How To Build An Inexpensive Ballet Floor Using Freecyle

Last year my daughter started ballet and tap. She was interested in practicing at home, but I did not want tap shoes on my kitchen floor. I was curious how hard it would be to put in your own ballet floor. We had space in our basement so this was not an issue. The issue was cost. A few cost factors would affect this project.

Any DIY, Do It Yourself, Project needs someone who is capable of being handy. I am lucky in that my husband is a competent DIY person. I could check that off the list.

Luckily, most DIY people have the tools necessary such as a saw, hammer, nails. Number 2 checked off

We decided to use hard wood floors. The area was only going to be 4 feet by 6 feet but there is cost per square foot we had to consider. I had to figure this one out. I decided to pay attention on freecycle.org. Freecycle focuses on recycling instead of throwing out items and filling up the landfills

In our area, you can submit to join your local Freecycle network and be on a yahoo distribution list. You can 'offer' items for other to take for free. You can 'want' items and other freecylcers can offer them free to you. The goal is to keep people from filling up the landfills and reusing items instead.

I kept my eye out and found someone who decided to pull up their old, oak, hardwood floors. I offered to pick them up and they were mine….for free.

This is the ballet barre. I looked for dowel rods at my local home improvement store and they were all too small. I decided for my 4 year old daughter’s ballet studio, a 6 foot hand railing would work just fine. Cost about $50 with the associated hardware.

I priced these out at the home improvement store. I was shocked at the price of large mirrors. Large mirrors could be over $80 and I need a couple. So, back to Freecycle I went. Luckily, that same week another fellow freecycler was redoing their bathroom. They were getting rid of 2, 5 foot by 8 foot mirrors. These were going to be perfect for a basement studio. I offered to pick them up and again, mine for free.

Once I had the supplies, my husband made it happen. I would have easily spent over $30 on flooring and well over $100 on mirrors. Instead, thanks for my Freecycle network, I was able to ‘purchase’ my daughter a ballet floor for only $50. She put some princess stickers she already had on the mirror, and she was all set. A floor made for a ballet princess on a frugal budget.