Most of the time we don’t even realise it—but even the smallest of our actions have a profound impact on our earth. By switching to a sustainable lifestyle, we can mitigate these harmful effects, reduce our carbon footprint, and keep our families (and the planet!) healthy.
Practices like recycling and upcycling reduce the waste we generate, and help to breathe new life into items that have outlived their usefulness. Recycling reuses the same material in a new way—for instance, when you melt down broken pieces of glass to make a new vase, you are recycling it. When you upcycle, however, you are creatively reusing an object, either the whole or parts of it, and giving it a second lease on life!
Sounds good? Here are some creative ways in which you can upcycle items to create warm, sustainable décor in your home!
Get Creative with Vegetable Crates!
Don’t throw away those veggie crates just yet! Just a simple coat of white enamel transforms this pinewood create into a creative coffee table. Upend the crate, and use the storage space below for books and magazines.
A Cable Drum Gets a Second Lease on Life
Would you ever imagine this stylish side table was once a discarded cable drum? Picked up from a landfill, this cable spool has been sanded and polished with a clear matte finish, letting the beauty of the pinewood grains shine through.
Get Crafty with Decoupage
When you’ve got sustainability on your mind, you’re bound to come up with a million creative ways to upcycle old furniture! Take this old chest of drawers, for instance. A few quick repairs, and a deft hand with decoupage have transformed this chipped, rickety piece into a lovely style statement.
Art with Bottles
Go green, in more ways than one! Cut off the bottom of a one litre Coke bottle, spray it with acrylic paint and sketch in the eyes and mouth with coloured markers. Fill your lovely upcycled planter with potting mix and some lovely greens, and perk up a corner of your balcony!
Chair Magic
Time to get handy with a paintbrush! Give an old, creaky chair a fun, quirky upgrade with polka dots that are painted on with acrylic colours. Do note that one of the legs is, itself, upcycled from another chair!
Upgrade Your Workstation
Don’t know what to do with the clutter around your home office? Put some fruit crates to work for you! These wooden boxes are just the right size to store books, stationery and paper.
Vintage Suitcases
This stack of shabby leather suitcases makes for a great conversation piece in your living room. What’s more, it can always be used to store odds and ends, and works just great as a side table too!
Fabric Art
Do you have clothes that you’ve outgrown, but still hold beautiful memories? Keep the sentiments alive, by transforming the fabric into pretty patchwork. This sofa upholstery uses squares of fabric from old napkins and dress materials for a totally unique aesthetic.
Here, tiny scraps of fabric are sewn into triangles and woven into a circular floor rug. The edges are finished with tassels of fabric that are left raw.
Patchwork squares are stitched with grandmotherly love and tonnes of patience to make this one-of-a-kind baby quilt. Note how each square is worked with its own geometric design, and no two squares are alike!
The lovely thing about making your own patchwork cushions is that you can perfectly match the fabric used for drapes or upholstery in the same room. Just buy some additional lengths of curtain material, and work the extras into pretty patchwork cushion covers.
Hang Up Trinkets in Style
We absolutely adore the way this decorative photo frame has been transformed into a useful organiser for your bracelets and necklaces. All it takes is paint in a distressed finish and some S-hooks that are screwed into one side of the frame. No more wasting time, searching for your favourite trinket!
Don’t Retire Those Tyres!
It’s not yet time to retire those tyres — not when they can be upcycled into these innovative garden seats! The waterproof rubber makes them ideal for outdoor use, and the sprayed-on colours add a dash of vibrancy.
Sprucing up your outdoor space can be a lot of fun! With a little imagination and a pot of paint, you can save old truck tyres from the landfill by repurposing them into planters in your garden. Think outside the box (or planter!) and plant your prized blooms and greens in these creative vessels.
Stretch your creativity to its limits, and upcycle a discarded car tyre into a swing seat in your living room. You can count on hours of mindless fun for the little ones at home as they squabble for their turn on the swing!
Put Those Coconut Shells to Work
Coconut shell crafts are an artisan’s delight, and these hard wooden shells have, over the years, been used to make any number of creative décor elements from lampshades to drinking cups, bowls and spoons, jewellery, vases and coasters, and many more! Here, this versatile shell is easily converted into a plant holder for succulents.
Sustainable Coffee Table
Transforming old materials into brand new ones can be a fun DIY adventure! This coffee table uses old wooden boxes, spruced up with grey enamel paint, and finished with wooden pallets on the top.
We’ve got a team of designers who are as passionate about upcycling as you are! Let’s put our heads together and go green. Give the HomeLane team a buzz today.
