Friday, January 15, 2010

Scavenger Hunting

Today we spent some time weaving our way through one of my favorite places to peer into, pick up, turn over and open up stuff; Urban Ore on Murray Street in Berkeley. This for profit location takes in gently used items and re-sells them in their huge (and cold) warehouse and their outside lot at a low, low price. Helping out those looking to stretch a dollar and preventing the items from going into our already bursting landfills. The assortment ranges from broken tiles, bricks, doors still hanging in the frames they were hung in when ripped out of an unsuspecting structure, sinks, toilets, windows, furniture, and an entire wall full of electronic doo-dads that I usually spend the most time hanging around imagining what I could make out of all that stuff.

We have purchased 'containers' for our garden (out of service terracotta sewer pipe & metal duct work), stepping stones (unused pavers), extra seating for inside and out (old church pews), and my favorite find to date; a metal stand that once refurbished, went just inside our front door to catch keys, sunglasses, handbags, and mail. Based on the shape and colors of the sticker (lovingly preserved) on the front, it originally stood in the service area of a Texaco station. It is the perfect height to write comfortably while standing next to it, and the inside is full of slots and places for order pads, pens, and those fun reminder cards that they stuck in your visor so you knew when to stop by next. Some steel wool, primer and two colors of paint later the piece was suitable for inside the house, inspiring a more industrial feel in the room where it now lives.


Before & After

Our mission this afternoon was to find something to use as a new television slash cable box slash DVD player slash mini stereo stand. It is good to have a vivid imagination when going on a scavenger hunt since the idea was to find the shape and height that would work and we would sand, paint, or stain the item to fit our decor. Our first find was a solid wood mantel with an electric heating element, complete with realistic looking logs on a grate. Perfect width and height, the ledge was the right size for the television, but where to put the rest of the stuff? Next we found a changing table, complete with built in steps, but decided that would be too odd, even with a coat of paint. In the end, we didn't find what we were looking for, but did find a really great lampshade for another re-use project that I'm working on. More on that when it's finally finished. Until then, I am ready to be the 'light' of the party!

(images are author's own)