish home and business decorations. Especially for businesses, having an informative sign which mentions the available services and hours is critical.
By adding small magnets to the back of each wooden letter and the wooden boards, you will have a versatile type of wooden sign that can be modified to display a new message!
Seasonal Décor and Ornaments
Many popular seasonal celebrations such as Christmas, Halloween, Easter, and Valentine's Day can benefit from a more immersive experience through decorations and ornaments. Shaping and coloring the wooden pieces from broken desks can truly transform their overall appearance into beautiful decorations for brightening up a room!
Small pieces such as wooden pumpkin decorations and mini ornaments are great projects for starting, however, there are also larger projects such as a Wooden Christmas tree if you are feeling ambitious!
Custom Tops for Ryzer Standing Desk
By combining the suitable tabletops with our desk frames, you too can enjoy the major benefits of our standing desks! A custom tabletop grants the opportunity to reuse undamaged parts of our old desk or furniture to make a personalized stylish top for new desks by installing it with an adjustable frame.
Aside from using parts from other furniture, it is also possible to use other materials such as lumber and sawdust. This idea can be found in the project by April Wilkerson where her custom tabletop was made from fallen tree limbs and sawdust, later installed on our Solo Ryzer Standing Desk!
Wooden Gadgets
There are various applications where wooden pieces of materials can be made into useful gadgets. Something as simple as wooden door wedges and extra locks can be made from leftover small wooden pieces, allowing them to be used for a more valuable purpose such as improving home security.
There are also more complex gadgets that can be made from spare wooden pieces of broken furniture such as a custom Wooden PC case, Interactive Calendars, knife holders, drying racks, and beer bottle holders. With so many different wooden gadgets we can make, there are unlimited possibilities!
Repurposed Furniture
Repurposing old desks and furniture to create a piece of different furniture is an alternative way to reuse materials for something that you now find of greater value. For example, old desks with cracks in the mid-section can be reused for making projects that are physically smaller while being of equal or higher value. Desk drawers, keyboard trays, laptop stands, and other wooden furniture can be made to help keep your workspace well organized.
Wooden Game Pieces
Many traditional games can be made from wooden materials, however, the ideas for new games and future projects are limitless! Some popular games and wooden projects include:
- Jenga
- Wooden Cube Puzzles
- Chess
- Wooden arcade games
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- Wooden Pinball Machine DIY
- Custom Wooden Monopoly Board
Wooden Crafts and Sculptures
Small pieces that have broken off from damaged furniture can be upcycled for various wooden crafts. Meaningful pieces or special symbols crafted out of wood adds personality and style to bracelets, pendants, and keychains. Not only are they customizable to fit our style, but they could also be made as gifts to friends and family.
Sculptures and 3D wooden crafts are usually a bit more complex to make, however, they are a masterpiece as gifts and the achievement of completing these projects is a very rewarding feeling. Sculpting can also become a new fun and relaxing hobby which helps to reduce our carbon footprint while practicing a new skill to improve our dexterity, precision, and hand coordination.
In Summary
Upcycling is a fun way to make creative projects which also reduce our carbon footprint. By using scrap materials to create something new, your old desks and furniture can now have a higher value while serving a different purpose! We hope you found this as informative and interesting as we did, especially if you were looking for new project ideas to upcycle your old desks and furniture!
If you have any queries about our tabletops or have trouble picking out the right standing desks, feel free to reach out to us! Our team of representatives is experts in what we do and will be happy to help with any questions you may have!
sales@progressivedesk.com | 1-800-828-9414