Finding New Ways of Repurposing Vintage Items

The beauty of having free-standing vintage pieces in your home is the ability to reinvent them, giving them new life. With a bit of imagination, repurposing vintage items into something useful in another room is not difficult. What was once a vintage dish might become wall art or a planter. You don’t have to do anything to them, just think outside the box.

With limited funds and a desire to be more sustainable, reinventing what I had was something I learned to do a long time ago. It was more about making do back then. Today, I move stuff around and reuses it because I enjoy seeing an old piece of furniture used in another way. The piece might receive a paint job or new knobs to make it fit a look but that’s the beauty of having second hand pieces. You might love them but in the grand scheme of things, if they’ve cost you little you don’t mind revmaping them if you want too.

Here are some of the ways I’ve been repurposing vintage items in the farmhouse.

Chest of Drawers

I bought this chest of drawers around five years ago. I needed something to put our TV on that would fit in the nook next to the fireplace. The dimensions of what I wanted were very specific so when I saw this dresser for $70. I bought it immediately. I didn’t care about the awful colour. To use the drawers as a TV stand I took out the top left drawer. This is where we housed the Apple TV and Pay TV boxes. I cut a hole for the cords in the back. It looked great.

When we moved to the farm, we changed another cabinet into a TV stand. I painted the chest of drawers black and used it as a bedside table. I didn’t need the storage space once we’d finished our walk-in robe, so I use the piece as a console in the living room now.

Repurposing Vintage Items #2: Vintage Trunks

Do not even get me started on the ways I use our trunks! I have two. One is a big leather one that we use as a coffee table. The other is an old timber one. It used to be the coffee table but now sits at the end of the bed for our extra blankets. A vintage trunk can be a TV stand, a window seat, or a place to showcase a stack of books. I love a trunk as a side table or simply a spot in a hall below a grand piece of art.

A Tea Trolley Come Almost Anything!

Many years ago I bought an antique tea trolley. The tea trolley was blackwood and has leadlight doors. I love it. The trolley had had a number of uses over the years. It’s been a bedside table, a side table, a hall table, even bedroom storage in our cottage. I’ve removed the wheels and painted the body white to suit the cottage style I wanted. The trolley fits perfectly in a dormer window, so it lives in my office now and has the printer and my camera gear in it.

Repurposing Vintage Items such as Wardrobes

With built-in robes becoming more popular in recent times, the humble wardrobe or armoire has taken a backseat in decor. I picked up this beautiful old wardrobe for almost nothing. It was painted yellow and had smoked glass in the mirror sections of the doors. I took out the glass and replaced it with wire. I also painted it black and added some pine shelves. We covered the interior with floral wallpaper and turned it into a gorgeous bathroom cabinet for our main bathroom. This is a perfect way of repurposing vintage items.

Old China

Old China is possibly the easiest to repurpose because it can be used as decor. I love to use plates on a wall as art or little plates as a place for jewellery. Floral saucers look lovely with candle on top or a cloche. My current favourite is to plant things in soup tureens.

A soup tureen is not used often these days. There are so many as part of old dinner sets that sit in a cupboard and never get used. I’ve planted bulbs in mine this year and I cant wait for them to flower. Last summer, our soup tureen housed cress from the creek and a small amount of herbs. Unless you are going to drill holes in the base, a plant wont last forever in a tureen though. So, I like to use plants I can put into the garden at a later date. It’s like sort term decorating.

Hall Table into a Vanity

I couldn’t talk about repurposing without mentioning the hall tables I have turned into bathroom vanities over the years. This one technically means you can’t use the piece in another area again (because you drilled a big hole in it and you’re basin will have nowhere to go). It’s still a great way to reuse a piece you might otherwise have sold!

A Tool Bench as a Kitchen Island!

Last but not least, the humble tool bench. We got this one for $15. It had a laminate top which we covered with a Tas Oak slab and varnished. It was then a kitchen Island for our narrow kitchen.

When we moved to the farm, we found another tool bench in the shed. We covered the top with old floor boards and it now serves as an outdoor buffet area for when we have guests!