Decorating your home doesn’t have to include an expensive trip to the craft or hardware store. “Upcycling,” the new trendy word for repurposing and reusing old items to make something new, has become a popular way to create something great without breaking the bank. You can use antiques, thrift shop finds, and random old items around the house to put together new décor, furniture or accessories.

This spring, stop by your local JMRL branch and pick up one of these books to help you find an upcycling project that is perfect for you:

Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, and Natural Objects into Stuff You Love by Blair Stocker – With an emphasis on recycling and transforming, this innovative book, celebrating all things handmade, shows crafters how to infuse old items with new life.

Matthew Mead’s Ultimate Recycled Style Guide by Matthew Mead – Features several projects taking simple everyday items and recycling or upcycling them into unique pieces of home decor.

Restore, Recycle, Repurpose: Create a Beautiful Home by Randy Florke – Provides information on sustainable interior design inexpensively using a variety of repurposed and recycled materials.

Jewelry Upcycled!: Techniques and Projects for Reusing Metal, Glass, Plastic, Fiber, and Found Objects by Sherri Haab – A book with 300 full-color illustrations offers an overview of a variety of recycled materials and techniques used to created beautiful jewelry pieces.

Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials Into New Family Treasures by Amanda Blake Soule – Thirty-three simple sewing and craft projects utilizing old materials, from vintage feedsacks to worn sheets and towels, and creating useful and love-filled objects for the family home offer the environmentally concerned a chance to reduce, reuse, and recycle.