
Furniture Upcycling
When you see furniture curbside, do you wish you could bring it back to life? In this episode, we’ll explore stories of people who are building community through discarded furniture.
You can listen to my original podcast episode on furniture upcycling from November 2019 in this YouTube video:
Here’s a photo of a rocking chair that I painted with my then-boyfriend, now-husband. We called it the “Vege-chair” – a play-on-words for “vegetable.”

Community Builders
Grumpy Old Men Enterprises in New Zealand
Senior’s home in North Wales where people with dementia fix up furniture
Finished for Good – a volunteer who refinishes furniture to donate to Habitat for Humanity ReStores
Creative Reuse of Pianos
New York Times article about pianos ending up in landfill
Making a coffee table from a piano
Making a headboard from a piano
Making a place to hang your keys from piano keys
Creative Reuse of Armchairs
Donating to animal shelter in Illinois
Adding doilies over ripped sections of armchairs
Creative Reuse of Cribs
Inspirational Upcyclers to Follow
Show Details
- Script for this podcast episode about furniture upcycling
- Trashmagination podcast episode about mattress and box spring recycling
- Trashmagination podcast episode about scrap wood
- Trashmagination Pinterest board about furniture
- The Trashmagination podcast theme music is Kitchen from the Marian Circle Drum Brigade