From bespoke light fixtures artfully fashioned from beer cans to chic handbags made from canvas coffee sacks, we’ve seen our share of creative repurposing. But Copenhagen design team Danish Fuel is taking upcycling to another level with their sleek, wall-mountable Jerry Can Bar Cabinet made from—wait for it—old kerosene containers from World War II. The cans, originally called Wehrmacht Kanisters, were designed by the German military in 1939 to hold kerosene,water, and gasoline in preparation for the war. They were coded by colour to differentiate between the liquids they contained and eventually dubbed “Jerries”, which was the nickname for Germans during the war.
The inventive team of designers at Danish Fuel collects the discarded Jerry Cans from military surplus centres and initiates a 3-week process of drilling, sanding, burning, adding a powder coat—all sorts of highly involved procedures that result, against all odds, in a battered old gas canister emerging a gleaming custom-made bar you’d be proud to hang on your wall and fill with a few of your most treasured spirits and glassware. Jerry Can Bar Cabinet is the classiest form of “reduce, reuse, recycle” we’ve seen yet.