On Trend | Upcycling

 

Over the weekend I read a great article in the Sunday Mail Home lift out titled "Move On Up" which talks about the trend towards upcycling furniture. If you have been reading this blog for long enough, you will have noticed my love for upcycling items and reusing them (a few items include: serving tray, side tables, and my bike - post finally up this week!)

The article talks about a few of the reasons why furniture upcycling is such a great idea. This includes the fact that it is eco friendly and the furniture is usually built tougher than the furniture we buy today (hence why it has been around long enough to "upcycle") It also give you a few tips when it comes to upcycling furniture.

One of the main reasons I love upcycling (apart from those listed above) is the satisfaction from taking an object that may or may not have been used for a few years or is no longer wanted, and turning it into an item that is loved once again!

I thought I would also leave you with a few of my own tips I have found along the way when it comes to upcycling.

1 | Check the condition of the item
When I purchased my bike for example, I really wanted to make sure that most of the bike was working and that I could keep and reuse most of the parts. The point is not to rebuild the item from scratch (you might as well build a new one yourself or buy a new one!) Obviously as you will see in my blog post about my bike makeover, I did have to buy a few new parts, but we managed to keep 70 - 80% of the bike itself.

2 | Have a vision
I think it is really important to have a vision of what you want to do with the object before you buy it or start working on it. I get a lot of my inspiration from Pinterest. Usually I find a few different pictures and decide what I could do to my chosen object (such as the photo above for my bike). I believe it is important to also follow this process before you buy an item so that it isn't left sitting in your shed waiting for you to decide what on earth you are going to do with it!

3 | Consider the use of the item
Do you only want the item as a decorative piece or are you wanting to use the item once you have upcycled it? This is a really important question to ask as it can affect how you finish off the piece. If you are wanting to use an item, the finish of the piece is really important as you are going to want it to last! For my bike, I knew I wanted to use it a lot after we were finished so we used a primer before we painted the bike and a tough gloss paint so that the paint would not scratch of easily.

Once you have considered the above - you are ready to upcycle! I have so many upcycling projects I want to do which I promise I will share on the blog!

Have you jumped on the upcycling bandwagon? Where do you love to shop or where do you find your items? I am currently loving Castle Collectables (for those of you who live in South Australia) I have mentioned them on the blog before!

Ps. Please excuse the pun of using my bicycle as my example of "upcycling" (get it!)

- J x

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