Low Waste & Limited Budget: Upcycled, Removable Kitchen Counter Skirt
Low Waste & Limited Budget Home Decor Project: Upcycled & Removable Kitchen Counter Skirt
I find such joy in making adjustments within our little home (which is also my full-time office) in order to creatively improve our household’s day-to-day routines. But I have zero interest in wasting material resources, spending money or acquiring new items in order to switch things up. Instead, I strive to find ways to work with what we’ve got to make impactful changes. These little endeavors usually involve a bit of repair, customizing, crafting, and/or trial and error. Sometimes things play out perfectly. Other times the project ends up a complete disaster. But either way I delight in trying.
Recently, while shuffling things around the house, we stored some extra produce and cooking ingredients, emergency storm supplies and library books in the built-in cubbies of our kitchen island. I found myself visually overwhelmed by everything, which can happen easily in a smaller space with an open layout. I wished I could conceal the cubbies when desired without making any permanent changes and without buying new goods. Usually I quite like the cubbies, and they’re certainly highly functional. I’m glad they’re there, and that we didn’t opt for cabinets instead, as I appreciate the character and depth the cubbies offer. But every now and then — particularly when I’m working on creative projects for others — my mind and eyes need a reset, or at least a calmer canvas of sorts.
A counter skirt / kitchen island curtain seemed like a simple solution. And our younger beagle-mix rescue helped me bring the concept to life by digging a hole in the bottom of our flat sheet on our bed, leaving me with a lot of leftover linen fabric to repurpose. (She’s a menace, that dog, but we love her just the same.)
With a few Command hooks and a telescoping sash rod (we have two on-hand here because we find them as ever-useful as tension rods and s-hooks), I was able to swiftly install an imperfect but entirely passable counter skirt. No damage, no waste, no bulk — everything can be removed and reused as desired.
These simple Command hooks are only visible when ducking below the counter.
It’s not fussy or flawless, but it’s perfect for our home, priorities and needs, and that’s what matters to us here.
Items used:
Telescoping Sash Rod
Repurposed Flat Sheet (cut and sewn to specs)
Repurposed Gift Wrap with a Story
Repurpose items from around your home into low waste / reusable holiday gift wrap.
(Original post from 2020)
We haven’t bought wrapping paper or gift bags in years. Even though we live in a small space and don’t have many spare supplies of any sort sitting around, it’s still surprisingly easy to shop our own home for items that can be repurposed as playful packaging.
While the end result is rarely perfect, there’s so much to love— it’s original, it’s free, and it generates less waste. (Related post: Playful Low Waste Gift Wrap)
These handmade bars of soap were wrapped with completed pages from one of West’s work booklets, and topped with salvaged ribbon and tree clippings.
What I enjoy just as much as the searching and wrapping is passing along the stories behind each repurposed ribbon, book jacket, muslin bag, or fabric scrap.
Dust jackets remain my go-to for wrapping presents for kids. (We store most of these paper covers beneath our mattress throughout the year to flatten out the lines, and then grab one whenever we need some colorful packaging.)
While the illustration art is the attraction for the recipient, there’s usually a tale behind the rest of the bundle for the parents / guardians to share.
This method of wrapping is also friendly for folks who aren’t hugely into DIYs (that’s me). Plus it’s also safer this year than going to the store, as we’re meant to shelter at home whenever possible.
Below are a few glimpses of this year’s very quickly completed wrappings, as well as cleverly designed bundles that needed no wrapping whatsoever.
Above: Brown paper biodegradable tape from Net Zero Co.
Almost everything used above has a story to tell— a ribbon that has been passed down through multiple generations and households. A remnant that once held a stone that traveled the country. A string that once wrapped the weighted blanket that helped improve my sleep habits. A spare/unused shoelace from a pair of sneakers designed by a well-known creative and dear friend.
(And, of course, customized boxes of dog treats that shows the sweet faces of our pups— why would we want to cover those up?!)
Repurposed Gift Wrap with a Story
We haven’t bought wrapping paper or gift bags in years. Even though we live in a small space and don’t have many spare supplies of any sort sitting around, it’s still surprisingly easy to shop our own home for items that can be repurposed as playful packaging.
While the end result is rarely perfect, there’s so much to love— it’s original, it’s free, and it generates less waste. (Related post: Playful Low Waste Gift Wrap)
These handmade bars of soap were wrapped with completed pages from one of West’s work booklets, and topped with salvaged ribbon and tree clippings.
What I enjoy just as much as the searching and wrapping is passing along the stories behind each repurposed ribbon, book jacket, muslin bag, or fabric scrap.
Dust jackets remain my go-to for wrapping presents for kids. (We store most of these paper covers beneath our mattress throughout the year to flatten out the lines, and then grab one whenever we need some colorful packaging.)
While the illustration art is the attraction for the recipient, there’s usually a tale behind the rest of the bundle for the parents / guardians to share.
This method of wrapping is also friendly for folks who aren’t hugely into DIYs (that’s me). Plus it’s also safer this year than going to the store, as we’re meant to shelter at home whenever possible.
Below are a few glimpses of this year’s very quickly completed wrappings, as well as cleverly designed bundles that needed no wrapping whatsoever.
Above: Brown paper biodegradable tape from Net Zero Co.
Almost everything used above has a story to tell— a ribbon that has been passed down through multiple generations and households. A remnant that once held a stone that traveled the country. A string that once wrapped the weighted blanket that helped improve my sleep habits. A spare/unused shoelace from a pair of sneakers designed by a well-known creative and dear friend.
(And, of course, customized boxes of dog treats that shows the sweet faces of our pups— why would we want to cover those up?!)
UPDATE: Repurposing & Recycling Leftover Paint
PSA Time: If you have leftover cans of paint sitting around after buying too much for a project (like we did after repainting our interior 2 years ago), you can take them to be safely and responsibly recycled for free.
Our house is almost 100 years old, so every now and then it needs a bit of a touch up. I try to use any leftover paint we have on-hand to brighten interior and exterior spots when needed. Since America Recycles Day is in mid-November,, it’s a good time to remind folks that leftover paint can be safely and responsibly recycled for free via the non-profit PaintCare.
In parts of the United States where the non profit PaintCare operates, households, businesses, and individuals can take their unwanted, leftover paint to a drop-off site. From there it is sorted and managed for reuse, recycling, energy recovery, or safe disposal. (There’s even information regarding their protocol for managing their services during the COVID-19 outbreak on their site.)
Visit PaintCare.org to learn how to:
Estimate and buy the right amount of paint for future projects
Store your paint wisely to extend its lifespan
Discover fun projects for using up leftover paint
Donate your paint to organizations that might need it
Recycle your leftover paint
Note: This blog post was not sponsored, but the corresponding Instagram post was paid for by PaintCare.
Repurposing Bottles Around the Home
One of the DIY-lite projects I’ve long enjoyed is using branches and repurposed bottles to craft space-savvy garden stake vases.
Above: Photo from an East Coast wedding I produced in 2015.
After completing a recent creative project for which I was hired by Wonderful Wine Co., we had some leftover bottles that I decided to repurpose around the house and garden. (Transparency note: this blog post is not sponsored.)
It’s estimated that almost half of a wine bottle’s carbon footprint comes from the production and mishandling of packaging. These particular bottles are made with lightweight glass that requires 20% less energy and 12% percent less water to produce, cutting back this company’s carbon emissions by approximately 26% overall, and making the bottles particularly usable for upcycling projects.
With the help of a few materials + accessories already here at the cottage, we turned the bottles into the garden stake vases, a dishwashing soap dispenser, a candle holder, a nightlight, and a simple vase to prolong the life of a tomato branch that was snapped off by a particularly rude mouse.
Remember: only a small percentage of recyclables actually gets recycled.
So before you chuck something into the bin, explore its other potential uses first.
Additional photos below.
