Discarded Dreams: Mattress Upcycle Contest!

by Kelly Rand December 15, 2008, 9:30 am 1 Comment

Ever wonder what you could do with an old mattress? It’s pretty easy to think of ways to reused discarded clothing and bottles and cans, but a mattress?

That is the challenge set forth in Open Architecture Network’s contest: Discarded Dreams.

With over 40 million mattresses discarded every year in the U.S., this challenge asks that over 80% of the mattress be reused. Careful consideration should be made to the mattress’ deconstruction, as the Open Architecture Network is looking for a way to divert these mattresses away from the landfill and into new life.

This challenge might be out of the range of some crafters, but nonetheless, it got me to thinking about this very cool vest that I saw a while back. Craftster user ashabelle, took the top of a mattress and made a vest out of the padding.

This is just some of the genius that I expect to see in the entries of the Discarded Dreams Contest but on a bigger scale. Can you think of other ways to reuse mattresses?

Written by Kelly Rand

Kelly covers visual arts in and around Washington, DC for DCist and is editor of Crafting a Green World. Kelly has also been published by Bust Magazine and you can find her byline at Indie Fixx and Etsy’s Storque and has taught in Etsy’s virtual lab on the topic of green crafting.

Kelly helps organize Crafty Bastards: Arts and Crafts Fair, one of the largest indie craft fairs on the east coast and has served on the Craft Bastard’s jury since 2007. Kelly is also co-founder of Hello Craft a nonprofit trade association dedicated to the advancement of independent crafters and the handmade movement. Kelly resides in Washington, D.C. and believes that handmade will save the world.