New lamps for old

They might be past their sell-by dates but you can still reuse the bric-a-brac lying around your house

They might be past their sell-by dates but you can still reuse the bric-a-brac lying around your house
Even something as lofty as saving the planet begins small. A good place to start is your home. The whole idea of recycling is about extending the life of a product beyond what it was manufactured for. Once its outlived its original utility,look at it as a new object and make good use of it, says Bangalore-based designer Namrata Narula who makes bags out of worn-out clothes. We got four product designers and environment activists to help you out with their ideas

Trunk bench
Dying to get rid of that old-fashioned steel trunk? Give it a chance. Paint it in a bright colour,lay out some cushions on it and turn it into a bench for your living room. Now thats a room with character.

CD coasters
Paste colourful stickers on a CD you would have thrown away or paint it in bright designs or doodle some faces on it. You now have a coaster that can hold your cup of coffee.

Lamp bowls
A lamp shade often fades from exposure to light. You can prolong its life by covering it with ribbons,scarves,beaded necklaces or wool. Or invert it and use it as a fruit bowl.

Exhaust fan lamp
Get your old exhaust fan welded with a lamp holder,top it with a lamp shade and get yourself a wacky lamp.

Old key pen pot
If youve got old keys lying around,give them for welding and in return,get a lovely pen pot that has a chai glass to hold your pens.

Tissue box bill holder
Put bills or credit card receipts (which have the annoying habit of being forgotten) in a tissue box. Gift-wrap it and slip in the receipts. A shoe box could also serve the same purpose

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T-shirt bag
Cut off the sleeves and neck. Stitch the bottom of the T-shirt together,so that only the top is open. Make a strap out of another material and put it through the sleeves and you have a sling bag ready.

(Ideas by product designers Ishan Khosla and Arun Verma,fashion designer Namrata Narula and activist Madhumita Puri)