Harness your creativity to make something useful and keep something else out of landfill. I like the idea of making unique pieces of furniture for my home, and I like not having to pay (or paying very little) for materials to make something that’s worth more than the sum of its parts. Something out of nothing, or something out of rubbish. I’ve collected some ideas from all over the web to bring you some inspiration. Let’s make a chair.

The Octopus

This is the project that inspired me to write this blog post. This chair is made of four pairs of charity shop jeans and polystyrene balls. It doesn’t look like a very difficult project, and you could probably replace the polystyrene balls with a more eco-friendly material. The seats of the jeans are sewn together to form the seat of the chair, and the legs become the octopus tentacles that are the backrest. Have a look at the octopus chair from other angles to get the idea of what needs sewing to what.

The Trolley

Once you’ve watched the video above you’ll have all the know-how needed to undertake the project of turning a shopping trolley into a very trendy chair. I do feel though that I have a moral obligation to remind DIY enthusiasts that stealing trolleys is wrong and not what I’m encouraging you to do here.

The Tractor Seat

If you have an old tractor seat or lawn-mower seat lying around (or you could put a wanted ad on Freecycle, I’ve acquired an old tractor tyre in this way to make a sandpit for my young daughter) and a broken office chair, you can make this really cool tractor seat swivel chair. Full instructions here. I once bought one of these (with a flimsy plastic seat) from Ikea for my son and was charged a whopping great £19.99. You can make this project for nothing. But even if you resort to buying a tractor seat at a car boot sale or similar, it’ll still be a whole lot cheaper, and more unique, than shelling out for the plastic manufactured alternative (and of course there’s always the karma that comes from keeping stuff out of landfill – priceless).

The Cardboard Stool

You’ll need three large bits of corrugated cardboard to make this stool, so would be a great way to populate your new home with furniture once you’ve unpacked the boxes. It reminds me of a Djembe drum, so great for that entho-bongo look, and you could decorate the stool by painting it or gluing embellishments onto it. The full instructions at dangerouslyfun warn not to tilt or lean the stool while you’re sitting on it, or you will seriously shorten its useful life.

Grow your own lawn chair

While not strictly recycling, this chair is so amazing that I just had to include it here. You could argue that you’re reusing soil and turning a lawn into something useful. And there’s no need to buy the rather expensive cardboard frame and grass seed kit, just study the image shown to create your own frame from old cardboard boxes, then purchase some grass seed down at your local garden centre and decide where you want to “plant” your chair. Assemble your cardboard frame and place it where you want your chair, then fill it with soil and sprinkle with grass seed. Water every few days. For best results, wait until spring before starting this project.

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular Eco-DIY feature here at EcoStreet to include recycling ideas, home DIY projects and eco-friendly crafts Please stay tuned.

I’m completely enchanted by Makazi’s Guesthouse. It’s built out of sandbags, and is kitted out with solar heating, composting toilets and recycled furniture. The house has been beautifully decorated (inside and out) and all profit made is used to fund the community-based Indlovu project, including a crèche, youth centre, clinic and soup kitchen.

This would be an eye-opening and different stay for any visitor to Cape Town,

Makazi’s Guesthouse is a community-built project in the Monwabisi Park area of Khayelitsha. For more information or to book accommodation, email office@shaster.org.za or phone +27 216571026 or +27 833750988.

sisonke singenza amahluko is Xhosa for “together we can make a difference”

photo credit: mamakalisa

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And that brings me to the inspiration for this blog post.

Firstly, Julie Cohen of Better Than Fiction Productions emailed me the link to a video that she produced for PBS about a lady called Dee Williams who lives in a tiny house.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

And secondly, I read this morning at Bindu Wiles blog that she is starting a community project called the Shed Project, which has nothing whatsoever to do with sheds (or tiny houses), but fits perfectly alongside the story of tiny houses because it’s all about shedding the bumf that we don’t really need (including excess body weight).

I’m going to be taking part in the Shed Project to see what I can shed. If you’re interested in getting rid of some of your excess, Bindu Wiles will be launching the project in about a month’s time, so add her to your feed reader if you don’t want to miss out.

This reclaimed whisky barrel flooring from McKay Flooring in Scotland is not cheap at £149 a square metre, but it is beautiful and doing your sun salutes on it in the morning will be a fragrant experience.

I first found out about the old National Geographic stash when my boyfriend and I moved in together in 2001. He’s now my husband and the National Geographic collection has crossed continents with us. I was very excited to see this. Something like this would look great on the wall in the living room of our new house.

Sean Miller designed and made the National Geographic magazine shelf and was a finalist in the Inhabitat Spring Greening Contest.

Sean Miller
Inhabitat Spring Greening Contest finalists
Magazine shelf – Recyclart

I’ve had a beautiful salt lamp from Solay for about 2 years now.  I love it.  The pink salt comes from the foothills of Himalayan Mountains and apart from just being pretty to look at – they’re good for your health too. Salt crystal lamps generate healthy negative ions that cleanse the air.  That feeling in the air after a good rain is from negative ions which is what these lamps emit.

The crystal is hand excavated into various sizes and drilled inside to accommodate a light source. When lit by a small, energy efficient light bulb of 15 watt or less, crystal salt emits an electrical charge, enriching our environments with health promoting negative ions. Negative ions help purify the air of allergens, dust, smoke, bacteria and more. These natural qualities make them an excellent beautiful light source, natural air purifier and can help people with various health conditions including asthma, allergies and other respiratory ailments. They can be used in every room, safely and should be left on as much as possible.

You can get 10% off a lamp of your own and a flat shipping rate of $4.95 until the 30th June 2010.   Enter the code “Himalayas” to get your discount. Solay Wellness.

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These sweet bottle gardens are made of glass bottles, cut in half and tweaked to take soil and herbs or other small plants and look gorgeous on your window sill.  Full instructions here.

we like it wild: bottle gardens [Design*Sponge]

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Look at the texture on that armchair cover.  I’d love to run my hands all over it.

Genius armchair cover made from left-over yarn by Els Van Hemelryck.

Moral of the story: left-overs are beautiful, and shouldn’t go into the bin.

ponnekeblom via RecycleArt

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When one half of a pair of socks passes over to the other side (where do they go?), the lonely sock that’s left behind spends too much time lying at the bottom of the clean washing basket or at the back of the sock drawer.  Imagine what that must do to a sock’s self-esteem.

Being a greenie, I don’t like throwing odd socks away, so I end up using them as dusters  or if they’re entirely natural fibre I throw them in the compost.  But then there are the good ones, the virtually brand new polka-dot one, or the super groovy rainbow stripe one that it just seems wrong to use in that way.  Here’s the perfect use for attractive odd socks.

Orphan socks [OhDeeDoh] via RecycleArt

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Spring into green cleaning with eco-friendly scourers, sponges and cloths from EcoForce, manufacturers of practical, everyday, household products from recycled materials. We all need to do our bit to help the environment and using recycled products instead of those made from virgin materials helps reduce landfill and conserves fossil fuels.

Reduce carbon emissions by using your tumble dryer less and hanging out your washing to dry using EcoForce’s new Recycled Peg Basket, Clothes Pegs and Clothes Line.  EcoForce’s Clothes Pegs are strong and durable, and made from 93% recycled plastic. They contain no metal parts to rust or wood to stain clothes.

Instead of binning your left-overs at meal times pop them in a bag and close with EcoForce’s Recycled Bag Grips made from 93% recycled plastic.

EcoForce has been selected by British designer, writer and TV presenter Kevin McCloud as one of his Green Heroes at Grand Designs Live, Excel, London this week (w/c 4.5.10). Stop by and see them if you’re at the show.

I’m delighted to be giving away ten goody-bags full of EcoForce recycled household products (value of goody-bag £15) to 10 lucky commenters. Simply leave a comment below to be in with a chance to win. Ten winners will be chosen at random on Monday 10th May 2010 and the winners will be announced here.  Please note that this giveaway is only open to those readers with a UK postal address.

And the winners are…

Yael, Freda Kerslake, Matt Brasier, Joy Griffiths, Kate Lancaster, Andrew Cakebread, Susan Pringle, Jon, Chris, Susannah Leggatt.  Congratulations, you’ll soon be using your recycled household products from EcoForce!  Winners, please reply to my email requesting your mailing address.