bring ( trash - to - treasure hunt )

The kiddo and I took a little field trip today to BRING; they're calling it the Planet Improvement Center these days, a play on "Home Improvement Center", but we always just call it Bring. I think it used to be an acronym for Builders' Resource . . . I -- N -- G. I'm not sure. The website doesn't say. (UPDATE: a reader named Brett sent in a comment letting me know "BRING stands for: Begin Recycling In Neighborhood Groups. It harkens back to the days when we collected glass around town." Thanks, Brett!)

But it's a pretty cool place. Picture old lumber from deconstructed buildings, bins of shiny brass doorknobs, tile leftover from construction jobs, old furniture and tools and light fixtures, bits piled up from office building remodels. And tons of stuff you'd never imagine until you get there. Like this. This almost came home with me.

Ooh baby. Vintage turquoise gas range. But check out the scale.

It's only like 18 inches high. Best the mister and I can figure, it must have come out of an old RV or something. I can imagine gutting it and making the perfect play stove for the kiddo. But I left it behind . . . and can't stop thinking about it . . . but I don't have enough room for a play stove. I really need like, twice the house I've got; my ideas can't all fit in this one.

I also spied these wood bi-fold doors, just begging to be made into a privacy screen / room divider. Maybe painted some bright color?

Of course, these old chrome stools are kinda awesome as-is. Vintage cool.

I might go back for one of these. Surely I can find space for one of these.

And then, there were things like this large display case. It's one of a pair at Bring that came out of the Eugene Nike Store. They're doing a remodel in anticipation of the upcoming Olympic Trials, so . . . nifty display cases up for grabs.

AND these free shipping crates that I almost loaded up (telling myself that if someday I'm a prop mistress for an Indiana Jones movie, they'd be perfect . . . and if not, I could always use that industrial hardware for something cool).

Anyway, aside from some bits and pieces for finishing up a project (more on that later), I came away with these. These boring shutters. These boring old shutters that are not an adorable, miniature turquoise stove.

Well, I came away with two of them, anyway, to solve the problem of one of our two bedroom windows. We've been living with lime green curtains. They shall not be photographed. But I'll post the shutters when they're done.

What gets my imagination going out at Bring, really, is that it's not just piles of stuff with potential, it's the building and courtyard that really show what you can do with all this stuff.

Like this gate made completely of recycled bits of old bicycles and buildings. (Not sure where the rhino in the background came from, but I love him.)

Or this siding made out of old records (an old bridge railing in the foreground fills in as a fence for the little path that wanders through the garden).

Or this area of the courtyard that resembles a temple.

I think you'll agree, though, that this tile mosaic structure and wall really push the envelope.

Recycled toilet tank lids. That's pretty awesome.

Check it out sometime! Or, if you live out-of-area, lots of cities have re-building centers or Habitat for Humanity Re-Stores. It's a pretty limitless pool of possibility.


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

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