Thinking outside of the box

I love to see objects used for a function other than what they were originally designed for. I think I became interested when Baileys Home and Garden started appearing everywhere in magazines etc. You've probably their shoe lasts used as kitchen roll holders or wall-to-wall apple crate storage. RE do similar - I love their jelly mould lights and the way they display postcards in a wall-mounted carpet beater! Genius!

So we've had a very boring lightshade on our landing ever since we moved in. I've always hated it, so today we decided to 'carve a hole' in the bottom of a small enamel bucket to make a nicer one!Here are some other quirky touches around the place: a boat hook as a curtain rail....

In our last house we attached an old wooden oar to the wall going up the stairs - it made a fantastic stair rail! Unfortunately the buyers wanted it, so we had to leave it behind. Sorry, I don't even have a photo for you!
Here's a picture of the lightpull and shower switch in the bathroom...

Do you have any similar ideas to share?

I had a clearout in the shed today (after much badgering from Steve!) I think my boxes of driftwood were taking up more room than his precious power tools!
Having said that, I'm glad I did as I found lots of odd bits that I'd forgotten about - and I made this....!

Driftwood boat decoration available on Folksy. (Now SOLD)

I'm going to make a longer one next time, with more boats, and I thought if I put some vertical posts at either end, I could put a line of bunting over the top and it would frame it all nicely - what d'you think?