11 Awesome Repurposed Furniture Ideas

Repurposing furniture is a passion of mine. Here are some of my all-time favorites.

I found this before and after photo of a coffee station on a Facebook group and thought it was brilliant idea for a small space.

The first step for this transformation is to remove the back of the bookcase in order to make it easier to paint. This can be done by lightly hammering on the inside, in order to separate the back near where it is nailed against the frame.

Next, prime the entire piece or spray paint it with a can of white spray paint. The slick surface of the piece will need a paint that sticks like glue. From my experience, it's difficult to get spray paint off. The same thing happens with primer, whereas latex wall paint is easy to get off unless it's had 30 days to fully cure.

After the paint has dried, that's the time to add a couple coats of polycrylic or another type of sealer for extra protection. This is especially important for the tops of all the shelves because they will get the most use.

When the back is off, it's easy to apply wallpaper, fabric, or contact paper to the back of the bookcase and the cut the excess off so it looks neat. Then use small nails or a staple gun to reattach the back to the frame of the soon to be coffee station.

If you want to completely replace the back you can, of course, use the old back as a pattern and trace around it on the new material (such as wall paneling) and then cut along the line made with a jigsaw.

A word of advice: If you are going to paint it a bright white (when it's a dark color to start with), it's going to take several coats of paint. If you paint it a darker color, like grey. It will only take one or two coats of paint. An off white will require two or three coats of paint.

And here's another one for a small coffee maker.

Here's a piece I can actually take credit for. I love that it used to be a boring nightstand and an unfortunate looking hollow core door, and I made it "adorable". Here's the tutorial.

Another inspiring door makeover.

This upcycled vanity-turned-sink is so delightful! It will never go out of style. Brought to you by cottages.smallerliving.org.

An old table would work too.

If you have a couple of matching chairs that you don't want to reupholster, here's an idea; take off the seats and turn them into a bench. Some chairs work better for this than others.

Here's one I made out of old fence pickets. I cut off one of the chair legs because it was broken. I ended up selling it for $40 in my flea market booth.

I love this antique door turned corner shelf.

Here's tutorial for how to turn that old dresser with the wonky drawers into a kitchen island.

Or maybe just take the doors off for an easy sideboard to kitchen island transformation.

Hope you enjoyed!