Re-Purposing for Storage

NICE: Another Place to Hang a Few Things

I am much more the "re-use, re-purpose, re-do kind of gal" in France than I am in Canada. The base products (chairs, bookcases, armoires, wooden oxen harnesses, tables of all sizes and purposes, church furnishings) are more interesting; there are more opportunities to buy old stuff; and the re-furbishing products, if needed, are more accessible. 

I am amazed at the number of products available in the "brico" (hardware store) for restoring and recreating. I digress for a moment . . . but I believe that you can buy every type of light bulb created, since Edison and his cohorts at Menlo Park. We live in an old house and one particular light fixture needed a new bulb. Never did I think that we would find it. We didn't go anywhere special - just to our neighbourhood bricolage and there it was. And so it is with restoration products - there is paint for every imaginable surface, cleaning products for the most difficult unimaginable, and hinges and hardware reproduced from one or the other Louis to modern space-age materials in fuschia, orange or lime green.

Simple "prie dieu" used for storage.
Photo by JoyD.

Insofar as re-purposing goes, I acquired (with the purchase of this house) a "chair" that is not a chair but a "prayer stool" from a church - a simple "prie dieu" (without a ledge for a bible). I have it in my bedroom - chambre - and have "hung" a variety of things on this piece. The result has been repurposed from prayer to storage and decorative storage at that without having to sand, paint or supplement.

I haven't seen many around at the vides greniers (community "boot" or "garage" sales) or brocantes (second hand stores or community sales) in our area here in Dordogne. However I will be looking because I believe they are the right height for setting an overnight bag and more purposeful for hanging a variety of things, from towels to clothing to accessories.

Repurposing seems to be the theme of the week . . . take a look at my August 10th post.