Clever Ways to Incorporate Reclaimed Materials in Your Home

Give your home that warm and happy feeling by incorporating reclaimed and recycled items throughout your home. Here are some great ideas for you to use reclaimed items that you’ll love having in your home.

1. Suit Case Shelves

Are you tired of the normal shelves you have in your house? Go reclaimed retro and make your own shelves out of a vintage suit case! Suit case shelves are so unique. You can find suitcases at thrift stores, antique stores, or even at yard sales!

This is an awesome way to decorate your walls with a twist. It’s also pretty easy to do it yourself. You can cut it through the middle, horizontally using the top and the bottom, which gives you two shelves per suit case. You now have a great and cheap way to add some fun to your walls, while giving something a new purpose.

2. Vintage Tile

Want a way to spice up your home with something less modern? It’s so easy to reclaim and use tiles in your home. You can find tiles that are salvaged from renovated homes, shop online or reuse tiles you already have.

You have so many options when it comes to tiles because they come in so many different styles, colors, and even different places around the world. You can use reclaimed tiles on the floor, as a backsplash in your kitchen, inside your bathroom or shower. You can get creative and personalize the tiles in your home to your liking.

3. Wine Bottle Lamps

Give yourself a reason to drink up! If you like to save or recycle the empty wine bottles you have, here’s a great way to use them as décor in your house. All you have to do is find battery operated string lights, and drill a hole in the bottom of any wine glass. You can use lights with a plug but that would limit you to placing the wine lamp near an outlet.

Wine bottles come in blues, greens, and clear bottles which will allow you to add a pop of color to the lamp if you want. While clear is recommended for a brighter lamp, you can have a dimmer light with a green or blue bottle.

Don’t drink wine? You can use any glass bottle and turn it into a string light lamp!

4. T-Shirt Rug

Do you have t-shirts or old clothing you no longer wear and just haven’t gotten the chance to donate it? Make a t-shirt rug out of your old clothes! Give your floors a little warmth and recycled love. This is a way to give your home a rug for free! You already own the clothes, so you don’t have to spend a dime!

5. Antique Wood

Natural, hardwood floors are craved in homes, and hard to find in good condition. Original hardwood floors have more history than you may have thought. For example, American chestnut hardwood floors came in the 1800s and were used to produce cabins, barns, and hardwood flooring.

If you have hardwood floors in your home, check to see if they’re reclaimed from the original hardwood. If you don’t have hardwood floors, you can incorporate refurbished wood inside your home other ways. Old barn wood can be used in a lot of ways throughout your home! It can be on your wall, made into a coffee table, turned into a sliding door, and more!

6. Recycled Plant Holders

If you want to add some fresh greens in your home, consider using recycled plant holders. Plants are good to have in your home because they purify the air and provide you with more oxygen as they take in the carbon dioxide.

Rather than getting rid of the plastic containers you use, cut an opening in them for plants to grow. You can paint the plant holders, or leave them in their natural state. You don’t have to use plastic containers if you don’t want to. There are so many items you can turn into plant holders. Either way, you’re reclaiming the containers into something new. Some great items to use would be coffee cans, tin cans or even old tea cups.

7. Pallet Head Board

Reclaimed wood looks gorgeous in any home, but it doesn’t have to be on your floors. Restore an old pallet and turn it into a head board for either your bedroom or even a spare bedroom.

There are so many different ideas for pallet headboards, you have plenty of options. You can whitewash the wood to give it a lighter, newer look. If you want to keep it vintage looking, you can paint it and distress it by using a sander. You can also add built-in lights to the headboard for a rustic feel. Pallet headboards are a popular DIY and a great way to reclaim wood in your home.

Re-using items in your home is a great way to recycle and repurpose. You can reclaim any item that typically would be thrown out otherwise. Don’t be afraid to get creative or fancy when reclaiming items for your home. Have fun adding or changing the pieces in your home.

Kacey is a lifestyle blogger for The Drifter Collective, an eclectic lifestyle blog that expresses various forms of style through the influence of culture and the world around us. Kacey graduated with a degree in Communications while working for a lifestyle magazine. She has been able to fully embrace herself with the knowledge of nature, the power of exploring other locations and cultures, all while portraying her love for the world around her through her visually pleasing, culturally embracing and inspiring posts.