Upcycling Your Extra Floor
Since you’re already going to be accounting for offcuts when measuring for your floor, why not take a sustainability inspired approach and turn them into fashionable furnishings and accessories that’ll perfectly compliment your refurbished room?
Whether working with the natural beauty of real wood or the limitless looks of laminate and vinyl, we’ve come up with some innovative ways to upcycle your leftover flooring and how you can easily assemble them yourself.
Coasters
The simplest yet also the most versatile use for your offcuts is to turn them into chic coasters for your home. Vinyl flooring is a great fit for this job being waterproof, perfect for those irritating ring marks your glass always leaves, but laminate flooring is still suitable. If you want something that really stands out, rigid core vinyl will not only make a sturdy coaster but a truly unique one with wood, stone, and marble effect options to make something really striking for your home. Just remember glue down boards won’t be suitable for this as they lack the rigidity needed.
When you’ve picked out your offcut then just measure up, score the board with a Stanley knife, and snap it into shape – no sanding, or sawing, or even any cork backing needed! These are terrific for adding accents to living rooms and dining rooms that have tangible character, or even make for a lovely gift for a loved one.
Coffee Table
There are lots of fun ways to approach this project - whether upcycling an old and worn table or making a new one from repurposed wood or a metal frame. If you have a table with a worn top, just spruce up the legs before adding the new boards. Once again, a good adhesive is all you really need to fix the boards on, whether real wood or laminate. Herringbone planks create a vibrant effect and is a great option with all the offcuts produced from installing your floor.
Whatever frame you decide to use, once the boards have been laid you just need to sand the edges down to finish it off. Any further offcuts could be turned into matching coasters to go with the table.
Wall Art
Not only a great way to reuse your real wood planks but also to add unique art to your home. Once you have cut and sanded the edges, you can easily recreate these gorgeous markings with a drill and saw. Having fun and being creative with this is key to making a piece that will truly be a one-of-a-kind addition to any room with a rustic appeal. To really highlight the natural character of the plank, paint over the marks with wood stain to darken the depths of the wood. When you’re ready to mount your masterpiece, just drill a slight hole into the back wide enough to slot over a screw in the wall.
What makes this fun to do is not only the easy and beautiful designs that can be carved in but the simplicity that goes into upcycling this offcut, needing little aside from tools you are likely to have around the home regardless. If you’re not taken by the abstract style of this design, try tacking on polaroid pictures and photo prints to create nostalgic collages, a great way to bring in bohemian energy.
Kitchen Units
If you’re thinking of mixing up the look of your kitchen units, then this is a fun alternative for your laminate and vinyl offcuts. This is an adhesive-only method but don’t let that restrict your imagination to glue-down floors. Properly cut and sanded, any type of flooring will do with no need to screw anything in or chisel anything off.
The authentic texture of wood-effect laminate and even stone-effect vinyl will be a great compliment to the aesthetic of any kitchen. Do not feel like you need to redo the whole room – a little taste of the outdoors, framed by strong tones, is more powerful than going overboard with one effect.
Letter Caddy
If you fancy a bit more of a challenge, try your hand at making something with not only a lot style but a lot of practical benefits too.
This caddy can be constructed with any stiff board of your choice, though we’d recommend working with the gorgeous grains of real wood – this will also look best when you put it with the batons needed to finish the piece. Cut your board into three equal pieces to be glued and clamped together as shown below and voila!
All that is left is to add in some hooks for keys and hole to hang it on. The result is an eye-catching piece for any visitors and a stylish way to keep things tidy around your home without eating up valuable floor space.
Bath Shelf
This is by far the most luxurious option that we have come across. The perfect way to treat yourself if you are feeling handy enough. This is best made with thick real wood – you could stack and glue laminate boards together though it will lack the same stability afforded by solid and engineered wood.
The shelf itself will be a single board cut to match the width of your bath from the outermost edges. The supports, made from cut boards or wood batons, will be screwed in from the underside, spaced apart according to the interior width of your bath. With these your shelf won’t slide off and into the tub no matter what you’re using it for!
From there you can customise for your needs – create a bookshelf like above with two pieces of wood at about 1cm and 5cm high each or use a jigsaw to cut in a keyhole shape you can slide the stem of your favourite wine glass into. It’s a good idea to coat the underside in some wood treatment to help protect it while you’re splashing about in stylish luxury
Whatever you decide to do with your offcuts, the joy does not come from perfection but from the creativity applied while upcycling. Try a range of wild styles and ideas to make unique looks and furnishings you can show off with pride.
