Get On “Up” With These (Free) Homely Ideas

Upcycling In The Home

Last year, the Guardian reported that recycling rates in England had stalled – which is a real shame, as recycling offers a whole plethora of benefits. From lowering greenhouse gas emissions to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, there’s a great deal of good to come from recycling.

One great form of recycling is upcycling. How does it differ from recycling exactly? Where recycling concerns destroying the source and creating a completely different product, upcycling lets you reuse the source in its original state to make an entirely new product. So we asked our friends at Johnstone’s Paints to come up with five ideas that, with some clever thinking and a lick of paint, could bring something headed to the tip back to life.

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Five Upcycling Ideas For The Home

Fashionable fireplace. With function being a priority over fashion, the fireplace only gets used for the purpose of providing heat throughout the home – however, there’s nothing ‘hot’ about its appearance when covered in soot and dirt. But for those worried about a costly makeover, fear not as all it takes is some TLC (tender loving cleaning), a lick of paint and a new mantel – thanks to updating AND upcycling your fireplace!
Amazing Fireplaces Upcycled with Old Naval Mines! …maybe don’t try this at home!
Pamper your pets. Got a family furry that’s part of the furniture? Then why not spoil your pooch or moggy by creating pet furniture – from a pet bed to a food bowl stand, DIY doesn’t have to be about ‘pet peeves’ when it comes to up cycling! Here are some amazing examples of turning an old wardrobe into an aviary, a chest of drawers into a cat bed and food storage unit, and a side table into a dog bed.
Creating an aviary from an old wardrobe

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Upcycled Side Table Into Dog Bed

Upcycling a dresser for cats!
Refurbish your refrigerator. An efficient way of storing and cooling your food, refrigerators are an absolute godsend to help preserve your food’s freshness – but when your refrigerator packs up, suddenly your beloved cooler is anything BUT efficient. However, you’d be surprised with your cooler’s capabilities – take advantage of its generous storage and transform your refrigerator into an impressive shelving solution, or alternatively, convert your cooler into a couch.
Amazing use for an old fridge – displaying all of your beads and haberdashery!

This company FridgeCouch.com upcycles old fridges and turns them into sofas!

[Tweet “From fridges to sofas?! #Inspired #Upcycling !”]
Handy herb garden. Bring new meaning to the term the ‘great outdoors’ with the budget-friendly but brilliant herb garden upcycling projects. Get a ‘pizza’ the action by turning your tin cans into herb planters, plant your herbs in a colourful colander or repurpose your tea tins into herb garden windowsill planters.
You can even use your old egg shells!

Amazing use for old plastic bottles (when they aren’t being made into Offset Warehouse fabrics!). Use them to grow your herbs!

This is a beautiful use of an old gutter, hung onto blackboard – what a clever idea!
Revamping the radiator. Lastly, what do you do with a radiator that no longer radiates heat? Get it to radiate style instead, by repurposing it into home furnishings. Choose from making a radiator table to crafting a radiator chair – and have fun with your furniture!
Upcycled radiators into a gorgeous coffee table

Amazing upcycled radiator into a fully functioning (and pretty comfy!) chair.
Beautiful bannister made from old radiators- what a great way to save a few pennies!

So if your home’s looking down in the dumps, get on up – with our thrifty upcycling designs. Got any inspirational and imaginative ideas to share? Tell us all today!