Woodcraft invites the Parkersburg, WV area residents to a free Upcycling Event at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Saturday, June 21, at 10 a.m. Mixed media artist Leslie Yoak from St. Marys will “upcycle” and repurpose ReStore items to improve their look and value. What’s the difference between upcycle and repurpose? Upcycling is taking something old or outdated and giving it a fresh modern new look. Repurposing is giving new life to an item by changing it into something entirely useful than what is used to be. For example, the item on the left below is an end table from the 80′s, upcycled with General Finishes products from Woodcraft, giving it a new flair with a distressed look to match the rooms decor. Photo right shows an old bathroom light box fixture, repurposed or transformed into a rack for hanging anything from jewelry and belts to other creative items for remodeling any room.
Yoak’s My Lovely Chaos line of furniture and home décor items is available for sale at The Greenhouse at St. Marys where Yoak was a guest June 1 at a meet and greet session. She describes her work as a mixture of wood and metal that often incorporates primitive, rustic items that she finds in barns and at flea markets.
Although she began her artistic career doing custom painted wood furniture that takes up a lot of space and time, a craft show invitation prompted her to rethink her work. “I thought, what can I do with this primitive wood that I love and rustic metal and make it my own, because I like contemporary,” Yoak said. She decided to do mirrors, picture frames and other smaller items that could be finished quickly and sold at craft shows.
During the upcycling event, Yoak will use milk paints, wood stains and Polyacrylic finishes from Woodcraft to show the audience how she changes old items into new, beautiful and usable pieces.
Attendees at this event will see a “shabby chic” table (pictured above and left), which Yoak upcycled from an 1980′s era table, beginning with sanding the top to remove water damage. “I removed the doors and hardware, applied two coats of Bulls Eye Sanding Sealer to everything, two coats of General Finishes Lamp Black Milk Paint to base sides and front center of doors, and two coats of Antique White Milk Paint to the top and the rest of doors,” Yoak said. “Then I lightly sanded everything and applied Antique Oak Wood Stain, wiping it away to produce an antique effect. Finally, I applied new Satin Silver Brass Knob hardware.”
A panel of experts from Woodcraft will be on hand to answer questions about products and processes and share other tips for upcycling. The event will be videotaped and shown on www.woodcraft.com, www.woodcountyhabitat.org, and Woodcraft’s Woodworking Adventures Blog site.
“This Upcycling Event is a great opportunity for local residents to learn more about upcycling as Leslie Yoak demonstrates her special techniques using products from Woodcraft that lend themselves to many types of upcycling projects – and be part of Woodcraft’s training video,” Vince Grlovich, Woodcraft vice president for sales and marketing, said.
Habitat ReStore, located at 1448 Seventh Street, accepts donated household and construction items and then resells them, using the profits to build houses. Wood County Habitat has completed 70 homes and provided housing for over 250 people since becoming an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International in 1991. For more information, visit www.woodcountyhabitat.org.
For more information about Woodcraft, please contact the Woodcraft store nearest you, visit www.woodcraft.com or call (800) 535-4482. To learn about Woodcraft franchise opportunities, visit www.woodcraftfranchise.com or email woodcraftfranchise@woodcraft.com.
Upcycling not only provides your home, office, school or church with a new look, it’s fun, easy to do, keeps items from heading to the landfill in our throw-away world, and comes at a much lower cost by doing it yourself instead of buying something new or having someone else do it for you. Anyone can do this.
The demonstration at the Habitat ReStore will be followed by an additional upcycling project demo at the Parkersburg Woodcraft store on Emerson Avenue at 1:00 p.m. Come learn how you can take a wooden pallet and make it into this wine rack (left).
Check out our many woodworking items on our Instagram gallery and Pinterest page including other Upcycling projects.
Habitat for Humanity and Woodcraft can help you make it work!
Come see us, we’ll show you how.
auf Wiedersehen!…Frank
