Upcycling: Create Beautiful Things with the Stuff You Already Have

Seo proves that one person's junk is another person's chic with 100 imaginative ideas for reusing, well, junk: silk flowers, old buttons and wine corks, old paint stirrers. Upcycling fashions disposable odds and ends into a new life of high-style repurpose. Who knew you could do something other than fill a drawer with Chinese takeout chopsticks (make a trivet); hotel key cards (use them in a breakfast-in-bed tray); and jar lids (glue them onto a metal grate table in a distinctive new surface)? Seo's directions for projects for decorating, entertaining, giving, are super-simple; one chapter contains kid-friendly projects. You don't need an elaborate set of tools either, though a glue gun and cordless drill are essential items. Not everything here will be to everyone's taste (a necktie wreath?), but that is the point; Seo comes up with funky, fun, and very distinctive items. Being eco-smart doesn't mean being dowdy. (Aug.)