A Beginner’s Guide to Upcycling

Although new homes lack the period detailing found in traditional properties, it’s easy to elevate modern specifications with characterful furniture and accessories. Neutral décor provides the perfect backdrop to bold features, and it isn’t necessary to spend a fortune on designer fixtures and fittings. In fact, the decorative highlights for your next home could be right under your nose…

The concept of upcycling has risen to public prominence thanks to regular appearances in property and lifestyle TV shows. It involves recycling unwanted or end-of-life items, assigning them new roles by restoring and adapting them. And because reusing old things ties in with our growing awareness of environmental issues, it’s been embraced by everyone from architects to students.

These are some of the most iconic examples of upcycling:

• An old stepladder turned into a bookcase. Furniture stores now sell high-priced versions of the iconic ladder bookcase, which can be created for a few pounds by stripping and sanding a wooden stepladder before repainting it in bright colours.
• Glass bottles used as lampshades and candle-holders. Instead of throwing away jars or glass bottles, thoroughly clean and de-label them before using them as characterful shades and candle holders. This has also been adopted by designer furniture brands.
• Bicycle wheels fashioned into clocks. Large wall clocks are very on-trend, and the spokes in a bicycle wheel look great when they’re polished. Clock mechanism kits can be bought for £2 online, while bike wheels are easily sourced in tips and skips.
• Packing crates rebuilt as tables. The knots and colour variations in wooden pallets are carefully recreated in vinyl flooring, but the real thing can be sourced online for pennies and fashioned into rustic coffee tables using a saw, a hammer and some nails.

Cost is rarely an issue with upcycling, since items might be lying around your home already. If you’ve already cleared the loft in preparation for moving, see what’s being advertised for collection on Freecycle and Freegle. Even paint – a staple of many upcycling projects – could be acquired affordably through schemes like Community RePaint. Keeping costs down is highly beneficial when buying a new house, as there will always be other things competing for investment.

The key to upcycling is to look for inspiration or new trends on websites like Pinterest and Etsy. A common theme at the moment involves filling ornate picture frames with wallpaper, before mounting them on a blank wall. Similarly, it’s truly inspiring to see an old bicycle transformed into a hall console table, with a lined basket for keys and the mudguard used to hold an umbrella. Upcycling is perfect for adding character to a new home without spending much money (if any), and it’s a concept everyone should embrace.

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