12 Ideas to Upcycle Your Old Crutches

Do you have old crutches that no one uses, and that just counts the sheep in your storage room? Are you asking yourself what to do with these old crutches? We found some great ideas for recycling/upcycling them!

Modern chair

Upcycle Crutches into a Modern Chair: Not a bad design for a pair of old crutches plus a little extra white oak!

Lourdes chair

A superb design for this chair made of 8 pairs of old crutches!

Pea trellis

Another clever way to reuse a pair of old crutches, by recycling them into posts for a pea trellis in your vegetable garden.

Earth globe legs

Recycled crutches into legs of an earth globe! Nails, hot glue, nail polish, and wood as base.

Stool

Stool fashioned out of three crutches and a bike wheel. An interesting piece found on a design competition that resulted in an interesting-looking final product.

Necessity is the mother of all inventions

Artistic installation

Into artistic installation to talk war and the Occupy movement (Artist Jimmy Descant).

The installation features several pieces made from crutches and signifies, says Descant, the many ways American soldiers may feel broken and how “bought-and-paid-for” politicians mislead and manipulate the general public.

I decided to put together this show, as a way of letting loose on some of my opinions about war, peace and corruption and get it out without just talking to everyone about it and sending emails.

Jimmy Descant

Handcrafted fish art made from antiques and household items. This one is titled Sawfish. And the Blade actually spins. It is made out of a crutch, wine barrel, and saw blade out of the landfill or ocean. Designed to be mounted on the wall or above your fireplace. This fish could be used to hang your keys and key chains when you come home.

Hat rack

This hat rack is an attempt to make better use of the long, graceful taper and vertical nature of the form. It uses three crutches with very little leftover; they cost five dollars at a local flea market. This design could be adapted to metal crutches, but I find the wooden ones to be more beautiful.

Table

Upcycled old crutches into a beautiful and design table.

Bar

Or if you have plenty of them, you can also try to make a bar!

Shelves

Use an old pair of crutches to make a beautiful piece of furniture. Reverse the crutches (press down) and cut off the ends to have a flat and smooth base. Once this is done, attach the feet together with an iron hinge. Select thin wooden planks that you will attach to the crutches to have shelves to place your decorative items. Give your furniture a small brush stroke to give it a finished look.

All you have to do now is choose books, trinkets, your favorite vase and a pretty bouquet of flowers to embellish your new creation. Expect a shower of exclamations from your guests when they see this jewel at the entrance to your home.

Floor lamp

Make a floor lamp with them?

Tripod lamp

This is a vintage-look spotlight upcycled from various parts. The wood legs are crutches that have been sanded to remove the old finish and stained dark. The hub of the tripod was cut from plywood with brackets and hardware added. The retaining harness was made from distressed, old leather belts and adds some authenticity to the vintage look of the piece.

Any other ideas? Send them to us through the comments!