Have you ever been in the situation when suddenly one of your keyboard keys stop working whilst you are typing? Sometimes it takes a little force to get that key working but most times it refuses to budge no matter how many times you continue to press it. Eventually some other keys follow suit and you are forced to replace the entire keyboard altogether.
Now if this became a frequent occurrence, you’ll soon have a pile of spoiled keyboards lying in some corner of your room, provided you haven’t got around to discarding them. Before you get around to that, why not recycle those keyboard keys? Here we have found 22 things keyboard keycaps can be reused of which some you can even attempt to do.
Recommended Reading: 15 PC Keyboards With Cool Design
Things you can wear
Necklace. Wearing keycaps around your neck makes for a unique piece of jewelery. You can even string several to spell out your name or a word. (Image source: Pinterest)
Earrings. These can be matched with your keycap necklace. Some of them come with extra embellishments but the plain ones are not too bad either. (Image source: Etsy)
Ring. The thing about keycaps is that they are the perfect size for a ring. Or several. You know, in case you want to spell out a word on your fingers. (Image source: Etsy)
Bracelet. Better yet, why not string the keycaps on your wrist? All the best to wear your name or your favorite word, yes? Yes. (Image source: Style Hive)
Cufflinks. This one is for the men. Show off how classy (and geeky) you can look with a pair of these whilst wearing your shirt. (Image source: Green Diary)
Button. Lost a button from a favourite jacket? You can replace it with a keycap like how user babybayrs did with her daughter’s jacket. (Image source: Instructables)
Jacket. Instead of just sticking to buttons or cufflinks, why not go all out looking dapper in this jacket? You’ll definitely turn heads whilst wearing this. (Image source: Bit Rebels)
Handbag. You can actually purchase one of these classy bags from João Sabino’s site and choose to have it in either black, white, red or hot pink. (Image source: João Sabino)
Things you can have around the house
Bench. Made by Nolan Herbut who used 2000 keycaps, you can interact with this piece of furniture by pressing on the keycaps! (Image source: Nolan Herbut)
Lamp. You can light up your house like how Vietnamese Dinh Cong Thanh did with this lamp made by attaching keyboard keys to acrylic panels. (Image source: Upcycle Dzine)
Clock. Clocks are easy to make as is this one. Get yourself a base, a simple clock motor kit, and use the function keys as the numbers. (Image source: Dr Prem)
Picture frame. This are so easy to make as all you need to do is attach keys to an existing frame. Display them around the house or gift it to a geeky friend! (Image source: Hannah Ackroyd)
Walls. Why not? It’ll make for a distinctive wall, which The James Hotel can boast about after commissioning artist Sarah Frost to stick keycaps on their lobby wall. (Image source: Pinterest)
Sculpture. Make a statement for your home with a sculpture like this rocking horse that artist Babis Cloud constructed out of 18,000 keycaps and resin. (Image source: This Is Colossal)
Artwork. Why stop at just a wall when you can have a piece of art made of keyboard keys? This particular mosaic was made by Kay Knight who even does portraits of celebrities. (Image source: Fast Company)
Rubik’s Cube. Need something more challenging? Try out user Overlord5′s instructions on how to make a Rubik’s Cube out of keycaps. (Image source: Instructables)
Things for the office
Keychain. I don’t know about you but I would really like this for my house keys seeing that that keycap has been so aptly used. (Image source: Pinterest)
Thumbtacks. Move over, regular thumbtacks! This brainchild of Instructables user noahw is a must have to pin ideas and notices on your office board. (Image source: Instructables)
Pen holder. Normal pen holders are so boring but at least you can customize them with old keycaps like these ones. (Image source: Apartment Therapy)
Magnets. Again, why have normal magnets when you can make one or more of this? You can even spell out messages or play magnetic poetry on your fridge. (Image source: Apartment Therapy)
Notebook. No, I don’t mean the computer notebook. Yes, I mean embelishing a plain paper-bound notebook with keycaps. Or you can buy one here. (Image source: Perpetual Kid)
Box. These will be perfect for either storing trinkets or storing a present for a techy friend. Hey, you can even spell out a message if you are making it by yourself! (Image source: Think Geek)
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