11 Uses for Repurposed Library Card Catalogs

Apr 6, 2010 by

If you find a library card catalog for sale, there are a plethora of ways you can repurpose these literary treasures.  I’ve blogged about a DIY card catalog coffee table and my library card catalog turned bookcase previously, and here are 11 more ways to use card catalogs in your home.   Tomorrow I look forward to sharing a new and fresh way I’ve repurposed one of my card catalogs — and I don’t think card catalogs have been used this way just yet!

I first used my library card catalog as a buffet in my dining room, holding my linens and silverware.  Tanna Clark uses hers for a similar purpose, organizing silverware in her kitchen.

This is one of my favorite uses for a library card catalog!  As a kitchen island topped with a butcher block, the small drawers and labels are perfect for holding and organizing your spices, as seen via DIY Ideas .

For holidays, fill your card catalog with flowers and plants, as seen in a wedding via josevillablog.

If you are like me and have a huge collection of vintage scarves, organize them by color or style in your card catalog, as seen via MadeWell.

Small card catalogs are perfect for storing makeup and cosmetics, as seen via lifeandlim.

Cultivate the naturalist within yourself and use your library card catalog to protect your delicate findings, as seen via Each Little World.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who saw the usefulness of the card catalog as a buffet, as seen via design*sponge.

Indeed, the card catalog makes an ever-so-useful organizer, as seen via Small Notebook.

Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles sisters support themselves by creating beautiful religious works of art, and they store their sewing and embroidery supplies by color in repurposed library card catalogs, via Hooked on Needles.

Could there be a more intelligent way to indulge in your favorite alcoholic beverages?  As seen via Apartment Therapy.

While this may not find a place in your home, reusing card catalogs as a station for the computer-assisted Dewey Decimal system is both ingenious and hilarious, as seen via Library By Design.

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Card Catalog Turned Cabinet of Curiosities

Apr 5, 2010 by

What do you get when you combine a group of artists, a library card catalog, and an exhibit at Burning Man?  A Curiosity Cabinet of the Collective Unconscious, of course!  About two dozen artists were each given a drawer to explore the collective unconscious, and the results are quite intriguing.  I would have loved to discover this creation at Burning Man, opening each creatively labeled drawer to discover the world inside.  I’ve picked two of my favorite drawers to share with you, but there are many more photos on the CCCU website.

Artist Treiops Treyfid aptly named his drawer “overwhelmed.”

The Zymoglyphic Museum curator created a “traveling crustacean mini-diorama.”

(P.S.  Thank you for your patience as Library Card Catalog Week turned into a two-week affair and now a month-long extravaganza.  I’ll be wrapping up the posts this week with a plethora of ideas for how you can repurpose library card catalogs, and I believe it will be worth the wait!)

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Art Inspiration: Salvaged Library Catalog Cards

Mar 18, 2010 by

I apologize that the Week of Library Card Catalogs will need to be extended into a two-week affair.  Amidst my son’s two month vaccine appointment that made my heart hurt, along with practicing Elimination Communication and catching his first smiles and babbles, where did the week go?

However, before the week ends, let’s explore how library catalog cards have been the inspiration for many works of art.  In 2004, when the University of Iowa retired its card catalog, a group of librarians came together to honor the cards, and cARTalog was born.  Impressively, the dedicated cARTalog team was able to salvage 1 million catalog cards — sending them to artists and new adopting homes.  From its galleries, please enjoy some of my favorite art pieces, each inspired by repurposed library catalog cards.

Created by Marlene Russum Scott, this display box is an ode to the endangered species “Charta Catalogue.”  While this was “one of the most recognized birds in modern history, typically found in quiet metropolitan locations,” this species’ flock is almost “completely destroyed in the early 21st century by Info Hawks.”

This piece by Laura Gunnip is entitled “All, extraordinary, scenic, society” — which are four words all extracted from the book titles on every catalog card utilized in the creation.

Created by Kristin Alana Baum, this piece entitled “Actias Luna, Refuge Prayer I” was inspired by the “relationship between a card’s title and the subject” and how ideas are interconnected.  According to the artist, “the cards become symbols….the inner journeys we take when we release ourselves into the world of paper and words.”

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Library Card Catalog Week: Starting with Wallpaper

Mar 15, 2010 by

Join me as I dedicate the next seven days to Poetic Home’s Library Card Catalog Week (capitalizing all of the words makes the week seem a bit more official, right?).  From exploring all the ways library card catalogs can be repurposed to the artwork that has been inspired by the cards themselves, this week will be an adventure in card catalogs!

Let’s start off the week with an unconventional way to display catalog cards — as wallpaper!  On the 5th floor of the San Francisco Library, an entire wall has been wallpapered with repurposed catalog cards, with some featuring colorful inscriptions, drawings, and comments.  Ah, yet another reason to love San Francisco!  (Captured by AcroYogi)

Not to be outdone by Nor Cal, the Los Angeles Public Library’s elevator and shaft are also covered in catalog card wallpaper.  Thank you to reader Satsumabug for sharing (Captured by Mollyali)!

Tune in tomorrow for the next fun installment in our wonderful week of library card catalogs!

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Remodeling Your Kitchen? Repurpose Crates!

Mar 12, 2010 by

Kitchens are the heart of the home, and now they can be the center of repurposing!  With a few free shipping pallets that grocers always throw away, fruit crates, and even tea crates, you can turn your kitchen into a repurposed haven.  With a little bit of wood stain and a rag, you can transform nearly any wooden pallet or crate to have vintage-esq patina and glow.

Katrin Arens ingeniously repurposed a shipping pallet into a beautiful dish display.  The aged wood patina in this rustic kitchen is calling me to make a few good stews!  You can compliment this type of kitchen with rustic unfinished window shutters and get the most out of your new look.

As seen on HGTV, an old wooden crate is repurposed into a lovely, weathered spice rack.

If you really want a kitchen that is repurposed swoon-worthy, then it’s time to take shipping tea crates, complete with their original shipping imagery and type, and turn them into cabinets like Rupert Blanchard did.  Aren’t these incredible?!

If your cabinet doors leave something to be desired, why not take off the doors and use vintage apple crates in their place, as seen in House to Home?

Vintage fruit crates make another appearance as open shelving for your jars of dried goods, as seen in Country Living.

For one week, Simon Hoegsberg gave out free advice and coffee in Copenhagen to people walking by.  The project itself is quite intriguing, but what really caught my eye was the advice station he created out of shipping pallets.  This would make for a great repurposed kitchen island or kitchen table!

Crate appetit!

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