Recycled

Ollari’s shows us how to take slats of wood from a rickety old door and pallets to create a nifty new piece of outdoor furniture. If you put your mind to it, it’s amazing what you can achieve with a saw, some screws, and glue. We dig the burnt look of the finished piece.

Australian artist Moerkey creates sculptures using recycled keys, coins, and copper as his primary media. While the skull, bowl, and wine bottle designs are very cool, there’s something about the giant sphere of keys that catches our eye. His smallest spheres are nifty too.

Dakota Stitch & Design makes bags and other accessories out of used firefighter uniforms, aka bunker gear. Nicole Gibson started the business after her husband, a firefighter, refused to buy expensive diaper bags. She made do with what she had, and the rest is history.

World Cup USA footballer Jay DeMerit is the man behind this line of unique Bluetooth speakers crafted from slices of reclaimed wood logs. Each one is made from an unused cut-off, dead standing, or felled tree that would have otherwise gone unused.

White’s Modern Industrial takes clean oil drums and turns them into unique pieces of furniture with distressed finishes. They offer a few different styles, but we’re particularly fond of ones with the barrels set on their sides.

Another amazing blacksmithing video by Miller Knives, in which he takes a rusty old railroad spike, and gradually hammers, grinds, and sculpts it into a completely usable tomahawk. We’d love to see what he could turn an old tomahawk into.

Skate or Design creates vibrant and functional home accessories and furniture from reclaimed skateboard decks. The highlight of their collection is this 40″ wide coffee table covered in colorful wood decks. A hidden steel frame underneath provides structure and rigidity.

Phighter Images makes all kinds of awesome home decor for aircraft buffs, but we’re particularly excited about their ceiling fans, constructed to look like the fans from famous jet engines. They may look the part, but they’re definitely quieter than the real thing.

Thailand sculptor Mari9art’s incredible build is made from recycled car parts and scrap steel. It measures 2.2m tall (~7.2 ft), and includes free door-to-port shipping, though getting it to your house might be a challenge from there. His lifesize T-Rex is even more mindblowing.

Frost Auto Decor makes a variety of home furnishings from reclaimed car parts. Our favorites are these lamps made from engine valve covers, mounted on harmonic balancers. They can also be made as wall sconces.

Yet another wonderful reuse for old Jack Daniel’s whiskey barrels, Heritage Handcrafted’s 24″ high wood stools will look great at your kitchen counter. They’re come with round swivel or fixed square seats, and each one has its own unique character.

The Boeing Store’s Custom Hangar features custom furniture and accessories made from components of the company’s retired aircraft. One of our faves? This anodized aluminum table with the engine exhaust cone off an F-4 Phantom II fighter jet as its centerpiece.

Hungary-based artist Felvarrom creates bags, belts, and other accessories using upcycled bicycle innertubes. Their 8″ x 4″ x 4″ tube bags are perfect for carrying grooming products, tools, or other small items. Each bag is unique.

Jeff Gray of Scene3Designs makes all sorts of nifty items by stacking, sanding, and laminating layers of cutoff wood from a skateboard maker. One of our faves is this pencil holder. We’d love to see him make a version that holds tools too.

Artist Toby Boswell of Pale Rider Handmade has perfected a metalworking process to create these wonderful spherical lamps from recycled bicycle gears. Measures ~15″ dia. and sits on a wood base. Toby also offers the spheres by themselves, and a pendant is in the works.

Artist Matthew Cassidy of Fragmented Frames takes disused old cameras, camcorders and other gadgets, transforming them into cool works of art, meticulously arranging each component into a shadowbox. A great gift for designers, photographers or tech junkies.

Milk Run Co.’s unique drink coasters are made from recycled plywood playing fields from old, defunct pinball machines. They come from a variety of machines circa 1955 to 1979. Sold in sets of four with a metal stand.

Thomas Dambo creates awe-inspiring beasts from scrap wood and junk. The imposing Olav the Wolf appeared for a brief time, then was burned to the ground. Most of his works can be found in Denmark, but one of our faves is in Puerto Rico.

Loll Designs’ Racer Rocker is a flat-pack outdoor rocking chair. It’s made of 100% recycled HDPE plastic, and each one is the equivalent of 288 milk jugs. It also has a storage trunk at the back. Available in seven colors.

Shwood’s limited-edition Newspaper collection eyewear is made by pressing and gluing layers of recycled newsprint into wood-like logs, then cutting them into eyeglass shapes. Available in sunglass and RX models.

If you loved Monsieur Plant’s natural skateboard, check out Salvaged Skateboards. The shop makes decks and complete skateboards using reclaimed wood, such as ones used in whiskey barrels, pallets and floorboards.

Sandy’s CanCars takes the art of aluminum can sculpture to a whole new level. His intricate cars are handmade from dozens of cans, along with balsa and custom metal parts. The models sell for thousands, Sandy sells DIY plans for just $10.

For his River Collection, furniture maker Greg Klassen took discarded wood and then cut blue glass by hand to make them fit the contours of the wood. The resulting tables and sculptures look like rivers or lakes.

Mafia makes affordable, stylish and waterproof duffle bags and backpacks out of discarded kite, windsurf and sailboat sails. Each bag has a unique design and comes with a lifetime warranty.

Germany’s Skypak creates rolling bar carts using authentic aircraft food and beverage cart. These ones are made from reclaimed wine and whiskey barrel timbers replacing the aluminum sides and top. Also available as coolers.