Customer Creations

What some of our creative customers have done with products bought at Community Forklift!

If you have photos of projects that turned out particularly well, please email them to Bea@communityforklift.com, along with your name, a brief description of your project, and which materials you purchased here. Looking forward to expanding this section!!

Click on any photo for a larger version.

We're so impressed with these beautiful wedding serving platters Forklift Fan Royce and his partner Ryan have made for their upcoming wedding! Royce says, "We found it only fitting that after 6.5 years of dating, 4 total house renovations and 3 state moves that we finally take the plunge and get married! (ohh and the passing of Question 6 helped too).

"Our upcoming wedding in Charleston, SC will feature our upcycled food displays all from products from Community Forklift. An old chandelier, white stair balusters and a ceiling fan will be on display in their new lives as appetizer displays for the big day. We have been huge fans of the Forklift both in donating and purchasing over the past years. The Forklift has been a great resource for remodel supplies and inspiration to build/create/craft and re-use!"

Mark & Erika made this fabulous reclaimed wood console table from a piece of Treincarnation bought at Community Forklift!

Laura and Kyle sent us these pictures, saying, "These are just a couple of the projects we have created from Community Forklift finds! Our coffee table was made from what we think was once some kind of mailbox cover, stair spindles and a door knob. Our coat rack was made from a cool piece of wood we found and some large screws. We love the unique pieces we've been able to put together!"

Michael from Alexandria, VA says, "This is a reclaimed cedar and pipe vanity. We got the cedarwood and some of the pipes at community forklift. It replaced an old 80's vanity that was in the master bedroom."

Forklift Fan William found this great medicine cabinet at CF. He says, "I rewired and repainted. Fits well with our 1940s house. Hope you like it and thanks for your work!"

Hyacinth in Bowie made this creative magazine rack out of a closet door she picked up at community forklift and spray painted. Love it!

Kristin Kesecker shares, "Finally getting around to sharing my project! The top was made with some reclaimed roofing timbers from you wood pile. I couldn't love this table more! For under $100 we have a custom table. And the majority of the cost was in purchasing the legs. If there is another project like this - I will be finding some fun legs in your piles of banister parts!"

Forklift Fan Karl says, "I've found [4 different uses] for the wood from Treincarnation. The TV stand was made from rebar and other rusted iron products and has wood that was from one of the original cedar trees planted at the Pentagon. We also made open shelving from some cherry wood with a natural break (which we waterproofed with tung oil) and mounted with some handmade iron brackets. We also found a piece of wood we liked so much, we simply mounted it to the wall with large nails."

Forklift Fan Alex says, "This is a cornhole set that I made from materials bought from your store. The parquet and oak floor really make these stand out."

Forklift Fan Adrian Holmes writes, "We purchased a beautiful piece of mulberry wood at CF last fall for Oliva Anderson and asked her to create something great. Well, being that we live on the Maryland's Eastern Shore and in the City of Cambridge; 16 miles from the birth place of Harriet Tubman, Olivia created this wonderful tribute of our local herorine.

With 2013 being the Centennial celebration of Harriet Tubman death and the ribbon cutting of our new state park....this piece of art captures the beauty and sentiment of our natural landscape.

Olivia's piece of art is on display at the The Dorchester County Visitor Center in Cambridge Maryland....we invite you all to come celebrate 100 yrs of an incredible woman and discover your own awesome journey! More events are listed at www.HarrietTubmanByway.org...Come, come celebrate with us!!"

Girija, of City Year DC, sent in these fun pictures, saying, " Community Forklift has been a fantastic resource, as well as source of inspiration for us here at City Year DC. During our Make A Difference Day event at Burroughs Education Campus in Ward 5 we used CF fasters, hinges, and a latch to complete a tools shed we built for the school’s community garden. We also used a whole bunch of CF-sourced exterior white paint to prime a 400’ mural we did encircling the school’s brick courtyard (pictures below). You guys have also come to our aid by taking in excess materials. Last month we came into some extra deck wood which was too nice to through out, but for which we didn’t have storage space; we were happy to know it would find a good home through you all. Thanks so much for all of your support! We look forward to visiting soon!!"

Forklift Fan Clara says, "I live in a small DC apartment and am crunched for any kind of storage space. I needed something narrow to fit behind the door and cover the hallway junk and my CF bench does the trick! I made this mortise and tenon bench from a single slab of black walnut with a teak butterfly joint to stability. The Treincarnation walnut board cost less than $100 at CF and the teak was from a junked piece of furniture found in an alley by my friend's woodshop. The whole project was done entirely with hand tools over the course of several weekends. A great project for learning woodworking!"

CF Board Member Adam Ortiz, made this beautiful bookcase out of CF scrap wood and stair balusters. What a great idea!

Brittnay of Takoma Park sent in this picture, saying "These pulls finally found a home having been in residence at CF since I first visited in 2010...bland to grand!"

Alida writes, "I feel so lucky to have found these amazing cabinets on my very first visit to Community Forklift. A contractor told me about CF and I was just stopping by to check the place out. As soon as I saw them, I knew they would work for a renovation project I had been dreaming of doing but couldn't afford to have custom built; a kitchen island. I bought fifteen cabinets for the price of three (brand new). We configured counters and a bar from base and wall cabinets. My handy husband assembled them and we had granite countertops installed professionally. The final price was about a fourth of what it would have cost if the cabinets were new.

Friends can't believe these are reclaimed cabinets and have asked where Community Forklift is located. Would love to keep the secret to myself, but this salvaging gem deserves to be shared. I am now a regular customer and I drop by at least two or three times a month. Glad CF is close by and the staff is so friendly and helpful. Great experience and tons of hidden treasures to find each trip. We always leave with something!"

Wangari Gardens is a new 3-acre community garden built in spring 2012 to use green public space for the non-commercial benefit of the surrounding community. Sarah (one of the founders of Wangari Gardens) standing proudly with the door that CF donated – transformed with some paint into a beautiful chalkboard for their new educational garden! Read more about Wangari Gardens on CF's blog

You know how we serve coffee in the winter from a cute little cart near our checkout desk? Well, the US Department of Transportation recently used our coffee cart and rustic tools as a prop in their Miss Utility public service announcement. The actors may be attractive, but we think our cart is the real star! Click here to watch the video!

CF Customer Bart from DC wrote, "Last week, I took my wife and her mother, who is visiting from Florida, for our 1st ever visit to Community Forklift. We were able to find many cool things but settled on a bundle of Sears & Roebuck wood that still had the original mill label on some of the pieces. With some sanding and staining the boards turned out beautiful which they turned into 2 coffee tables and a console table! We look forward to our next Community Forklift adventure!"

CF Customer Shannon Wyss from Hyattsville sent us "three pictures of two bay windows that we bought at Community Forklift in early 2011. We had them put into our new house as part of our 403(b) home rehab, and they look just wonderful! They're so much better than the old, fogged up windows were and add tremendously to the light in our kitchen and rec room. Thanks for having such a great selection of windows at such wonderful prices."

CF customer Christine Freeman writes, "You asked me to send you some pics of things I've done with CF materials. So...I found these oddly sized, beautiful maple boards one day. I've had plywood counter tops for about 5 years now and knew it would be awhile before I could afford anything else. I decided to make butcher block counter tops. I think I spent about $200. You might be interested to know that all the upper cabinets and 3 of the base cabinets were also CF purchases. Orphans, so $5.00 each."

CF Twitter user @Superoceras tweeted, "Reclaimed pine door, hinges, and hardware from @CommForklift . Thank you! #reduce #reuse #recycle http://pic.twitter.com/Sobr1AEB"

Barbara Sollner-Webb from Laurel, MD writes, "When I bought lots of bifold doors, and said they were for shelving units, I was asked send a photo of the finished product. While not as fancy as many great projects shown on your website, it is super strong and roomy, and was wonderfully cheap (9 doors at $5/bi-fold set = $25, plus $2 of nails) and looks perfectly good enough for storage shelves in the furnace room, where it is located. Thanks for being here for us!"

banished? productions is a DC based avant-pop theater company. They sent us some pictures of their most recent show, Tactile Dinner Car, which we presented at the Capital Fringe Festival and then at Flashpoint Gallery. Technical Director & Producer Niell DuVal says, "I carved the 10 ft structure out of foam from Community Forklift, a place I go to shop for materials and ideas. I don't know what I would do without you guys!" Click here to check out their website!

Michael Booker sent us some photos of some of his art made with materials gathered from Community Forklift. Click here for more of Michael's artwork!

CF customer Stacey Marien sent us these pics, and says, "I thought you might be interested in the rainchain I made - gaskets and pipe clamps (at least that's what I think they are) bought at Community Forklift. Total cost is less than $10. I already had the chain and S hook that it's hooked to the gutter with." Click here for the whole story on Stacey's blog!

Beautiful by Design, LLC sent us photos of a dresser given a face lift with salvage wood from Community Forklift. She says, "I extended the salvaged wood to the back because it is at the end of our bed. Some of the wood came from a old vinegar fermentation barrel. I think it was too shabby and not enough chic bebfore, so I painted it."

Ruthie met CF Customer Paul at BowieFest last summer, and he sent her before-and-after pics of his garage clean-up and re-organization using CF's cabinets. He bought the 5 cabinets for under $200 - he says "they just needed cleaning & new knobs," but what an improvement!

Kathy Turner says, "My first visit to Community Forklift and I scored a rustic old pressed metal painted ceiling panel to use as a base for my art work. All I did to the panel was wire brush it to remove the loosest paint chips and then sealed it to stabilize the base paint. The art work was created on a thin sheet of hand made Japanese mulberry washi paper using colored pencil and watercolor. Sepia tones were chosen to achieve the look of an old hand colored tintype, in keeping with the metal ceiling tile. The finished painted drawing was pasted to the metal surface and sealed in place with a varnish finish. Total finished size is about 24" square. I'll be back to look for more pieces to inspire more artwork. Thanks Community Forklift!"

Randall Cleaver says, "Here is a new piece I made from one of those tensile strength machines you had there plus a piece of 12" PVC pipe I found there and duct fittings and plumbing fittings as well. Thank you forklift!"

Last fall, Community Forklift received a donation of a large stack of 17" x 17" engineered bamboo sample tiles, and we sold some to Deran & Catalina Eaton of Waldorf, MD. They sent us a picture of their beautiful new floor, and shared some lessons to remember when installing wood sample tiles as a parquet floor:

• 1) PLAN AHEAD. With multiple colors, it pays to take digital photos and piece the floor together in the computer first. This lets one play with many designs before actually building the favorite. It also helps the installer work more efficiently because there's a known pattern to follow.


• 2) CHOOSE YOUR INSTALLER WISELY. Assuming "DYI" is not an option, most floor installers are accustomed to new flooring and will either not touch the job, or charge for the extra carpentry to remedy the mechanical inconsistencies with recycled materials. An installer who enjoys being artistic as well as efficient is the best one to hire for this kind of work.


• 3) EXPECT GAPS AND CRACKS. Ordinarily, floor samples lack the tongue and groove structures of most new hardwood flooring. Uncertainty of materials translates as business risk, and is the biggest reason floor installers won't touch a job. The homeowner must accept the risk for using recycled flooring.


• 4) USE HARDWOOD FLOORING URETHANE GLUE. This stuff runs about $120 a bucket new. It's resilent when dry, levels well, and tends to fill the cracks. Beware of ooze coming up the cracks, which can be wiped clean with a rag and paint thinner.


• 5) TAPE OR "BRIDGE WEIGHT" THE TILES AS THEY ARE LAID. This helps keep the floor level from one tile to the next. Bridge weighting requires taking something long and heavy to cover a swath of tiles.

Deacon Leon A. Gray of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church sent us some photos of their wonderful new soundbooth! Deacon James Williams built the booth with materials obtained from Community Forklift. Deacon Gray says, "We thank you, and I am most pleased to share [the photos] with you." Check out the full set of photos on Deacon Gray's Picasa site

Jake Mello sent us some photos of a fantastic headboard project. He says, "A few weeks ago we had a big shopping trip at Community Forklift, we got a great antique cabinet and nine ceiling coffers. We are using the cabinet behind our front door to hold our shoes. We made the ceiling coffers into an incredible headboard / wall treatment. We sprayed the tiles with ivory, then pearlescent spray paint, and set them into 2 paint-grade sheets of plywood. It worked incredibly well, and with a sprayed silver chandelier (also from Forklift) it really made over the bedroom. We're not 100% sure we'll keep these colors, and we may do something to hide the plywood seam, but here's our 95% pictures!" Check out the full set of photos on Jake's SmugMug site

CF customer Heather Groves says, "Here is the link to my blog, heelsandhome. It has a description of the project that I did with a window I purchased from The Community Forklift!" Click here for Heather's blog with the full description of her windows project!

Forklift customer Barbara sent us photos of a gate she made with some wrought iron and cast iron components bought at CF, Goodwill, and the Salvation Army. She says, "No welding! What I did was get candle sconces (in pairs) and some wall decor, took it apart, and arranged the curls of metal into a symmetrical pattern. Then I attached everything with black plastic slip ties. The next thing to do is trump l'oil (camoflage) the frame with green/brown paint and paint the rest matte black. This is a $2000 European gate for less than $60." Fantastic work!

Stephanie Kohout and Nicola Maguire from Glen Burnie, MD transformed their backyard with materials (wood and gates) from CF.

CF Twitter follower @mistermehofff (a.k.a. Ron Ford), a photographer who lives between Lincoln Park & H St. NE tweeted, "I picked up reused door molding and antique coat hooks and created a pot rack. Awesome! Thanks!" http://plixi.com/p/91422303

CF Volunteer, Kate Barfield says, "This picture shows the successful recycling of slate (that was made into a faux fireplace foundation for an equally faux fireplace), AND an old, large piece of paneling that is behind the fireplace -- 110" by 45"-- it was fitted and a few pieces of additional wood were added at the bottom to fill in the space. Thanks!"

Randall Cleaver sent us a before & after photo of a lamp he bought at CF during our spring garden party. He says, "I am a found objects artist and go to forklift a couple times a month (my studio looks like a smaller version of forklift!). My wife and I saw this hanging lamp there and really liked the basic shape. I added some sauce cups and an old colander and came up with a cool hanging lamp for our back porch."

CF Customer Claire says, "We don't have a headboard because they're expensive. So we decided to use the wall above our heads for some larger abstract art. We cleaned up some shutters from Community Forklift, arranged them on the wall, and worked in a piece of professional folk art that I already had. Thanks for doing what you do!"

Alex sent us a photo of a cornhole set that he made from materials bought from Community Forklift. He says, "The parquet and oak floor really make these stand out."

Jess and Don Kilgore from Hyattsville, MD "spent our Saturday morning going through the $.10 tiles and then went home and built a 11'x13' patio. We love it! And, we never would have been able to do it without Community Forklift! Thank you for what you do!"

Chris Desautels' latest piece of furniture uses some CF materials. He says, "It's made out of cherry and mulberry. Mostly cherry, the top is a 4 way book match veneer of cherry with an inlay of mulberry. I harvested the cherry myself from some trees on a friends property. The mulberry, I purchased from Community Forklift. The handles are antique brass from Salvage Arts."

Lauren and Michael Semeniuk of Bowie say, "We love to browse and shop at the 'Lift. Attached are pics of three little projects that utilized materials we purchased form you.
1. We utilized a piece of metal fencing, which included a box-like appendage that must have gone around a utility box or something (?), to make a backyard seat and trellis. We upended it, slapped a cushion on it and secured it to the fence. Cost - $10.
2. I own an old Singer sewing-machine base. Since my boyhood it had an old wooden coffee-table top screwed to it. I recently gave it a new paint job and topped it off with a piece of marble I bought at the Forklift. Cost - $36.
3. In the same vein I bought an awesome slab of stone and mounted it as a coffee table in what we term The Lounge. We like think its broken edges and irregular shape gives it a cool "ruin" look. Cost - $35."

Ryan Lacz says, "Here are some photos of the live edge table I built over the past few weekends. Everything (except the chisels...) was bought at the Forklift: including the table saw I used to rip the wood for the legs!
The tabletop is a piece of mulberry, the legs are black walnut: both from Treincarnation. The shelf is a random scrap I found in the lumber section. The bow ties are black walnut inlays to reinforce the cracks and natural weak spots in the table to help stabilize it.
The varnish is "tried and true" brand boiled linseed oil that I bought elsewhere since it's pretty hard to come by. The only no-VOC's or heavy metal drying agents boiled linseed oil, and a nice natural soft finish.
The photos are the mulberry I started with, complete with a nice knot-hole down the middle of it.
Next is the first coat of finish going on with a close up of the large bow tie
Finally: finished product.

This is the first table I ever made, couldn't be possible without the Forklift and the excellent treasures you have!"

Artist Thalia Doukas says, "My work is about assembling & collaging, in 2D & 3D. The heads were an idea that sprouted on contact with the chips & bits of stone & other rubble collected around CF's front door, combined with tile samples and glass picked up while exploring the amazing deeps of the CF interior. I bumped into information about CF at Artomatic 2009 & have hopes of taking my heads there. I moved to College Park in 2007 & the nearness of CF is one reason I'm happy to be at my present address!"
Check out her full online portfolio here!

Derek and Lisa wanted to share their beautiful new addition to our home that they refinished - they bought a chestnut piece of wood, refinished it and mounted it on the two metal brackets. Looks beautiful!

Chris Desautels has two projects to share. "The coffee table is made from Mullberry with a surround of oak and inlay of oak and purpleheart. All wood from forklift, treeincarnation wood.

The other piece of furniture is not made from wood from forklift but I just had to include it because it's an extreme example of what can be accomplished with recycling. There's a before and after picture. Yes, it really did start out as a weather beaten old fence. A friend of mine tore down the fence on his property and discovered that it was made out of rough milled oak. The only thing I can figure is the previous owner of the property (about 20 acres of mostly woodland), milled the wood himself. I can't think of any other explanation for building a fence out of oak. The friend gave the wood to me at my request on the assumption that I could put it to better use. I managed to salvage enough lumber to make the chest of drawers. The only new material in the piece are the drawer bottoms and the handles (forged english brass, after all the work I put into it, I wasn't going to skimp on the finishing touches). The sides of the drawers are made from lumber I found being thrown out in my neighborhood, and the back of the piece is made out of the crate my woodshop's tablesaw shipped in."

I have 3 projects to share with you.
First was a garden makeover we did in our front yard. We were lucky enough to visit the Community Forklift when you had a large donation of Chinese granite in the yard and were able to buy 12 blocks which we thought would be perfect in creating a new retaining wall. We saved some of the original plants and also added some new flowers in a two-tier configuration. The photos show the garden before and after.

Second project was replacing the tile top on a dining room table (which I saved from the dumpster). We knew you guys would have a good selection of tile and were able to find most of what we needed including the tile spacers to set the tiles. The photo shows the final result.

The most recent project we did was to design and build an artistic setting / backdrop for a church conference in Virginia beach. We had some vague ideas of what we wanted to do but it wasn't until we actually came to the store and saw a few things that we had a real plan. We found a box of 20-30 stainless steel sink frames in the "Free on Fridays" section and a box of plastic fluorescent light diffusers for cheap. We cut out the diffusers to fit inside the sink frames, spray painted them white and red, then caulked around the back edge to secure them in the frames using caulk we purchased from you. One photo shows some of the cutout diffusers along with the sink frames. Last step was to attach the frames together (we used 1x2's and special screw hardware ordered online) and then hang them using some thin gauge steel cable and cable clamps we found in your hardware section. The photo shows one of the two crosses we hung, and the last photo shows the large backdrop hung behind the band stage. The whole project was well under budget even after buying all the extra materials online and from other hardware stores.

Hopefully these projects will be an inspiration to other people to come check you guys out and make something cool.
Mike & Susan

Zack Mully says, here are some "pictures of the laundry closet that I just finished tiling with tiles from CF. The grey wall tiles were a mixed lot of loose and backed, so we decided to remove all tiles from the backing and reset them in a running bond pattern. This was done with a lot of blue painters tape as you can see in the photos. The floor tile was salvaged off freecycle. Total cost for the tile was about $35 IIRC and it came out great." Check out more of his pics here!

Dave Gorrie recently moved away from Hyattsville, and his new home is new construction (aka slightly sterile), so they have been bringing stuff back from CF to get some character back! They found these old storm shutters, removed the hinges and just screwed them on the front - makes perfect wall decorations!

Marco Esparza of Takoma, DC screened in this porch using materials from Community Forklift. He and his family then did a tile mosaic on the floor of the porch using tiles and grout from Community Forklift.

James Ferguson bought a piece of granite at Community Forklift and transformed it (with the addition of a base table) into a beautiful kitchen island. The cost of the finished granite, including fabrication, was less than a $100.00. They love it. Irwin Aguilar fabricated the granite.

Artist Antonio Ole used some doors, shutters, etc. bought from Community Forklift to create work for a show at the National Museum of African Art. Check out the blog, here!

Plumber YB Leaky purchased an antique stove and sink at CF and installed them in his previously Katrina-flooded house in New Orleans, LA. They both work great and are used every time he's there! He also made this in-door-fan from recycled material only; you stick it in the doorway and it pulls all the air through other openings, at 200cu.ft. per minute. Great for where windows wont open or exhaust/window fans cannot be utilized. Final photo: Whirlpool from Community Forklift, plumbing by Leaky.

Scott DeGraf & his wife Linda built a one room cottage in WV out of natural and recycled materials. It has a living roof, locust posts, and cordwood and strawbale walls. Most of the recycled material is from CF, including the doors, windows, lumber, insulation, woodstove, and stove pipe. See more photos of their beautiful cottage here!

James writes, "Just wanted to share my successful salvage of one of your doors. I'm not quite done, as I'm getting a stained glass transom made but I was able to repair the broken glass, rekey the original lockset to my house keys, and trim it down to fit my new opening. It worked out great." Check out his blog entry here!

Paul Lord made this lamp out of lamp parts from CF's “free on Friday” area and copper pipe from our plumbing stuff. The shade is parchment, glue, and wire, and the base is an old scrap of wood left over from a previous project.

Sat Jiwan Ikle-Khalsa (green building consultant through his company Truthful Living, and co-coordinator of the annual Takoma Green Homes Tour) found CF to be a useful resource when he was doing a complete green renovation of their house! Pictured here is some of the flooring they got from CF, and the blue sheet tile in the shower. They also were able to make huge truckloads of donations to CF to keep the cycle of re-use complete! Many more photos are on his website here, and a complete description of the green features of their renovation is found online here. We're glad we could play a role in the project!

Joe Edgell has covered C.F. several times in his green renovation blog--a recent post discusses reframing a wall with CF lumber.

Chuck Witmer of Scale house design designed and built this shed. He says, "I wanted to be able to build every part of it from scratch. I didn't want to use any fully assembled products and I wanted to reuse materials that would be less expensive and reduce depletion of our planets natural resources. I am an adversary and promoter of sustainable architecture and keeping our planet clean and around for future generations. In particular, for this project, I bought and used about 90' of your [CF's] old rough cut 2x8 floor joists to make my two 8'x4' hinged entry doors and the 16' horizontal window along the east facade. I also bought and used two 2'x6' tempered glass sheets for the glazing in the two doors. After completing this shed, I now have a place to build furniture and my wife has a painting studio." See more photos during its construction on this website!

Robin Buck's condo garden keeps expanding, and Community Forklift was able to help her maximize space in her container garden of herbs and various peppers. Robin says, "The best spot for afternoon sun is the area near the heat pumps. The first photo shows an earlier summer's herb collection. The new shelves allow for a cantilevered arrangement of pots. As you can see, much more room for a bountiful harvest!"

Casey and Dave Kneipp built this Halloween yard decoration using supplies from Community Forklift. They used scrap wood and pegboard for the framework and pink Styrofoam insulation sheets for the walls. They carved the Styrofoam to look like stone and painted it black, and then dry brushed the structure with grey paint. They used PVC pipes for the columns and gate. What a great project!

Duane Martz was looking for a unique mantel for his fireplace. He found it at Community Forklift, and saved a lot!

Andy McKim purchased an old shelf/mantle-piece, and six rusty, old doorknobs...all of which had serious "character". He used the doorknobs as hooks, each unique, rusty, and nifty. To get the "crackled" paint effect, he painted the shelf with a coat of diluted glue, immediately followed by some left-over paint. When it was dry, he sanded the edges and a few places on the surface to make it look worn, and finally added a coat of polyurethane to protect it, and prevent chipping. He also dipped the doorknobs in polyurethane to prevent rust from coming off. Finally, he drilled holes for the knobs, and held them in-place with lengths of brass tubing on the front, and cotter pins inserted through the holes at the end of the spindle(s) on the other side. His wife uses it to hang/store her dance-clothes on. He thanks Community Forklift for supplying the materials, and inspiration!

Justice Morris, 12 years old, came into Community Forklift with his family looking for affordable materials with which he could build a robot for a contest he was entering. The DC Region YMCAs sponsored their 14th Annual Thingamagig Invention Convention, where youth have to make up their own inventions using only recycled materials. They were also required to spend less than $20 on the entire project. Justice's project, called "Mr. Handsome," was made from various pieces of ductwork purchased at CF. The robot's head also lit up using solar power. Congratulations, Justice!

Glenn Fitzpatrick built an 8' x 10' shed, and loves CF! He spent $300 on all the materials, most of which was non-CF roof plywood and shingles. Everything else was from CF, including the shed doors that were already a set that fit perfectly. The framing is all dimensional lumber, the floor and sides are a combination of various widths of pine tongue and grove. Even the window is from CF!

The home of Community Forklift customer Amy Levin was featured on the popular blog, Apartment Therapy-- check it out! She also maintains her own website, including more details of the renovation and more photos. Items that came from Community Forklift include her master bedroom mirror and flagstone for top of front retaining wall to basement stairwell. She also purchased the wood portion of her countertop/bar, living room coffee table and all the trim throughout the house through Marcus Sims of Treincarnation (CF sells some of his wood pieces on consignment).

Bill Merkel's work is "recycling urban trees to lumber". He has used wood purchased at Community Forklift to create a variety of hand-crafted toys, furniture, and play equipment. Check out his website for more photos!

Gary Vogan built an entire hunting camp from recycled lumber purchased at Community Forklift!

Chris Nostrand built this dove-tailed oak drawer from tongue-in-groove flooring purchased at Community Forklift. He said, "In the custom wood-working I do, I can pass substantial savings on to my customers because of the good deals I get on materials at Community Forklift!"

Dana Schwartz plays percussion in the Rockville Concert Band, the Wind Ensemble of the Greenbelt Concert Band, in the Bay Winds Concert Band in Annapolis, and in the Olney Concert Band. Without a trap table, he used to have to keep the small equipment on the floor, on a chair, on tops of containers, or just about any surface available. Thanks to Community Forklift and Ebay, he was able to build one cheaply from a shallow drawer, a 24x24 carpet tile, and a metal stand. He attached them together with some scrap wood and clamps, so that it could be disassembled and transported easier while remaining stable when in use. The result was a savings of about $80 when compared to the price of a "professional" model!

Marcie Wolf-Hubbard used items bought at Community Forklift to create these pieces. The first two are acrylic on tar paper, and the 3rd is mixed media on a kitchen cabinet door. See more of her work on her website, or on exhibit at National Institutes of Health, Clinical Research Center Bethesda, MD.

Mark (of MarkZ Signs) uses reclaimed lumber from Community Forklift to create faux vintage signs. Check out his work at www.markzsigns.com - he can do custom orders or consignments, and he'll give 10% off to all CF customers!

Prince George’s Little Theatre’s production of “Steel Magnolias” is set in 1987 in a beauty salon in Louisiana. The salon is supposed to be a converted carport at a private home. Set designer Mary Seng used many CF items to create the feel of the outside of the house that was then enclosed to create the salon. Complementing the wall of Faux painted bricks on sheets of luan plywood (yes…the bricks are just paint and plywood!), items from CF include vinyl siding, a door with four glass panes, vinyl clad window, all kitchen cabinets and a hair washing sink. Water was plumbed to the sink so the actors could actually wash hair on stage during Act 1. For information about Prince George’s Little Theatre, Inc. (founded in 1960) and their productions (which always use CF items!) check out their website at www.pglt.org

Tim Godshall sent some pictures of the shelf/drawer units he made using all those 35 inch maple planks from Community Forklift. These are in a house in Hyattsville where the homeowners wanted to make the space in their eves a bit more functional. With the exception of the drawer bottoms, the back panels of the shelves, and the shelves in the blue room, all the wood is from Community Forklift.

Sandra Morris used Community Forklift's ceramic tile to create an impressive mosaic relief piece on her wall. It holds fruit, and hides a hole in the plaster!

Barbara Klieforth made a beautiful picture frame using the old heart pine floorboards she got at Community Forklift!

Malek Naz Freidouni refinished a salvaged mantelpiece, turning it into a classy headboard!

Lisa Lincoln purchased a low flow toilet from Community Forklift (the vanity was purchased from the Habitat Restore and the sink bowl is recycled copper). She purchased the bifold doors from Community Forklift and painted them to use as a room divider.

Laura Atkinson redid most of her kitchen with second-hand materials; she bought 4 cabinets at CF to match her existing cabinets, and also some chair rail which she stained to match. She also bought a piece of granite, which she used as a base for her electric wood burning stove.

Bea Trickett used Community Forklift's windows, plywood, 2x4s, and paint to build a cold frame for starting seeds earlier in the spring. She also gave her Bunny a fun tunnel in the form of a concrete form!

Enrique Landi made a composter from pressure treated lumber he bought at Community Forklift. He also made a base for his wood stove from granite pavers that he got here (originally from a fountain).

Volunteer Susan Chapin is turning CF miscellany into functional (& just plain fun) art! Check out her website, or stop into the store on a Saturday afternoon to meet her, and view her gallery in person! She's pictured here with two of her bowls (featuring many surplus nails and doorstops), and also here is a photo of a collage she made out of an old cabinet door.

Volunteer Luci Blodgett used her store credit to buy a $8 window and turn it into a work of art! She donated the completed stained glass back to hang in our store. She’s available to make custom pieces if you’re interested, check out her blog at www.itsasignofthe-green-times.com.

Brian Higgins' rain barrel installation features: reused 55 gallon containers; Trex lumber from CF; 2x lumber from Nature Neutral (special ordered through CF), as well as numerous other recycled materials, such as rebar, concrete mix, etc. . This installation holds close to 300 gallons of water storage. Check out his website here!

Store Phone: 301-985-5180 *** Donations Phone: 301-832-0781 *** Fax: 301-985-5182
Email: To inquire about donating materials, please fill out the form on our donations page.
To send us pictures of materials you would like to donate, use: Donations(at)CommunityForklift(dot)com
For media inquiries, please use: Ruthie(at)CommunityForklift(dot)com
For everything else use: Info(at)CommunityForklift(dot)com
Visit: 4671 Tanglewood Drive, Edmonston, MD 20781  
Directions: 5 minutes from DC in Prince George's County
Hours: Tuesday: noon-6pm; Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday: 10am - 6pm; Saturday & Sunday 9am - 6pm
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