12 Ways to Upcycle Your Jeans: Turn That Denim Into Decor

When your jeans get tattered and tired, what do you do with them? Cut them off into jean shorts (when jean shorts are in fashion) or toss them in the trash?

Believe it or not, you have way more than these two options when it comes to upcycling old jeans! These 12 denim DIY home decor ideas make me want to re-do my whole world (forever) in blue jeans!

1. Pick Pockets

No matter how tattered your jeans are, the pockets are usually pieces that can be salvaged. Stitch, hot-glue, or stitch-witch jean pockets to a rectangular piece of denim and hang it from a dowel over your desk. You may find that long-lost laundered $20 bill after all.

Photo via Handmade Charlotte.

2. Doggy Denim Duvet

If you save up your old jeans (and the jeans of everyone in your family) you may have enough to quilt into this very cool denim dog bed. Or you can just buy one from Free People.

Photo via Free People.

3. Slip Into Something More Denim

Ok yes, these slip-covered stools were likely made from cut denim by-the-yard, but the bleached pattern technique can work on upcycled jeans too. To get this look, use a bleach pen and stencils to create intricate patterns. Time consuming, yes, but a stunner for sure!

Photo via Style Me Pretty

4. Blue-Jean Bowls

If you have a lot of small denim scraps, these bowls are super-easy to make. Use a glass bowl from your kitchen as a mold and form the strips over and around it with a fabric stiffener or Mod Podge.

Photo via Hello Natural.

5. Hot Pants, Cold Drink

This is not a figment of your imagination. Nor is it photoshopped wishful thinking. This denim Smeg refrigerator was made in a limited edition of 500 back in 2012. Sorry, they are probably sold out by now. Maybe suede is up next!

Photo via Jelanie Shop.

6. Zippered Zig Zag Pillow

From white to blue to black jeans, this chevron denim pillow is bold, modern, and will hold its own in a well-designed home. You need some pretty intense sewing skills for this creation, as you will see in the designer’s how-to.

Photo via Ashbee Design.

7. Seat of Your Pants

It seems to me that a jean-upholstered piece of furniture is a very pet- and child-friendly place to sit. You can get anything out of jeans, so go ahead pup, take a snooze on the furniture today.

Photo via Ralph Lauren Home.

8. Button-Fly on the Wall

This denim wall-hanging feels like a piece of modern art. The seemingly arbitrary composition gives it a very casual and effortless feel.

Photo via Home & Delicious.

9. Jean-ius Lights

Cover lamp shades with old jeans and punch holes in a pattern to let a dramatic illumination shine through. Hanging three together offers a great impact! (Plus the denim-covered vases below don’t hurt either!)

Photo via Artesanto Que Faz.

10. Bare Skin Rug

A denim rug? I’m floored! Like furniture, denim will make a great durable material for a high-traffic area rug.

Photo via Kid Space Stuff.

11. Home, Sleek Home

How charming is this sweet little Home placard made from upcycled jeans?

Photo via Monkey and Squirrel on Etsy.

12. Brand Name Pillow

And now that you taken all of your jeans, your family’s jeans, and your friends’ jeans and upcycled them into something fabulous to decorate your home, you may as well salvage those brand labels from the backs for another pillow!

Photo via Lushome.