Crispina Ffrench funded her own college tuition by making quirky little Ragamuffins, an eclectic line of stuffed dolls made with pieces of recycled clothing. Twenty years later, Crispina’s collection is part of a larger company called Fuschia Home, which has a team of skilled artisans working together to create brightly colored pillows, blankets, and rugs, and home accessories.

In a sunny studio in Massachusetts, Crispina and her team of skilled artisans take used wool sweaters which they clean, soften, cut into strips, and weave into cosy rugs. They make blankets and pillows from squares of reused wool to make colorful patterns and fun designs. The store offers a wide variety of style and color combinations and sizes so you can get something that’s pretty much custom-made for you!

If I were twenty years younger and not so attached to my stuffed Paddington bear, I’d be toting around one of these. I was introduced to Judy Geagley’s spunky bunch of stuffed animals by Amy of Greenjeans. Here are some of the critters who live in Amy and Jae’s store.

What began in 1987 as a side-job to make a bit of extra money while staying at home with her three children has grown into a busy business for Judy Geagley, who is now helped by her husband.

The personality of each stuffed animal comes from the patterns and materials that they are made with — a combination of recycled fabrics, including wool skirts and coats, quilts, and old pieces of chenille or ribbon. This gives a worn, homemade look to each of the toys that makes them such reassuring companions for little kids.

I haven’t had a chance to paint any of my own walls just yet, but when I do, these are the ones I’d pick up — Sundance Prairie Paints.

These paints have been receiving a considerable amount of buzz in newspapers, home decor magazines, and environmentally-friendly networks, and when you find out why, it’s no surprise.

To minimize the damaging effects that producing new paints has on the environment, Sundance Prairie Paints are made by blending and matching only post-consumer paints into six gentle earthen colors. Perfect for adding a touch of color and glow to a room without leaving a heavy environmental footprint. 

Now, if only they could come up with a similar process to recycle acrylic and oil paints ….

I came across these clever little wallets by Terrence Kelleman when I was gift-shopping in the design store of the Museum of Modern Art. They’re not made from real envelopes, but rather from Tyvek, a durable, moisture resistant material that consists of 25% post-consumer recycled content.

They’re folded in a way that doesn’t require any stitches or seams, and there’s a secret pocket to store to keep your cards and cash safe.

A few months ago, when my husband and I were looking for chairs for our new home, I visited Amy at Greenjeans in Park Slope, Brooklyn to ask for her furniture recommendations. She introducted me to Whit McLeod’s stunning chairs, made from — and here I had to pause and think for a bit before understanding the concept — reclaimed wine barrels!

With the help of his wife and two fellow craftsmen, McLeod, a wildlife biologist-turned-carpenter, takes old oak wine barrels and tanks and reshapes them into stunning pieces of furniture that are simultaneously unique and versatile. Each piece is finished and branded with an edition number and the name of the winery where the barrel was once used.

I would definitely think of getting one of the wine barrel chairs if we had a big patio or a backyard!

When my parents moved into their new house, they decided to clean out all their old stuff, including a set of encyclopedias I’d used when I was a kid. I thought of asking them to keep the books so that later, when my husband and I have a larger house, we could put the row of encyclopedias on a shelf in the study, to make our home look more “antiquated” and “studious” — but alas, what’s the point of keeping around old books that you probably won’t ever open again, even if you like how the covers look?

Carpenter and artist Jim Rosenau seems to have a good answer to that:

In 2002, Rosenau created a bookshelf using some outdated (1938 edition) encyclopedias. Now, he has a full-fledged art studio where he creates furniture and accessories from unwanted hardback books.

While his grandfather and father were both book publishers, Rosenau is more interested with the color and text of book covers rather than the pages inside.

He gets his supply of discarded hardbacks from recycling centers and libraries, matches them with pieces of discarded wood, including old futon frames, and then spends about 3 days to building each shelf. His purpose is to “turn books, which once were trees, back into lumber.”

His bookshelves are available on his website This Into That or you can contact him directly for a custom order.

You can read more about Rosenau’s work by looking at the “About the Art” section on his website, and in an article in The Daily Californian.

What began in 1991 when Graham Bergh used a flat inner tube to hang his stereo speakers has grown into a company called Resource Revival that takes discarded bycicle parts and other rescued materials and reshapes them into useful everyday objects. Headed by Bergh, the company includes a growing number of artists and cyclists who work together to come up with better ways to use parts from old bikes.

The list of things they make is ever-expanding, from funky CD display racks, can openers and clocks, to sophisticated side tables and candle holders.

Of course, they’d never think about doing this with a perfectly good bike parts.

Old records that have lived a full life, entertaining music lovers with tunes of the past. Even after they don’t play anymore, there’s still a way to put them to good use. Jeff Davis of Brooklyn, New York takes vintage records with the original labels still intact and seals each with mylar to cover the spindle hole and protect them from moisture, creating these great bowls and coasters.

You can find the entire collection of Jeff Davis’ Vinylux Originals (all made from recycled plastic records) including sketchbooks and clocks at Greenfeet.com.

Vintage records are being put to good use in Canada too. I just found out about this on Phototiller: Grassroots Environmental Products has created a line of Re-cord Record Photo Albums made from vinyl record covers, with the record still in its jacket, and each album is bound with 20 pages of black acid-free recycled paper.  

Yes, they are what you think — salvaged American street signs that have been finished and sealed by hand into glossy, stylish coasters.

Each coaster is handmade in Providence, Rhode Island by metalsmith Boris Bally and are available at Elsewares, Uncommon Goods, and Eco-Artware. He also makes other mind-boggling, functional pieces with the old street signs (available online at The Guild), including light switches, serving platters, mailboxes, tables and chairs!

Want to add some fun to your workspace? The Translations Magnetic Board will do just the trick. Both the board and magnets are decorated in a paper-mache style with pages from real Japanese magazines.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but this puts all these ideas in my head for how to use old magazines and decorate things — I’ll just have to add that to my ever-growing list of projects, which I’m not even close to starting because I’m still working on filling my Five and a Half orders for the fall season!