Recently, with the help of family and a neighbor, I renovated the “gray and black” room upstairs in my house. The renovation was not tough, but it was time consuming. Between removing the filthy carpet, prepping the squeaking floor, sanding and priming the walls, painting the room a nice color, putting the paneling down and nailing in the baseboard, it felt as if the project would never end, but it did. The entire project though was, I’m afraid, not as environmentally friendly as I wished it to be.
Why? To begin with eco-friendly products were not available in stores in this area or if they were it was not within my budget to purchase the eco-product. For example, I wanted eco-flooring for the room, but after calculating the price I realized I could not afford it.
Now, I’m not saying my renovation project was completely not eco-friendly. I did what eco-friendly things I could do. I also decided to keep a list of the things I did so that anyone else who may find himself or herself in the same predicament as mine can make use of these tips. Interested in the tips? Take a look at the eco-list below.
1. Shelves from scrap. My neighbor and I found scrap wood from his house and mine to build multiple shelves for the tiny closet in this room. Some of this scrap wood came from old kitchen cabinets, broken down furniture, etc… The extra shelves in the closet provide more storage area for books and such. There is no longer a need to buy a bookshelf and it adds value to the house.
2. Scraps and pieces. In addition we saved all scrap from the floor paneling for future use in other projects as we did with most other things. You will be amazed at how useful scraps pieces will become during renovation or for other projects. If you find you have to many scraps pieces at the end of your projects, freecycle them.
3. Recycle that packaging material. A lot of products come with packaging. For example the floor panels came in large cardboard boxes. I collected all packaging cardboard and then dumped it at a fundraising-recycling bin.
4. Cat Post. The carpet I removed from the room was made into a cat post for my neighbor by my neighbor and into several welcome mats for both of our front doors. When our present welcome mats become too dingy or torn to use we plan on replacing these scrap mats with new carpet scrap mats.
5. Bent nails. When renovating a room you will very likely come across plenty of bent, rusted or broken nails, screws, staples, etc. Most people just throw them away. I hate that, so I searched for ways to recycle or reuse these useful, but tiny tools and I’ve come up with this quick list:
a. “Artists like things like this! Donate to a school art class, or simply freecycle – you might be surprised at the response!” by Andrea.
b. Straighten the bent nail.
c. Take artistic pictures of nails.
d. DIY Light.
6. Eco-daybed. I bought most of the furniture at a consignment store. The only thing I have left to find is a wooden daybed. I’ve searched everywhere for one, in consignment stores, resale shops, craigslist, etc. So far I haven’t had much luck, though someone recently referred me to a yahoo barter-and-sale group. I will definitely try this. Still if all else fails I can search online for a new daybed. I was planning to do this for the mattress anyhow. There are a variety of daybeds online both eco-friendly as well as regular. The eco-friendly daybeds, not surprisingly are more expensive. I was also considering a compromise. For example, I can buy the regular wooden daybed frame, an organic mattress with organic bed sheets and pillow or vise versa. If this were your choice what would you choose?
Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments section below.
Sadly, being eco-friendly is an expensive business sometimes. You did the best you could, and managed to recycle and reuse some of the leftovers from your renovation.
Make a braided rug out of rags….. as for the day bed, have you considered HIRING a local woodworker to make the bed? He/she can use only appropriate woods and make it to your specifications.