How to Decorate With Lighting & Plumbing Fixtures
- 1). Explore the plumbing section. Steel pipe comes in various lengths and diameters. Many stores will cut pipe to your desired length and re-thread the ends of Black Pipe for you while you wait. Plumber's fittings come in literally dozens of shapes that can be used to connect steel pipes: elbows, "t" sections, reducers, caps, and flanges are only a few of the possibilities. By combining pipes and fittings you can build room dividers, staircase banisters, railings, shower curtain rods, and frames for bookshelves, tables, chairs, and couches. At just a few cents per fitting, and about a dollar per foot for Black Pipe in most markets, you can create many accessory items for half the cost of a pre-manufactured accessory. Steel pipe is not very attractive but accepts enamel-based paints very well. Certainly the most attractive pipe product is copper pipe. Copper and brass connectors are also available. Copper icemaker water pipe comes in wonderful rolls of pencil-thin pipe that can be twisted and cut into all kinds of fanciful shapes. Copper pipe is expensive compared to other types of pipe, however. If you want the "look" of copper, without the high price tag, buy steel pipe and spray paint it "copper."
- 2). Investigate polyvinyl chlorate, or PVC, pipe products for more ideas. PVC pipe is also available in a wide selection of diameters and lengths. Large-diameter "rigid" PVC pipe can be safely used as legs for most furniture items. There are many plans for building PVC furniture available on the Internet. Smaller-diameter PVC pipes allow for bending into interesting shapes. Like steel pipe, PVC offers dozens of different connectors of various shapes. PVC is easy to cut and drill, too. One of the drawbacks for PVC piping is that it does not accept paint very well, with the exception of spray paints formulated specifically for use on plastics.
- 3). Meander into the hardware "fastener" department and take a look at all the potential decorating materials found there. Nuts, bolts, nails, angle irons, screws, clamps, cables and other items come in thousands of shapes, sizes, and materials. On nearly every shelf or in every bin you'll find smaller items that can lend themselves to all kind of uses, including making jewelry.
- 4). Check out the electrical department, particularly the selection of metal and plastic junction boxes that can be combined to make accessories like an unusual "industrial look" spice rack. The electrical department will also offer flexible metal conduit tubes that can be used to build interesting lamps and sculpture products.
