Reduce, reuse, redecorate
Spring ahead This garden gate was once someone’s bed.
Photo credit: “Life After Money” blog
At a time when mattress-recycling legislation is making headlines and states begin addressing the problem of keeping old beds from clogging local landfills and entangling heavy equipment, another movement is afoot.
Cottage industries have sprung up—so to speak—around the art of repurposing old springs into shabby-chic home décor. It is fascinating to see just how many craftspeople are working in this new medium.
Take a tour of the online marketplace Etsy. Creative handicrafters turn coils into “wreaths” adorned with burlap and bows or laced with dried flowers. There also are votive holders, cupcake holders, wall hangings and table centerpieces—all fashioned from old springs. Go to Google Images, type in “bed spring crafts” and prepare to be amazed at the variety and number of items for sale. There is a lot of art in an old innerspring.
Off the grid In this project featured at home-decorating site Houzz.com, designer Cherie Marcel painted and decorated two old, metal bunkbed frames, turning them into a stunning headboard. Photo credit: Cherie Marcel
Other Etsy and eBay vendors fill the growing demand for raw materials, selling coils by the piece to crafters for more than a dollar each. Some sellers specialize in “antique” or vintage coils (think “rusty”).
At Pinterest, some of BedTimes’s favorite pins are objects made from repurposed innersprings. We repinned a wall-mounted Bonnell unit that now serves as a wine rack in a trendy bar, as well as a cool-looking garden gate made from an old innerspring.
In the fall, “wire home décor” offerings often revolve around holiday themes. There are Christmas “wreaths,” gilt-ribbon-wrapped tabletop items and even innerspring Christmas trees. At a holiday craft fair, we spotted one seller’s “tree” made from springs that was hung with homemade ornaments for sale.
In “Up-cyclers keep hundreds of mattresses out of Nacogdoches landfill,” National Public Radio station WWNO in New Orleans profiled furniture “up-cycler” Susan Hale who sells wreaths, Christmas trees, crosses and other home décor made from reclaimed coils. She and her husband Paul keep hundreds of used innersprings out of the local landfill each year and do a brisk business in wire art.
“We have a full bed-spring shop with all kinds of décor and it’s very popular. We can sell everything that we make every month. So it keeps us very busy,” Hale told the radio station.
