By Kristen Nowak Winn

Accent Editor

When it comes to turning trash to treasure, it all comes down to imagination. Take a walk through the Medina Depot, 602 W. Liberty St., Medina, and you’ll find all sorts of new uses for old things.

Old silver spoon handles turned into fashionable key chains. Painters’ ladders used as a rack to display quilts. Antique light fixtures reworked into candlestick holders. Pieces of salvaged barn wood formed into a bird house.

It’s the culmination of several creative minds in the store who know how to reuse and recycle.

“If it’s junky and something someone’s going to throw away, I’ll use it,” said Arleen McAlister, one of the store’s business partners and a co-owner of This-N-That Antiques and Collectibles, 234 N Broadway St., Medina. “Mainly I paint furniture. It’s not so much making it different, but sprucing it up.” McAlister heads outside to the back of the store where she was working on repainting a few pieces of furniture, including an end table.

“The drawer was missing, so I just put a fake front on it,” she said.

To find her projects, McAlister checks out auctions, estate sales and tag sales. Occasionally, people will drop off items they can no longer use, such as worn-down windows they’ve replaced. “The old windows, you can do tons of things with them,” McAlister said. For example, she’ll remove the glass panels and replace them with mirrors for a wall hanging. Or, she’ll turn them into picture frames. Or even a display for quilts.

One has to wonder where she gets all these clever ideas.

McAlister points to her head.

“And I watch the Home and Garden channel.”

For anyone hoping to get started in refinishing or reusing old household fixtures, all you need is a few ideas and, in most cases, everyday tools most people already have at home.

“It’s a very simple thing to do,” McAlister said.

So, what’s this crafty connoisseur’s advice for beginners?

“Think outside the box,” McAlister said. “Everybody laughs at me because I can make anything into a plant stand.”

But she cautions that giving junk makeovers isn’t for everybody. “You have to enjoy getting your hands dirty,” McAlister said. “You have to enjoy going to garage sales. The fun part is finding the stuff.”

And then there’s the even bigger picture, too.

“I’m just trying to save things from going to a landfill,” McAlister said.

Winn may be reached at 330-721-4053 or kwinn@ohio.net.