Posted by Snow in 
This Old Garden
This month’s issue of This Old House has some dynamite ideas for customizing kitchen spaces for less money. But adding in the integrated idea of re-using sustainable materials culled from garage sales, estate sales, curbline cruising and thrift shop junkets, and you could be home, free. Literally.
Those cute little upper shelves of plates and bric a brac don’t get put in by themselves, but remainder wood and recaptured shelving or a furniture piece might provide it. This is a good issue to review before going dumpster diving for repurposed wood and other discarded stuff.
The period pot rack shows what use vintage wrought iron gate pieces or odds and ends can be made into. I like the island plans which bring necessary items to waist level drawers instead of fudged away cabinets and cupboard recesses.
But the show stopper for this article was the vintage copper stove on page 76. Some place called the Old Appliance Club gets you on track. this mouth watering websote tempts the kitchen lover in all of us with repolished stoves to bring home that shabby chic or cottage look, be the finish bubbling wrinkle paint or gleaming melamine.
This Old House isn’t just for knuckle grazing sawmill and power drill jockeys. The sitting wall article detailing how to build one of those cute terraced garden walls made me want to pitch the TV remote and hie myself to the garden center for paving stone dust. Laying a stone patio wall sounds like a very fun weekend home project.
I like the project that makes a pan hanging rack out of copper pipes. And the dish drying rack which doubles as a window covering treatment to keep out the wandering eyeballs of neighbors and sidewalk strollers. The cutout work lattice wood grilles inset into cupboard shelves scream “Summer!” and eco-friendly home project and the same time.
Best runner up project from this issue of This Old House was the tera cotta drainpipes made into wine racks. Could this effect be imitated with cut hald pipes from insulation pipe or other found pipe?
A great article is “We found our dream kitchen on Craigslist“. What an inspiring story but I am sure many readers of this blog and the magazine might retell it using Freecycle.com. Are you up to the challenge?
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