The Benefits to Repurposing Furniture

Welcome to my very first blog post! Wahoo! This is something I have wanted to start for a pretty long time now so I hope to blog as often as I can. I also hope that you find these blog posts inspiring and informative.

For my first blog post I want to talk about repurposing furniture. There’s really two reasons why I love repurposing furniture, affordability and originality.

Affordability – buying new furniture can be expensive, especially if you are looking for on trend and durable furniture that will last. There is nothing more un-motivating then wanting to design or refresh a space but then finding out that you can’t afford any of the furniture you like! This is where I have found success with repurposing furniture. The good thing is that there are SO many sites and apps for buying and reselling furniture. That way if you are redesigning a space, you can sell your old furniture and put it towards new/used furniture. Or if you are just looking for new/used furniture for a space, you can find something at a more affordable price.

For example, when my husband and I renovated our home I wanted to refresh a lot of our furniture, particularly our living room furniture which we had two sets of as we had two living room areas. So before renovating we sold our coffee tables and end tables and began the hunt for some new furniture. In our newly renovated living room we invested in a large sectional so I wanted to find a large coffee table to put in the centre of the couch as well as two end tables for each side of the couch. As I was searching for new furniture, I was floored that all the coffee tables (just the coffee table, not even the end tables) I liked that were big enough to fit in the “L” of the couch and had some charm/character to them were in and around $1,000! Are you kidding me?! In what world was I going to spend that? Not this one! And I wasn’t even looking at super high end stores or anything. So I became very discouraged and then started thinking, if I can’t afford a coffee table, how am I going to be able to afford to furnish and redesign all these other areas of our newly renovated home?! Also, it’s a coffee table - that will be used and likely abused - I don’t want to be worried about it getting ruined because of how much we spent on it.

So once I settled down I decided to look at used furniture. I’ll admit, it takes time to filter through all of the used furniture online and find options that you would even consider; however, there are a lot of people who bought nice, good quality furniture, took really good care of it, and are looking to get rid of it. Heck, some of the used furniture is nicer and better quality then the new stuff stores are selling today.

I ended up finding a coffee table and two end tables that I really liked on Kijiji for $220; however, they were a reddish wood colour that would just not work in our space. But I figured if I could paint them and maybe even distress them a little bit so the wood would show through; they would work great because I really loved the detail on the tables. However, I had never repurposed furniture before, other than spray painting some little home décor items here and there. But I figured I had nothing to lose and needed some tables for my living room, so I decided to go for it!

These are the tables that I bought.

How hard could it be? Well it was definitely work, but so worth it. After doing my research, I decided to use chalk paint as it’s durable, non-toxic and you don’t have to prepare the surface by sanding it down or anything. 

I am so happy with how they turned out and I get complements on them all the time! People can’t believe that they are used and repurposed once I tell them. I probably spent around $300 all said and done for the three tables and paint supplies; which is a fraction of what it would have cost to buy all three tables brand new. The best part is that I don’t have to worry about glass rings (which have already happened) because I can always touch up the paint down the road and if a kid bangs a toy on it or roughs up the table, it only adds more character in my books.

Here are how my tables turned out!

Originality – in my opinion, the other pro to repurposing furniture is that you can make it uniquely yours and the perfect fit for your space. For example, if I wanted to paint these tables hot pink to fit my space, I could have. The sky is really the limit when it comes to paint colours and different finishing techniques that you can use. You can always update and switch out hardware, such as knobs, pulls and hinges to really change the look of a piece as well. Most old furniture from back in the day with all the detail and character was stained wood and never painted. But if certain wood tones aren’t your thing, such as in my case, you can paint them and give them a whole new look that is unique to you and your space. Love it! 

I just wanted to share my thoughts on repurposing furniture in case someone else is in my boat feeling discouraged and unmotivated due to the price tag on some new furniture these days. I believe that everyone can have the home of their dreams, filled with appropriate furniture that works for you and your space; it just might take some time, searching, and elbow grease to make it happen. Since repurposing these tables, I have also done a hutch and desk for my office refresh and have some other projects in the books once I get around to it. I’m hoping to write another blog post documenting the process it took to repurpose these tables, but until then, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know. I’d love to help!

Until next time,

Brittany