Repurposed Vintage Decor Items

Looking back over the years, I’ve reused a bunch of vintage items in new ways to use as home decor. Some of those posts can still be found in full here at Refresh Living -> upcycled and repurposed home decor. The following projects no longer have full tutorial posts, but I’ve included a brief description of the project so you can still create your own.

Vintage Enamelware Tiered Serving Dishes

You can reuse vintage enamelware bowls or plates to create stacked serving trays. Use super glue to attach a wooden spindle to each bowl. Or buy a tiered serving tray hardware kit and drill holes into the enamelware to attach the hardware kit. (This works better when creating a tiered serving dish with plates rather than bowls. The bowls are too deep and the distance between each level isn’t tall enough with the hardware kit.)

Add Chicken Wire to a Wooden Crate

Adding square mesh chicken wire to a wooden crate from the thrift store can easily give it a new look with a rustic, farmhouse feel. Simply paint the wood and then staple the chicken wire to the inside of the crate.

Reuse an Old Picture Frame

There are so many different ways to reuse an old picture frame. I took a wooden frame from the thrift store, painted it, and then made a fabric and burlap welcome banner. This could hang in an entryway, front area of a store, or at a pop up market booth.

Pillow Covers made from Vintage Fabric

I found this fabric at a flea market and fell in love with the colors. I used it in my vintage camp themed room at our lake house to make a large pair of drop cloth curtains. Then, I used the leftover fabric to cut out these letters with my Cricut and I sewed them to this pillow cover that I made.

Coasters from Vintage Canning Lids

I found these vintage canning jar lids in the basement at an estate sale and wanted to use them in a fun way. I made these coasters by cutting out some cork circles, painting them with acrylic paint, and then sealing with three coats of clear acrylic sealer. We still use these coasters in our living room over seven years later!

Vintage Book or Sheet Music Garland

I love to reuse vintage books that are falling apart to make paper garlands. I use my Cricut to cut three different sizes of circles out from the pages. Then, I sew them together with a wide stitch on my sewing machine to make the garland.

I’ve also used sheet music to make these garlands as well.

Zippered Pouch from Grain Sacks

I love reusing the fabric from vintage grain sacks in new ways. I’ve made a few pillow covers from grain sacks, and then I tried out making these grain sack zippered pouches as well. They’re lined to give them extra stability and a fancy finish on the inside. Here’s the tutorial I followed to make my lined zippered pouch.

Vintage Doily Bowls

I see vintage doilies all the time when thrifting, especially at thrift stores. Using fabric stiffener, you can easily make little catch-all bowls from vintage doilies. They really stay firm and act as the perfect little vessel for holding jewelry, hair bands, spare change, or anything else that needs a home on your dresser or counter!

After dying the bowls with RIT dye, wash and dry them. Then, apply Fabric Stiffener all over the doily. Place saran wrap over a jar or bowl and push the sides down along the edge. This will be the size of your bowl, so be sure the jar you pick works for the size of the doily and the depth of the bowl. Allow to dry out overnight and in the morning, the doily bowl will be super firm and ready to store little items in a pretty way!

Vintage Screen with Doilies

I reuse other vintage doilies and added them to a wooden window screen to create this large backdrop for my mantel. I could also see this as being a backdrop for a pop-up booth at a market or window display at a vintage shop.

After keeping it up for one season, I ended up cutting off the doilies and reusing the screen for other holiday decor. (This year I hung all my vintage Shiny Brite ornaments on it!)

Old Picture Frames as Kids Towel Hooks

I found two mismatched 5″ x 7″ frames at the thrift store and gave them a coat of spray paint in the same color. Then, I drilled a holes through the bottom of each one and added cabinet pulls to act as towel hooks for my kids. Adding a picture of each kid helps them to know where to hang their towel!

DIY Animal Hooks

Although this project doesn’t really use any vintage items, I did reuse some old plastic animal toys I found at the thrift store to make these DIY hooks from animal butts! Just saw the animals in half, spray paint them (if you’d like), and screw through from the back of the wood into the center of the animal. Drilling about halfway through the animal gave plenty of holding power to hang kids coats, dress up clothes, and little backpacks.

I’ve also attached magnets to the back of cut up toy animals to make magnets for my classroom. Middle school students love them!

Fabric and Burlap Custom Banner

This easy DIY banner can be customized with stenciled letters which makes it perfect for holiday decorating, business signs, or custom messages for celebrations. I cut triangles out of burlap and slightly larger triangles out of fabric. Then, I painted letters onto the burlap using letter stencils.

To attach it all together, I folded over the fabric to make a pocket across the top and then sewed straight across (holding the burlap in place and making the pocket for the twine to go through at the end). I used jute twine to thread the letter flags together to make the complete banner garland.

Repurposed Book Curtain for a Classroom Door

This project has a special place in my heart because it’s one of the few that combine both of my “professions” – teaching and DIYing! I made this curtain garland for my ELA classroom door from an old book that was falling apart. Simply glue long pieces of ribbon to the back of the book pages and hang in the entryway.

I used ModPodge to glue some of the pages to the piece of cardboard inside an old picture frame and printed this saying on a piece of clear sticker paper. You could also just hand write a message on the book pages as well!

Bundt Pan Reused as Flower Pot

I drilled some drainage holes in the bottom of this bundt pan to use it as a flower pot. Then, I put a small vase in the middle to hold fresh flowers as well.