Thursday, April 19, 2012

Recycle, Re-purpose

 
Recycling is not necessarily meant for just bottles and cans. Building  materials may also be salvaged and re-purposed to become useful again.  The beauty of wood is its workability - through sanding, staining or simply re-finishing, old wood can be made to look nearly brand new.  

Re-purposing old windows has become a popular trend.  From tables to cabinets, picture frames, and much more with a bit of ingenuity, inefficient single pane windows may continue to serve a useful purpose.    
    
Local restoration, retrofit and rebuilding specialists, Absolute Green Homes of South Salem, NY are professionals in transforming old wood materials into functional pieces.  

Their most recent project, The Beach House, is a great achievement in creative design, energy efficiency and use of materials.  When completed this home will be a shining example of the many ways in which re-purposed building materials can bring unique character into a space.   

When starting your next project or spring cleaning consider if the materials you plan to discard may be useful in some way.  By re-purposing old materials we not only protect our environment but also put special meaning into our homes.  
      

A word of caution:  removing lead paint from old wood can be a health hazard; use caution if you are unsure of what finish has been previously applied to the wood.

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