Free to a good home

In this age of out with the old and in with the new, I would be very much in the “keep the old” club. For the benefit of our local landfill and ultimately our planet, we should all adopt a sustainability and #upcycling ethos : https://theupcycler.ie/upcycling/ . The recurring problem with this stance is that we never seem to have enough space or storage to keep these items on hand for future use. I regularly get contacted by customers posting a photo to my page, asking if I would like / have any use for this ? The majority of the time, I have to say no to a bookcase or sideboard because I simply don’t have the room or storage space. I generally call to a customer’s house collect their furniture, revamp and upcycle the piece and return with a completely transformed article.

However, In this particular case, the answer was yes. I was sent a photo of a very dated and sad looking hall stand, destined for the skip. In this case, it ticked all the boxes for what I needed. I had a narrow wall area in the hall, which needed a coat rack and /or some storage. I had looked on line with all the major suppliers but everything these days is made to cater for larger rooms and areas. With a little bit of tweaking it would fit perfectly.

Hand painted & spray painted kitchens painted & upcycled furniture in County Cork by The Upcycler

The old hall stand hailed from a time when mahogany was your only choice. It was a bit like Ford’s Model-T car “you can have any colour you like, so long as it’s black”. However, once you looked past the dark colour, the stand had some lovely features, just a matter of letting them shine through. I decided on a rich blue for the woodwork, with faux marble inset and copper accent for the hardware and fittings. Finally, an inset geometric tile courtesy of my good friend Anne at https://richardsonsceramics.ie/ to finish the look.

All in all, a very fulfilling project to undertake. A new piece of badly needed furniture, practical, quirky and most of all #upcycled.

Painted & upcycled furniture by The Upcycler – https://theupcycler.ie/