--apple
Message #1
01/31/10 12:50 PM
Does anyone have some creative ideas I could use? I'm in the process of building my log home in the woods. I like the "rustic" look, and like to collect old things, but because of my desire to really cut down on clutter and make everything have a real purpose, I'm trying to make those old things work in new ways.
Example: I bought a couple antique single trees and a double tree (they are the wood bar with metal rings that were used to hook up horses, cows, to plows/wagons, etc.) for a great price, and plan on using them as my curtain rods. If I can find an small old wagon or buggy wheel, I'll make a hanging pot and pan rack out of it. I found a slab of redwood (lots of knots, with purples, blues and greys--not much pink) that will become my counter tops and breakfast bar.
I have a set of antique logging tongs that I need ideas for. Also, trying to come up with creative ideas for upper kitchen cabinets (maybe open with old tools welded together for the sides).
I have about a year to gather things. Also, does anyone know of places in the NW that I could find these things? So far just looking at classifieds. I tried checking out a few places in Portland, but they are EXPENSIVE!!
ETA: Oh yeah--I have several old bracing tools and bits as well. Dishrag hangers/small towel racks? Love these old things but they need to be used or let go of.
ATSiaRU
Message #2
01/31/10 01:14 PM
I use a very pretty orphaned vintage china tea cup (no matching saucer) on my sink to hold my rings/watch when I do dishes. It was so convenient when I some how acquired another orphaned tea cup I put the new one on the dresser in my bedroom to catch my rings/earings/watch every evening. I don't have alot of jewelry (I wear the same earrings day in and day out) so the cup keeps everything in one spot and ready to go! The old vintage cups can be very pretty and come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors.
--apple
Message #3
01/31/10 01:23 PM
I'll use that one! I got my Grandparent's old china and there was an orphaned cup that is pretty but not part of the set.
wac72
Message #4
01/31/10 01:43 PM
If you have a hearth or fireplace, make a mantle out of an old piece ot wood(tree), finish it and attach to the logs. This is what we did. We have cabinets from Lowe's(hickory) in pearl finish, tile floors for kitchen and bathrooms and pine flooring for the rest. Log cabiny items can be really expensive, so hit the yard sales.
--apple
Message #5
01/31/10 02:42 PM
I'm fortunate that I'm pretty handy, and my mom sews, so things like log furniture and quilts will all be made by me or her (with the help of my son). Also, I don't care about things "matching" as long as I love them. Some things will be really gradual, since I already own a home and will just keep looking for those "forever" items and trade out my current stuff as I find them. Looking at doing a masonry heater, so maybe I can put one of my trees up as a mantle for it. Yard sales, thrift & rebuild stores and classifieds are my new best friends. I just have a real weakness for old farm tools, etc., but don't want to clutter the house.
I'm also using old gun mounts for curtain tie-backs and coat hooks.
wac72
Message #6
01/31/10 02:57 PM
All great ideas. You're gonna love that house. We do.
tiredboomer
Message #7
01/31/10 03:11 PM
At my house, instead of framed pictures that have no meaning to me, I used framed pieces of needlework that my grandmothers and great grandmothers did. Not samplers made for framing but everyday items like dressers sets, handkerchiefs and the odd quilt square that never made it into a quilt.
startsmart
Message #8
01/31/10 03:18 PM
One of my favorite designs for hanging coffee cups is to take a dozen mixed pieces of silverware and bend the handle up. Then screw the main part of the fork or spoon into the wall or a piece of wood and hang the handle of the coffee cup on the fork. It's hard to describe but really cool to look at.
I like to use furniture in unexpected places, like a nightstand in my closet or a dresser and bookshelf in the dining room.
If you have a specific area you're looking to decorate try better homes & gardens online magazine. Or any online magazine really. Use Google to look for pictures or ideas. And just poke around in antique shops and estate sales until you find something that looks like it would work for something else. Right now I'm looking for two hooks for my garage to hang shopping bags and hanging baskets for potatoes, onions and garlic. I just keep looking and until I find them I just use what I already have.
startsmart
Message #9
01/31/10 03:33 PM
Also check out the Complete Tightwad Gazette book for a ton of ideas. There's tricks on making braided rugs and quilts, curtains and shelves. Pretty much the cheapest option for anything you can think of!
Artemis3044
Message #10
01/31/10 03:55 PM
Get on cabelas.com and request a home catalog. They have lots of neat ideas in there and furniture to copy. I am so happy for you on this adventure.
--apple
Message #11
01/31/10 04:39 PM
Cabela's, another weakness... I got their credit card many years ago and collect the points! Another one I'm getting ideas from is Sundance catalog (have to have the paper catalog, they don't use the backdrop rooms in the online version).
I've seen utensils used as magnets, but not cup holders--but now that it was mentioned, I'm sure I could use them for all kinds of hooks in the kitchen.
We took an old wooden utensil organizer and hung it on its side in my son's room as a display "shelf" for all the small metal figurines he bought on our european vacation. He also collects old military items and we display those in a china hutch I found at a yardsale. I'll have to start browsing the mentioned magazines for more ideas.
(missing post #12, but looking at my response I think it was one about "dumpster diving" in Portland if I was ok with that, and something about selling stuff on ebay)
--apple
Message #13
02/01/10 07:27 PM
Actually, Portland is just the closest "big city" (and I try to avoid it, I'm a small town girl...) I'm about an hour and a half away. I need to do some research and find some stores to visit next time I'm there. I'm off to work before sunrise, so that's not really an option, but sometimes people do put a "free" sign on stuff and set it out on the sidewalk. I have been trying to sell some stuff off through the classifieds, but I haven't tried ebay as a seller, I'm not in town when the post office is open, so I think people would think I ship too slow.
I found an antique toaster that I think I can use as a napkin holder.
Any ideas for antique ice tongs or hay tongs? I have a couple of those, but not sure what to do with them yet.
k 65 jingle bell - rock
Message #14
02/02/10 02:47 PM
app, any way those could be turned into a door knocker or a place to leave notes outside by the door?
T Skeeter
Message #15
02/02/10 04:39 PM
Apple, ice tongs sound like the holder for a light fixture to me. I see a big globe pinched in the tongs. Either suspended from the ceiling or upside down on a wood base.
Liked your idea about the brace towel holders. That was my first thought, too.
Source for cool stuff? Have you seen the new TV show Pickers? Drive through he countryside looking for the places with piles of junk or lots of little sheds. Knock on the door, introduce yourself and ask if they would show you around.
Another source could be scrap metal dealers. When my Grandmother sold the farm there were two big piles of metal bits and pieces out in the pasture that one of my uncles had collected. After the auction, the piles were sold to scrap dealers. Now I wonder if there was anything really special in those piles.
Are you thinking about any themes for your house, or for rooms in your house? Logging equipment? Bicycles and related parts? Tools? Cans? Signs? Farm tools and equipment? What was the primary industry 100 years ago in the area where you live? Could that would be the basis for a decorating theme? If you're on the coast, old fishing gear, boat stuff, etc. could be interesting. In the Cascades, logging. Can you play off the family business? My grandfather was an electrician during the 40's. Grandma had a four car garage full of electrical fixtures, parts, and pieces that were the business inventory when Grandpa died in 1953. Old pictures tied into your theme could be interesting, too.
For the kitchen, what would the cook shack of a logging camp have in it for upper cabinets? Reused open wood boxes with shelves? They might even be old fruit crates that had rough sawn shelves added to them. Lower cabinets might be similar, but with the addition of curtains to keep scraps, etc. from falling off the counter and into the cabinets. A beat up large country table for an island work area? Or maybe a set of saw horses with a rugged looking top or use old barrels for the island base.
hootieman
Message #16
02/02/10 07:04 PM
You can use the tongs as coat racks, and hanging basket holders.
Sharon 01
Message #17
02/02/10 08:12 PM
Between Redmond and Prineville, the name of the area escapes me tonight, there is a group that has a barn sale. We happened upon it in the fall. It seemed that they have this twice a year. It was called Circle of Friends. I realize this is fairly vague but they had some of the neatest stuff and some very cleaver ideas.
Sisters Oregon holds there harvest faire the second weekend in October. They have a lot of log furniture, I have seen a wagon wheel turned into a pot hanger/holder there.
We were staying in the Sister's area to attend the harvest faire and were going into Prineville to the quilt store there when we happened upon the barn sale. It is well worth a trip to the quilt store in Prineville. They have a lot of outdoor, western, cowboy, rodeo, hunting, fishing etc. types of fabric.
SC CDF
Message #18
02/03/10 05:40 PM
Rather than trying to find neat things and fitting them in try thinking of what you need functionally. Once know you need a soap holder, the perfect item will turn up. (I found a marble mortar from a mortar and pistil set.) When you know you need a magazine holder, you will see the vintage laundry basket in a new light.
malarky...
Message #19
02/03/10 06:23 PM
"I like to use furniture in unexpected places,"
I have a double cherry file cabinet in my living room. It has a lamp, a vase with a candle and peacock feathers, an antique clock and some family photos on it. You would never believe that it holds my financial records. It melds with all the other stuff going on in the room.
--apple
Message #20
02/04/10 08:30 AM
Lots of great ideas--glad I posted! My area's history (and current workings...) are centered around logging, farming and orchards. My Mom is from Redmond and Dad is from Prinville, so I think I'll try to get down to the barn sale and visit some family while I'm there (Mom and I don't spend alot of time together, so I'm sure she'd love to go too). I don't have any "theme" that I'm really going for, just genuine old fashioned items that are used in unexpected ways. My Grampa raised cattle back and forth between Redmond and Sisters (we hear a few stories about the kids having to help driving the cattle in the spring/fall, took a couple days). I wish I could have gathered more from the grandparents before they passed on, but my mom has a few items she's almost willing to part with.
I'm really not worried about making the house too custom toward my taste, if all goes right I plan on living there til I die! I'm putting off construction financing as long as I can, so that I can do as much of the work myself as possible. I found some old tractor wrenches that I think are going to become my drawer pulls in the kitchen. My goal is to spend as little money as possible but end up with a house I really love, trying to do it right the first time so I don't feel the need to remodel in a few years.
I'm going to keep a lookout for glass globes or other shapes, I think I'll have a few hanging hay-hook lights! (One big savings I'll have is that my sister and I are both electricians, so we've got that part nailed.) I'm finding that I'm so much better at passing things by in the store now that I have something I'm looking forward to so much. I told my son that we'll have to put off another big vacation for about a year, but I'm still saving for that too.
trekkate is suddenly unemployed
Message #21
02/04/10 02:47 PM
Don't know if you'd be into this kind of thing, but ...
When jeans & flannel work shirts get too worn to wear, I make patchwork quilts. I've also made patchwork curtains for the house and for the camper - nice-looking fabric on the inside - the side we look at - and denim on the outside, which blocks light quite well.
We have old (found/scrounged) stoneware crocks in many different sizes in almost every room - they hold kitchen utensils, bar soaps, cleaning supplies, knitting needles and crochet hooks, pens & pencils, hairbrushes & combs, fireplace tools, kindling, umbrellas, potatoes, onions ...
My cousin's clothesline poles each have an old iron weather vane on top - a total of eight sturdy arms that hold several hangers each - that much more drying space, and they look cool.
SC CDF
Message #22
02/04/10 07:00 PM
It is neat that you and your sister are electricians. Too bad you are on the west coast. I need some lights installed, and I hate the thought of getting a messy wire puller to come to my house.
T Skeeter
Message #23
02/05/10 02:01 PM
I like SC CDF's approach. Decide what function you are trying to perform, than look for things that will do the job. Sounds a bit like me shopping at Home Depot.
Guess the "theme" idea is an accountant thing. If I can't make sense of it, kind of read the story, I get uncomfortable. Just don't have the spirit of an artist!
--apple
Message #24
02/05/10 04:39 PM
I'm usually not an artistic person at all, just creative (my mom is amazingly artistic though). I was a math nerd in school (calculus when I was 16, started computer programming at 13--on the old monochrome apple...) I seem to escape in chaos--my mind is constantly analyzing, trying to figure out the logic in things, etc., so this seems to relax my mind (same reason I only read books that "rot your mind"--ie, Stephen King, I just want to stop thinking.) The creative part comes in handy at work for troubleshooting or figuring out ways to do things from an entirely new approach.
I tend to be one of those people who will see something and I am not sure how to use it yet, but will come up with an idea later--I'm too stubborn to not figure something out, and it's only a "deal" if you can use it. If I see it and don't get it, I'll never see it again cheap. So I guess I do it both ways, I know I need "x" so I'll find something that works, or I'll see something I want to use and it will become "x." I'm trying to get ahead now so I can be caught up a little when I get to the time crunch. As soon as the house is built enough to get a mortgage I'll slow way down. I guess other people's ideas give me things to look for that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.
Trekkate--I've been saving old jeans and Carhartts since my son was really little to make him a jean quilt! Probably have enough to do it now, just need to find out if "Gramma" would be willing to help. I hadn't thought about them for curtain backing, but I'll get some cold winters so it might help a lot.
Artemis3044
Message #25
02/05/10 04:42 PM
I gleaned two things from an outdoor magazine. In a cold climate, use a styrofoam toilet seat in the outhouse. Put your toilet paper in a plastic coffee can with a slit down the side. The T.P. sticks out the slit. Hang it from a cord to keep the mice out.
--apple
Message #26
02/05/10 06:16 PM
The outhouse at my grandparent's house didn't have a seat, just a hole!! Maybe I get alot of it from them, when we were visiting, they didn't have enough chairs at the table so we used old fruit bins and dynomite crates standing on end. Also, barbed wire is good for holding up trees as well as making fences.
RedNosedRigdeer
Message #27
02/06/10 08:46 AM
After reading all the clever ideas, mine sounds dorky
If you're a person who likes houseplants, an old wooden ladder--the kind with the tray that folds out to hold a paint can--can be used for a plant stand. Slap on some primer and a color that suits. Use the steps for pots and the tray for a plant you'd otherwise have to hang, like an asparagus fern maybe.
--apple
Message #28
02/23/10 09:47 PM
A lot of great ideas, some I'm definitely incorporating, some I'm going to modify but wouldn't have thought of without everyone's suggestions. I was able to get a load of free bricks and haul them up to the property (they will be used for an outdoor fireplace and/or a patio). Also found some old feed sacks that will likely become my new kitchen curtains. I put an ad in the classifieds said I was looking for barn/orchard items and got a few responses. One guy even has a welder and piles and piles of metal I can use to weld my fence together (It will be about 300 feet long on the side that faces the road, plan to weld together a different "picture" in each section, I'll probably be at it for years...)
My antique toaster looks great as a napkin holder!
awaken spirit hawk
Message #29
02/24/10 08:46 AM
I need help! I got a bunch of boxes from work that had paper from office depot. They are symmetrical and have lids. I want to fix them up to use as storage boxes perhaps with material or by putting paper on them...my problem is I can't find any books (or online) that show me how to cut the material or paper so it lays just right on the outside corners of the boxes and doesn't look all bulky.
--apple
Message #30
02/24/10 09:39 AM
ash--I did this a couple years ago... You might have to cut a square or rectangle out of each corner of the fabric or paper so that when you fold it over the edges, the sides of your missing square just touch each other at the corner (or could slightly overlap still, but with less material at the corner it would be less bulky). Hope that makes sense... If the fabric or paper was cut too much and leaves a gap, you could use a piece of ribbon or something to cover it up. I used some fancy (medium weight) paper that the dollar store wrapped up my glass items in. It was just big enough to cover a smaller box, and really looked neat--free too.
ATSiaRU
Message #31
02/25/10 02:55 PM
I'd google "cartonnage" It's French for "box making". You'll get alot of hits on Egyptian mummy things too... you may need to add some words to the search. I have a book on "Cartonnage" with lots of box shapes and examples and I'm pretty sure there's something about "papering" boxes. Maybe check Amazon for titles and then check your library?
I think Martha Stewart's Magazine in either January 2010 or February 2010 had an example of "wrapping" paper around a planter with a Jade Plant in it. That might inspire you or give you some ideas.
Sharon 01
Message #32
02/25/10 07:58 PM
To expand on Miss R's idea with the ladder, I have also seen ladders used to hold quilts. I once saw an old fruit picking ladder (went to a point at the top) leaning against a wall with different quilts hanging from the rungs.
Little Lucy62
Message #33
02/28/10 03:59 PM
Great post. just thought I would chime in, I also love repurposing items for the unexpected. I have a set of ice tongs attached to the side of my kitchen work island and it holds my roll of paper towels. Also my island is an old beadboard work bench that I bought at a garage sale for $25.
Several years ago we pulled out all my cabinets and long expanse of counter, now I have no built in cabinets in my kitchen at all. I have an old farmhouse kitchen sink with its own base. I use a plate rack to hold my plates and saucers, and a pie safe for the rest of my bowls and etc. I took a sewing machine base and had DH construct a box for the top of it, that sits next to my stove for food prep or to place the hot pans on. Just a few of things I did.
--apple
Message #34
03/12/10 06:45 PM
Jackpot!! I had an ad on the classifieds of some of the types of items I was looking for, and someone answered it. I went to go look around, and found so many things I could use! I got 5 more single trees for my curtain rods, rollers that will make moving heavy things around (a few hundred pounds each) easier for my son and me, an antique bed head-board and foot-board that I'm going to turn into a bench, small wagon wheels for my pot/pan hangers, lots of iron items for welding my fence together (it will all be art, old faucet handles will become "flowers" and I'll weld mountain scenes and other scenes for each section), an antique scooter (all we have to add are tires and a lawn motor type motor so my son can drive it around on the property), and so many more things. Completely loaded up the back of my little suv (back seat folded down, poor thing gets abused, it feels like a work truck) and spent just $100! The guy was great, I'll be headed out there again to look around and find more stuff. He even had an antique wooden ladder I'll try to pick up on the next trip, not sure if it will be for flowers or quilts yet.
There is another couple that has a bunch of old farm stuff and they are working to dig it all out of all the hiding places and then I'll be able to buy from them too. Already got a few single trees and a wheelbarrow from them for a great price.
I'm so excited, now that I have some new ideas I'm finding some great deals.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions! At this rate I'll have almost everything gathered by the time the house is built.
) installed in my vintage kitchen... I still have a couple of old 'desk top' rotary phones as well - they are both black. Just be warned you probably want to have a touch tone type phone you can plug in - in an emergency. I was without power (no cordless phone - but the old fashion phones worked) and while I could dial into l the Electric Company to report my problem there was no "wait on the line to talk to an operator" option - it was use the touch tones or sorry charlie you couldn't be helped. I've noticed other automated systems no longer have a default of going to an operator - you HAVE to press a key to get service. 