To Upcycle…

When you don’t have the budget to buy unique pieces, what can you do? When you have a tattered old piece of furniture that you need to update, what do you do? You upcycle!

What is upcycling?

upcycle

ˈʌpsʌɪk(ə)l/

verb

Gerund or present participle: upcycling

1. Reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.

“The opportunity to upcycle trash, or turn it into new products, was vast”

 

This term can be applied to anything that you re-style or re-purpose for the same or a new function – furniture, clothes, art, generally pretty much anything.

My favourite place to find ideas to make regular pieces of furniture into something unique is Pinterest. If you haven’t yet discovered this app, prepare to have you life changed and a lot less spare time on your hands!

In a culture where a lot of our furniture (especially the budget stuff) comes in a flat pack box, it’s is all pretty generic, unless you have the cash to splash. So if you have a relatively small budget, how can we make our home unique? You can use a multitude of techniques to upcycle your boring furniture. You can buy materials such as special paper, paints or material, or you can use old materials such as newspapers or magazines to create something unique.

If you’re not keen on investing in some flat pack furniture and redesigning it you can always find great, cheap pieces in places like scrap yards, charity shops and auction houses. So you might end up with a boring pine wardrobe for example but then you can go crazy with the customization.

One way to upcycle and make something completely unique whilst still not spending a huge amount of money is to use wall decals (of course). This way you can create a truly unique pattern or design that is clean and sharp. Stickers are especially helpful if you don’t have the patience or the skill to paint a pattern directly onto the piece. Or you can go the opposite and use them as a stencil.

Don’t forget to start small. You don’t have to dive straight in with upcycling a massive feature piece. You can start small with a vase, some crockery or a small piece of furniture.

Other budget furniture stores are of course available but we do love IKEA and we discovered a whole new side to it with the site www.ikeahackers.com

It’s incredible. A forum where you can post your up-cycled, unique IKEA pieces. Ingenious!

The possibilities are endless when it comes to customizing your home and the furniture in it, all it takes is a little imagination and patience.