Upcycling projects you’ll definitely want to try this summer

Posted on Monday, July 16th, 2018

Upcycling is about taking an item that you might have come close to discarding and instead turning it into an exciting new piece that, perhaps, looks as though it could only have been fashioned by you.

However, as much as you might want to take some of your old pieces from trash to treasure, you might remain at a loss as to how to do so. You might just need to give your imagination some creative fire – in which case, here are some ideas for upcycling to fruitful effect this summer.

Turn a kitchen table into a classy breakfast zone

You can be hard-pressed to… impress with a kitchen table. It could easily look too plain, with a particularly unsightly wood grain. However, neither of those drawbacks might matter if you act on an idea highlighted by Ideal Home and turn that table into an elegant breakfast zone.

You can do that by painting the table, including in a bold colour for its supports, and securing patterned oilcloth over the top with staples in that top’s edges.

Give yourself a clever home office area

An alternative idea for refashioning that kitchen table is painting it in a colour complementary to wallpaper of your liking. The table can act as the centrepiece for a home office!

However, your work with the table would not necessarily stop there, as you could also apply wallpaper – yes, of the same design – to the tabletop. A glass panel – cut to the size of the wallpaper piece – should go on top of that wallpaper for a delightfully smooth working surface.

Use reclaimed wood to make cinema-style seating

If you have not yet tried doing any DIY work with reclaimed wood, you could be pleasantly surprised by the variety of purposes to which this material can be put. Natural Living Ideas suggests many… well, ideas for how you could use such wood, including in cinema-like seating for the home.

This kind of seating can make a great feature in a home cinema – and would not require more than a few reclaimed pallets.

Cut corners with a corner sofa

It’s usually advisable not to “cut corners” in any endeavour, but you might be able to do so in a good way if you opt to build a corner sofa from reclaimed pallets.

This type of sofa can work well in places – like a gaming room, loft or apartment – where space is at a premium. Once you have correctly arranged the pallets, you could place some cushions and throws on top of them and use the ready-made shelves as storage for books and magazines.

A suitcase can make a purr-fect sleeping space for your cat

Cats can be attracted to sleeping in lots of peculiar places. If your feline often favours a suitcase as their bed, you could make it into a proper bed by following a step-by-step guide from Ideal Home.