Something old into something new
Tea set bird feeders
A wonderful way to use sweet vintage tea cups and saucers that have been chipped is to turn them into these gorgeous china bird feeders. Place or hang them around the garden for your feathery friends to feast on. You will need:
- Old cups and saucers, matching or not
- A pencil
- Cloth-backed coarsegrade sandpaper
- An all-purpose glue or hot glue gun
- Fishing line, or hanging hooks for bird feeders, available from specialty stores
1 With your saucer flat on a work surface, position the cup on its side on the saucer with the handle facing skyward. Position the cup so that the handle is as upright as can be and mark with a pencil on both the cup and saucer where their surfaces meet.
2 Using the coarse sandpaper, gently sand the marked areas on the cup and saucer to remove the glaze and expose the ceramic beneath – this will create a better surface for your glue to adhere to. Don’t worry if you sand away your pencil marks, it doesn’t have to be exact. Brush away any sanding dust.
3 Apply a thin layer of glue on to each area that you’ve sanded and wait 10-15 mins for it to become tacky.
4 Position your cup on the saucer, checking from all angles that the cup is centrally placed – the handle is pointing upward and not tilting to one side and the cup is in the centre of the saucer and not off to one side so that it will hang well once finished. Push together firmly. The glue will harden in 2-4 hours.
5 To hang the feeder, thread some thick fishing line through the handle and tie off, leaving a length to tie from a tree branch.
TIP If you are using a glue gun be aware that the hot glue sets in a matter of seconds, so you’ll have to bring the pieces together accurately.
Invisible bookshelf
A good book is timeless and vintage hardbacks have a beautiful quality to them. Some, sadly, become obsolete along the way or succumb to age, but these can be repurposed into a striking shelf that seemingly defies the laws of physics and will certainly become a talking point in any location. You will need:
- A large hardback book
- Sticky-back Velcro (male and female)
- 2 x L-shaped wall brackets (flat, not ridged)
- A pencil
- A spirit level
- Drill, drill bit, rawl plugs, and screws (suitable for your wall)
1 Open book at the back page and measure the back inside cover from top to bottom. Use a pencil to mark one-third down and two-thirds down.
2 Measure the width of the back inside cover. Note: It is important to make sure that the short ends of your wall brackets are the same size as this measurement (or smaller) so that they will fit. Cut two strips of Velcro a fraction of an inch shorter than the width of your back page. Peel apart the male Velcro (bristly) from the female Velcro (soft loops). Remove the backing from one strip of male Velcro and stick it on to the inside back cover horizontally along the mark, one-third from the top. Repeat with the other strip of male Velcro along your second mark. Your pencil mark should be in the centre of the strip.
3 Make sure your brackets are free from dirt and grease. Place one bracket over the back page of the book with the end of the short side to the spine of the book, the bend of the bracket at the right-hand edge of the cover, and the long arm of the bracket pointing upward. Make a note of which part of the bracket is connecting with the Velcro on the book. This is where you need to stick the female Velcro. Peel away the backing from the female strips and stick one on to the correct side of the short end of each bracket. Now bring the two pieces of Velcro back together again by positioning the brackets over the strips in the book and pressing firmly together. Close book. You’ve made the shelf!
4 Hold the shelf up to the wall and, using a spirit level to make sure it’s straight, mark in pencil where the holes are in your brackets. Drill holes and fix the brackets to the wall. These brackets will be hidden once you add more books.
Creating The Vintage Look: 35 Ways To Upcycle For A Stylish Home, by Ellie Laycock (Cico Books, £12.99). Reader offer: Get the book for the special price of £9.99, including free p&p. Call 01256- 302699 and quote GLR 8TW.