Turning White Elephants into Work Horses

Long ago, a fellow blogger had a photo of a rather odd piece of furniture on the front page of her blog, and she was asking what it was, and for suggestions on how to reuse it, dismantle it and turn it into something else, or how to get rid of it. She is a very conscientious frugalite, and didn’t just want to heave it to the curb.

Well, the standard raft of answers about CraigsList, freecycle, and classified ads showed up, but I had another answer. First, a question.

“Where did this thing come from—where did it originate?”

She didn’t know. She bought it at a yard sale, thinking it was a low shelving unit with two small doors in it.

I correctly identified it to her as the hutch piece of a dresser/hutch or desk/hutch combination. This is the piece that sits atop a dresser or desk for additional storage on top.

She laughed and responded, “Oh—no wonder it sat so low!”

I continued to instruct her on ways of looking at this piece from fresh perspectives instead of just off-the-cuff, rushing to get rid of something before actually giving it a hard thought and a second look.

• Turn it on its side, step back from it, and look at it. Does this position reveal any new uses or places to you?

• Turn it completely upside down and do the same thing.

• Elevate it, or imagine it elevated on a wall, dresser, or desk, or even with legs under it. Got any ideas yet?

• Try laying it flat, and imaging it as the base for a big square coffee table—covering the front completely changes the look.

• Maybe the color is what’s so objectionable now—try painting it as well as repurposing it. Some new hardware might do more wonders.

I’m glad to report that the formerly-unusable low bookcase got turned into a shoe shelf/key caddy in her mud room. The unit now sits upside-down, and keys and other paraphernalia we all dump right after coming in now go into the little door compartments (now at the top of the unit), where they’re out of sight. Boots, out-of-season shoes, and garden sneakers go in the shelves. Needless to say, she was very happy about keeping this piece out of a landfill and off the curb—it’s now the first thing she sees coming in.