Your once slick and très hip skateboard now looks like it has become a mangled victim of the most drawn-out street fight in history. Devout skaters know that this inevitable reality comes with the territory, but that doesn’t mean that it’s time to bid your board a final adieu. While it may not necessarily be safe to ride anymore, a worn-out board, which most commonly consists of multiple maple wood veneers bonded together, is teeming with repurposing possibilities.
Of course, it would be just as easy to throw that chewed-up and spit-out deck far, far away. Just two years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that 6.4% of the 250 million tons of municipal solid waste generated across the country was wood based. While old skateboards likely comprise a relatively small portion of that overall figure (along with far more plentiful, higher volume wood-based refuse such as construction materials, disaster debris, tree harvesting residuals, etc.), there’s a far better, infinitely cooler end use for old decks.
- Comb your hair with repurposed skateboard grooming accessories while gazing at your reflection in a hand-held, recycled deck mirror. Don’t forget to accent your up-do with a few decorative hair sticks!
- Your personal fashion sense will gain extra pizzazz with colorful thread-wrapped bangles, earrings, rings, necklace pendants, cufflinks, belt buckles and rainbow-tinted heels, all made with recycled wooden deck material.
- What about wooden skateboard deck knuckles? No one will dare mess with your sustainable style statement!
- Make an easily movable, multi-tiered, solid-backed shelving unit.
- Rest your weary bones on a 100% recycled skateboard bench, an easy-to-duplicate boxy seating cube or a far more refined, reupholstered lounge chair.
- Make a functional clock that accents your household décor with artistic style. (For a nifty design variation, mark the hours of the day on your handmade clock using recycled polyurethane skateboard wheels!)
- Bestow your keys with eco-style by anchoring them together with a bit of deck-crafted “candy.”
- Emulate Reskate’s artistic repurposing concept by using your old deck as a creative canvas.
- Create a series of edgy, skull-inspired artworks.
- Slip your feet into summer-worthy, board-rescued flip-flops while stylishly shielding your eyes from intense rays with multi-hued wooden frames.
- Tote your necessities inside a hard-backed recycled deck purse with contrasting red leather detailing or a slightly sleeker clutch for more refined outings.
- Give your old duds a facelift with custom recycled skateboard buttons.
- Tuck your iPhone into a protective striped case gleaned from recrafted decking material.
- What else can an old board be transformed into? How about an illuminated lamp, a tealight candle holder, a durable notebook cover or an eye-catching birdhouse?