Wary Meyers' Tossed and Found: Unconventional Design from Castoffs

What some view as trash, Linda and John Meyers see as raw material. The wife-and-husband team—subscribers to the “reduce, reuse, recycle” ethos—have perfected a design strategy that will save you money, help the planet, and provide hours of DIY fun. The strategy? First, visit a yard sale, construction-site dumpster, or even your own attic. Select something that somebody (even you) thought had outlived its usefulness. Then, transform that castoff into a piece that’s interesting and usable.

In this witty book, they apply their ingenious approach to seating (a chair made from pool noodles), lighting (a lamp from discarded pastry bags), storage (an umbrella stand from industrial steel pipe), tables (a wall-mounted table from a rusty basketball hoop), and all manner of decorative objects (Astroturf pillows, a pickle-jar terrarium). These super-clever authors show you that with a little ingenuity and elbow grease, everything old becomes new again.