November 1, 2021 Posted in How-to
Daisy Wilson

Daisy was born in Salt Lake City and in her free time, she writes about moving and watches Charmed.

How to Repurpose Old Furniture and Use It in a New Home When Moving Cross Country

There is no need to shop any more than necessary when relocating. There are amazing ideas on how to repurpose old furniture you can implement at a new home. The cross-country moving process can inspire the creative urge in you because finally, you get to redesign the home and give it a unique vibe.

Wrapped chair and boxes in a house overlay
Don't throw anything away. Reuse it for your new house

Even if you are not a naturally handy person, you can implement some DIY ideas on your vintage belongings. And if you wonder, “what can I make with old furniture?” – the answer is everything. If you are familiar with the Law of Conservation of Mass, you know that matter never disappears even when it changes its form. The same is with household items – everything can be repurposed.

What Are the Upsides of Knowing How to Repurpose Old Furniture

As we mentioned, one of the benefits of relocating is the opportunity to start over. You will get a new job, meet friends, and buy a house too. And now you can design the said house, garden, and porch the way you always wanted. Another thing is that you get to keep the belongings in a different form. Repurposed sofa or china cabinet, will make a unique design contribution to your new home.

Repurpose Your Belongings With a Plan – Hire Cross Country Moving Company on Time

For a stress-free relocation, the crucial is to have a good strategy in place. You will have a lot of things on your mind, from packing pots and pans to finding a place to live. So if you wish to avoid future chaos and problems, create a detailed plan of your projects and tasks.

Before you hire cross-country movers and use their long-distance moving services, the first thing you must do is create a home inventory list of all the things you plan to bring with you. This will include the vintage belongings you wish to transform later on. The list will contribute to more precise in-home estimation, and you will know which unwanted items you can sign up for donation or sell.

Not to mention that the list will be even more useful if you plan to hire long-distance movers for packing service as well. This way, your long-distance moving company can tell you right away if some items you plan to bring can be transported. As you know, there are items movers won’t move, so it is better to know which of them are forbidden before relocation day arrives. Also if you plan to use storage units as part of your cross country moving services, ask your movers for guidance on how to pack your repurposed wooden or leather items properly for storage.

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How Do You Convert Old Furniture to New? Get the Right Supplies

You can get the supplies before or after your relocation to another state. And depending on what are your crafting plans and skills, you can buy different types of materials and tools. For example, if you don’t know how to use a jigsaw for wood, you can do other modifications with other tools. Also, if you are relocating from house to apartment, the smarter thing would be to do all the work before your move. You will have more space. Here are some of the materials and tools you must get:

  • Paint
  • Wood glue
  • Screws and nails
  • Hinges
  • Sandpaper
  • Nail gun
  • Screwdriver on batteries or electric
  • Saw and jigsaw
  • Dye thinner
  • Brushes

How Do You Redesign Old Furniture? Simplest Ways

If you wonder what are the simplest ways to refresh your furnish it is with some dye. So, how to repurpose furniture with paint? Start by buying the right dye. The dye for steel is not the same as for wood. The next step is to sand everything until the old dye is completely gone. Then apply primer and let it dry. And the final step is to repaint everything either with some color dye or with simple wood varnish. Also, if you wonder how do you reuse old wood furniture? With paint is the easiest way to do it.

Paint and brushes overlay
All you need is some dye and little imagination

Repurpose Salvage & Furniture – Create a Wall Rack Out of Your Doors

When thinking about how to repurpose old worn-down furniture, you probably have in mind chairs, sofas and cabinets, but did you know that you can even reuse the doors. You can create a wall shelf out of them. For this idea, you will need to know how to handle the saw.

Use a saw, or even better, circular saw, and cut your doors in half horizontally. Then take some corner hinges and screw them near the top and bottom and one in the middle. Screw the hooks on the wall and hang your doors on them, the same way as if you were hanging a mirror. Take some hooks and racks and screw them to the doors and create shelves. Also, you can repaint your doors before hanging, so it goes better with the interior.

Transform Ladders Into a Plant Rack in Your Home

If you have wooden leaders with wider steps, you can hang them on the wall and create a plant holder. If your ladders have two sides, you will have to split them. Then sand them a bit and repaint everything. On the other hand, if you have ladders with narrow steps, they can be repurposed as towel holders and put in the bathroom.

Ladders hanging on the wall overlay
Once you are done with your ladders, make a plant rack out of them

There Are So Many DIY Projects to Repurpose Old Furniture Ideas

When it comes to relocating furniture, we are keeping and throwing away things based on the square footage of the next residence. Does it have a small or big kitchen? How big is the living room? These answers will tell you if something should be bought or thrown away.

However, you don’t need to spend the money on new items when you can reuse old ones. For example, you can easily create a kitchen aisle out of your vintage cabinet. All you need is one large wooden panel and a couple of racks and hooks. Screw the panel on the top of your cabinet, just ensure the panel is wider than the dresser top, and you will get a larger working area and a place to dine with your family. You can use dresser drawers, to pack your palates, spoons, and rags in there.

Create a DIY Play Kitchen for Your Kids

You can transform the dresser into a play kitchen. If your cabinet consists of one column drawer and one column cabinet, you can create a small kitchen installation for your kids. Remove half of the drawers and screw one lumber panel on the top of the remaining drawer, and close it this way. Dye everything in white or whatever color you want. Take some black spray and draw two hotplates on top of your closed drawer. Draw some buttons as well with the same dye.

Turn a Dresser Into a Room Chair and Tabouret

If you have a wide dresser that is made of three drawers, you can implement a similar technique. Remove the top drawer and close with the panel the one that is in the middle. You will also have to remove the top of the cabinet and cut it to fit to come inside the cabinet on top of the second drawer. Take some cushioning material or sponge and glue it to the top drawer and the sidewalls, take some fabric and nail it to the sponge. You can repeat the process with the drawer you removed and create a tabouret out of it.

Dresser ready for transformation and long distance moving overlay
Turn your cabinet into an ottoman

Repurpose Old Furniture for Garden Use

Garden accessories can be quite expensive and, in the end, not that unique and stylish. So, why spend money on new belongings when you can learn how to repurpose wood furniture for your garden. And a nice yard and a place to spend time with your family is the best way to improve your home.

That’s why, when deciding what to keep when relocating, create a vision (or a sketch) of your future porch or yard. For example, a bathtub can be transformed into a table or DIY outside ottoman. When you start packing kitchen items, see if any kitchen cabinets can be reused. For example, you can use a kitchen cabinet to store tools in your yard.

Your Dresser Can Be a Lovely Plant Pot

The same can be done when you start packing clothing. See what cabinet can be transformed into a plant pot. You can create a stair-like green garden out of your cabinet. Just place some dirt inside the drawers, plant some seeds, and wait for them to grow. Or you can do the easy thing and take some plant pots and place them inside the drawers.

DIY Bench With Unpaired Stools

If you wish to know how to repurpose furniture to sell, the easy way is to create some benches out of your unpair stools. Take three stools to remove the seats from all three chairs. Take wooden planks, three or four (enough so you can cover the top part of all chairs), and nail or screw them all together. Nail some cushioning and fabric to the planks. You got the easiest bench ever. Of course, it would be good to paint everything before.

Two garden stools overlay
Every chair can be transformed into a bench

Make a Table Out of Your Doors

During the long-distance moving process taking doors with you can sound like an unnecessary thing to do. But if you plan to do some renovations projects at your house, do not throw away doors you removed. Instead, create a table out of them. Buy some wooden legs from Home depot and just screw them to the doors. Or even better, you can use a smaller table and screw the doors to that table.

You can steal some ideas and creative projects from this video:

Use Sewing Machines and Create a Makeup Station

If you have a vintage singer sewing machine, you can create a lovely makeup and jewelry station out of it in just a couple of steps. First, you must take the machine out and detach the steel part from the wooden part. After everything is detached you can start with sanding and painting both wooden and metal parts.

Ensure you place all the screws in ziplock bags and take a picture of how things were before you detached them. The area where the machine used to be should be now transformed into makeup storage. Measure the hole and create a box out of simple plywood. The box should be wider than the hole so you can screw it to the top. You can put some fabric inside or create some compartments. It is all up to you. Either way with this original furnish, packing makeup will be even more exciting once you know there will be an amazing storage palace for it once you relocate.

Old sewing machine overlay
You can create a table out of your sewing machine as well

Moving Cross Country  Can Be an Exciting Experience

As you can see, with a bit of imagination and some creative storage ideas, you can make vintage things both stylish and highly practical. Use this relocation to start over and to implement some ideas you always wish for. And who knows, maybe dealing with all this lumber and fabric makes you wanna pursue a career as a designer.

Also, if you wish this experience to be even more easy and smooth, ensure to find movers that can do all of the services you need. When searching for recommendations for moving companies, look for those with car shipping, packing, and moving. This will make your life much easier – you don’t have to look for other companies to do this for you, for starters.

Stop throwing old chairs and sofas when cross country moving. Learn how to repurpose old furniture and make new stylish, unique pieces with a couple of tricks.

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