Green Decorating With Recycled Cabinets

Outdoors

• Old cabinets can serve as useful garden stations to store your pesticides, garden supplies and water hose. You can also jigsaw off the top of the cabinet to make an oversize cabinet, or use the cabinet to place garden trays of flowers and herbs. An old cabinet door serves as a new door for the tree house or outdoor play area.

Garage

• Use your old kitchen cabinets for useful storage in the garage. They don't have to be pretty to provide plenty of function. Put three cabinets together, and place a durable surface on top to make your own garage work station. Stack cabinets on top of each other to make modular storage for your tools, sports equipment and children's toys.

Resurface

• You can replace your kitchen cabinets at a fraction of the cost if you resurface the existing ones. Remove the old veneer and doors, sand the surface and paint or stain the cabinets the desired color. You can either replace your existing doors and keep the cabinets intact, or sand and paint the doors with low VOC paint.

Hutch

• Make a hutch for your living room, dining room, office, bedroom or craft room. Install a cabinet to a wall or inside an alcove. Add a few floating shelves above the cabinet a few feet apart. With the same color paint, your hutch will look like built-in storage.

Living Room Accessories

• Use just the door and handles to recycle your cabinets. Screw a cabinet door on top of an existing worn-out table to give it a charming look. A table tray consists of a cabinet door and two door handles.

Kitchen and Dining Room

• Make a bar with a couple of your old cabinets and countertop. Hang wine glasses, and add a wine rack beside the bar. Attach an old cabinet door to the ceiling of your kitchen. Hang pots and pans from it for a simple and quaint storage solution.

Bedroom

• Cabinets are at an ideal height for children, so use your spare cabinets to decorate your kid's room. Use an old cabinet to store your children's toys. Another use is to add a wooden rod and make a small wardrobe out of the cabinet. Adding a mirror to the cabinet makes it a simple vanity for your girl's room. You can make a chalkboard by adding chalkboard spray to an old cabinet door.