Most surprising interesting use from something else

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JBloggs

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 7, 2008
Messages
17,744
Reaction score
9
If you can recall, what was the most surprising or interesting use an inn made from something else, a use it was not made for initially?
Example: Using something from outside to use innside (garden or party ware that was made into a vase or something useful). I always like the different things used for napkin rings people come up with!
I am asking for those really cool ideas that are so interesting and nifty but someone else thought of them first. Something I would never think of on my own, but like! Recycling 101.
 
I bought a lot of my guest room furnishings from an estate sale, so the bedroom sets came with too much to fit in the rooms. For example, the set came with a high boy dresser and a regular dresser. So I am using two of the regular dressers in common areas - one as a buffet server (the drawers are perfect for keeping tablecloths, napkins, chargers, silverware, etc) and the other as a check in desk (drawers are perfect for extra rack cards, maps, paper for cc machine printer, etc). I don't even think of them as "dressers" anymore!
 
I bought a lot of my guest room furnishings from an estate sale, so the bedroom sets came with too much to fit in the rooms. For example, the set came with a high boy dresser and a regular dresser. So I am using two of the regular dressers in common areas - one as a buffet server (the drawers are perfect for keeping tablecloths, napkins, chargers, silverware, etc) and the other as a check in desk (drawers are perfect for extra rack cards, maps, paper for cc machine printer, etc). I don't even think of them as "dressers" anymore!.
I have a dresser from my son's bedroom set that I use in the dining room to store linens. I painted it to 'match' the dining room.
I have some broken cast iron garden chairs (broken in that you couldn't sit on them without getting an owwee) that I use for plant stands.
Flower pot to hold silverware.
Funny, but once something is repurposed, I forget what it was for in the first place!
 
Not something I have but something nearby me...a bike rack made from a bike frame!
photo4.JPG
 
i got a lovely (to me) wooden wine rack at a yard sale ... it hadn't been used and was still in the box. $1.00!!! the kind that looks like triangles. i used it to hold rolled up towels after seeing that idea on an online blog.
my mother stitched up the bottom hem of little dresses and made them into holders for plastic grocery bags and clothes pins and rags ... sadly i couldn't find them when i was taking inventory at my folks' house. :(
i made an old bureau into a kitchen island. it wasn't the best tiling job across the top, but i liked it a lot. it was one of those long bureaus, not the tall kind. i removed the two lower of the three drawers and attached two cabinet doors i was able to get. and it held all my pots and pans. if it wasn't so heavy, i'd have taken it with me when i left. i'm sure they junked it. oh well.
 
An inn-mate has repurposed several antique dressers into cabinets with sinks for the guest bathrooms. Beautiful! But my favorite was one that they put in an antique hammered copper sink to be used in their guest service area. Very special!
I liked to use a lot of my silver here, so would use it for a variety of purposes that were unconventional but none is jumping out at me at the moment. I'll put more thought into the things that I've noticed other places and try to post them because I'm always impressed with people being so creative! :)
 
An inn-mate has repurposed several antique dressers into cabinets with sinks for the guest bathrooms. Beautiful! But my favorite was one that they put in an antique hammered copper sink to be used in their guest service area. Very special!
I liked to use a lot of my silver here, so would use it for a variety of purposes that were unconventional but none is jumping out at me at the moment. I'll put more thought into the things that I've noticed other places and try to post them because I'm always impressed with people being so creative! :).
Samster said:
An inn-mate has repurposed several antique dressers into cabinets with sinks for the guest bathrooms. Beautiful! But my favorite was one that they put in an antique hammered copper sink to be used in their guest service area. Very special!
I liked to use a lot of my silver here, so would use it for a variety of purposes that were unconventional but none is jumping out at me at the moment. I'll put more thought into the things that I've noticed other places and try to post them because I'm always impressed with people being so creative! :)
mix matched chunky pieces of silver cutlery make great wind chimes.
 
I have the foot of the king bed we bought in the closet. I wanted to do something like this but couldn't figure out where it would look right.
It would be cute to do it so the flowers looked like a bedspread. A lot of white with punches of color in a pattern. Have you seen those flower plantings in Holland or the rice paddies?
I could see a dinghy where you were. That would have been cool.
 
I have the foot of the king bed we bought in the closet. I wanted to do something like this but couldn't figure out where it would look right.
It would be cute to do it so the flowers looked like a bedspread. A lot of white with punches of color in a pattern. Have you seen those flower plantings in Holland or the rice paddies?
I could see a dinghy where you were. That would have been cool..
Take your footboard and attach it to a picnic bench and you have a comfy bench with back for the porch. Make a nice pillow seat for it and it could be a sitting area for a room.
 
When I was in Alaska I saw a pair of hiking boots that had been turned into planters sitting on someone's porch
 
i love old chairs and things in the garden. an iron bed frame with all flowers growing up looks great to me ... some people think it looks messy or junky, but i like it.
this one the planting is pretty fancy, but i've seen rose bushes and random plantings look nice, too. and how appropriate for a bed and breakfast.
i also like flowers in the basket of an old bike leaning on a railing or fence, in an old wheelbarrow or in a child's riding toy.
i wanted to do a small dingy with plants, but didn't get that far.
 
My neighbour has wellington boots (small ones) fastened to his fence with flowers growing in them it looks really good. Don't know what he does to his flowers but they always look amazing.
 
i love old chairs and things in the garden. an iron bed frame with all flowers growing up looks great to me ... some people think it looks messy or junky, but i like it.
this one the planting is pretty fancy, but i've seen rose bushes and random plantings look nice, too. and how appropriate for a bed and breakfast.
i also like flowers in the basket of an old bike leaning on a railing or fence, in an old wheelbarrow or in a child's riding toy.
i wanted to do a small dingy with plants, but didn't get that far..
seashanty said:
i love old chairs and things in the garden. an iron bed frame with all flowers growing up looks great to me ... some people think it looks messy or junky, but i like it.
this one the planting is pretty fancy, but i've seen rose bushes and random plantings look nice, too. and how appropriate for a bed and breakfast.
i also like flowers in the basket of an old bike leaning on a railing or fence, in an old wheelbarrow or in a child's riding toy.
i wanted to do a small dingy with plants, but didn't get that far.
That picture in the link is SO cute! When we were in New England last year I loved it when I saw a dingy with flowers, so cute and original (at least to ME!).
 
This is an old antique cream separator that was left here from the previous owners. DH made a fountain out of it.
Cottage%202006%20258small.JPG
 
We have a small cabinet or dresser that was made into a gorgeous vanity (by a place that does that stuff, Vanities of Yesteryear).
We have a headboard made from a door.
In one room we initially thought we'd have to have a step up for the toilet to have enough slope to drain. When we figured out a way to avoid the step the platform (which had already been built) became the base of a king-sized bed.
Silver plated coasters have become nightstand candy dishes.
=)
Kk.
 
Back
Top