Before & After! Upcycling Projects Using Salvaged Materials From Community Forklift

Community Forklift’s nonprofit reuse warehouse is a treasure trove of surplus and salvaged building materials and home goods, including furniture, lighting, appliances, kitchen cabinet sets, tile, and more. Check out the creative projects below using some of these materials!

Shopping and donating at Community Forklift helps conserve natural resources and prevents usable items from ending up in the landfill. Our reuse nonprofit has collaborated with the DC Department of Energy and Environment to promote reuse and deconstruction, the careful dismantling of a building so that materials can be salvaged for reuse.

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This beautiful coffee table was created using Treincarnation live edge lumber from Community Forklift’s reuse warehouse. Treincarnation mills live edge slabs from trees felled by storms or removed for development. This project has a stellar box design, corner details, and butterfly joints.

Visiting the reuse warehouse is another way to get inspired for a DIY or craft project. This pair of stools underwent a fabulous Lisa Frank inspired makeover after being snapped up at Community Forklift.

Carefully removing items from a renovation project instead of demolishing them means that those materials can be reused in someone else’s home instead of ending up in a landfill.

Community Forklift is a great resource for projects involving old homes. From @nikki.rosato on Instagram, “We have original 150-year-old heart pine flooring in our house, and we had a small section in our bedroom that needed to be patched. We were so excited to find this bundle of 3 heart pine planks at the warehouse for $25.”

You can find materials at the reuse warehouse in all sorts of sizes and styles. This plaster lamp was awesome in its heyday, but when purchased for $5 from Community Forklift the velvet panels were peeling and some earlier repairs were failing. With a couple of coats of paint and a $25 shade (also from the reuse warehouse), it’s back in business!

Unique salvaged finds can add a lot of personality to a space. With some curation and a fantastic paint job, @alexandracharitan on Instagram brought together the billiards light, steel cabinets, milk crate, and green chair in a wonderfully personal space.

“A while back I found this beat up metal cabinet at Community Forklift and fell in love with the handles on it,” @agrant5 wrote on Instagram. “The cabinet itself was in rough shape. There were so many dents, rust and corrosion, holes in the metal, and more, but I wanted to take a chance on it. After learning a few new skills — from fiberglass patching to filling blemishes on the handles with solder — I’m super happy with how it came out!”

Beautifully restored by Mark at @MCH.furniturerestoration on Instagram, the sideboard was part of Phelps and Bradley Co.’s “Boston Line” and has mortise and tenon joints, solid mahogany legs and components, satinwood inlay, and a dovetailed drawer. Another beautiful piece of furniture saved from the landfill!