Recent interview with my friend and fellow tinyhouser, Ethan Waldman. Learn how to live a sustainable lifestyle in a net zero tiny house!
Click here to listen.
reclaimed furniture
Making Art/Furniture/Fashion from your tiny house waste-stream!
There is very little waste at the Silver Bullet Tiny House build. The little that remains was recycled and reclaimed, up cycled and repurposed, a few examples here:
• Free horticulture palettes that stored building supplies all winter were repurposed for an outside vermicomposting shed to reclaim 60% of our organic waste (the other 40% goes into another composting pile):
• NYTimes newspapers and bottled water containers left by workshop attendees were made into creative fashions:
Repurposed lumber scraps and found lumber used for basic construction workbench:
•Repurposed, repaired, reclaimed, recycled found objects from yard sales or free from my local UHaul “free cycle” area; see separate links for the stackable stools, the bar stool, gift boxes, and tray.
• More fashions made of rain screen, cedar breather and corrugated steel will be posted after the fashion show!!
North Shore Artists Advance Sustainability Through Fashion
Please come!!!
On October 25th you can purchase a gown, accessory, travel package, gift certificates to your favorite local vendors; have great food, meet new friends–a good time seeing some fabulous “up cycled/repurposed” fashions in this show and help raise funds for longwayhome.org (They build sustainably designed schools). (The gown on the far right is one of my designs).
Another reclaimed stool, a cigar box and a tray
I left a gorgeous glass table and some chairs (too heavy for my tiny house) at my local Uhaul “recycling area”. While there I picked up a free cigar box, a tray and a swivel stool that needed some love and attention. I took some leftover wooden “Ball legs” from a commissioned series of large art screens and went to work. (Another Uhaul stool project)
I took a couple of wooden scraps, ripped, whittled and sanded two new legs for the ones missing from the chair, oiled and cleaned the swivel mechanism, sanded the chair and painted it.
And took my new stool for a spin! They don’t make them like they used to! This chair is wicked substantial and will work great for my tiny house kitchen chores.
Did the same with the tray (for tiny house parties) and cigar box (which holds my personally harvested non-GMO heirloom garden seeds).
What do you think?
Basic Construction Worktable
Most of our workshop attendees are unfamiliar with construction power tools and basic skills. Although I had started the Silver Bullet without a worktable; I accumulated a few leftover scraps from house painters, some roadside plywood and reclaimed 2 x 4’s and chose this simple design:
This project uses the mitre saw, circular saw, regular and compact power drill drivers to assemble the simplistic worktable seen here. It took a few volunteers less than an hour to assemble the pre-painted reclaimed lumber pieces I cut a few hours beforehand.
The mitre saw was installed and we were onto the next demo!
Installing the last window for the Silver Bullet!
Tiny House Stools
I arrived in Massachusetts four years ago with 3 large storage units of furniture, belongings and painting/art studio items from my Asheville home and gallery. My goal was to begin living an even more sustainable tiny life.
It has taken those four years to down size and smart size in preparation for moving into my tiny house when its finished. Believe me, it is a challenge to make sure that every item is sold, repaired, repurposed, given away, composted and recycled without any of it ending up in a landfill.
But what is really great about this process are the emotional and creative experiences gained with the benefits of all kinds of community engagement.
Last year I inspired my local U-haul storage facility to set aside an area near all the interior storage units where folks could leave stuff they didn’t want instead of filling a dumpster destined for a landfill. I am specifically looking for items that are beautiful in design, functionality, easily repaired, and easily eco-refurbished. Here’s my latest find:
These stackable stools after I cleaned off all the mildew and grease would probably be great for most folks as is. They have a few small repairable scars I’ll deal with and then I hope to transform them into more playful and very light furniture for the Silver Bullet.
As I am finishing my interior with a whitish pickled surface, I will strip them, pickle them and rub a low VOC varnish into them. Maybe I’ll paint the other two the color of my double doors, one of my favorite greens.
So that the stools don’t chafe each other or the new tiny house floor while traveling , I’m attaching felt sections on the legs.
Here’s how they turned out, pretty good for my first project, eh?
silver bullet tiny house 
