Upcycling - Better than New

There is a new term being used by environmentally conscious decorators and designers and it is “upcycling”. What is upcycling you ask? It is the skill of taking something destined for the landfill and transforming it into something of greater use and value. Upcycling is the new way to say “make over,” as in find a great old flea market chair, whose upholstery and finish have seen better days, and make it better than new. If you are willing to bargain hunt you can pick up a piece of furniture for a song, then it’s worth splurging on chic new fabric and refinishing it. If you are handy, do the job yourself; if not, get a professional to do it. Either way, what you end up with will be a gorgeous unique piece that will be the envy of all your friends and well worth your investment.

There are some who question the idea of spending more money to make a piece over than what you paid for it in the first place. However, you will have a customized piece that no one else has, and most likely at a fraction of the price of a brand new one. You will also have the satisfaction of knowing that you stopped one more piece of garbage from going to our bulging landfill sites.

So just how much will your project cost? Let’s take a closer look at a project from page 70 of the July 2009 issue of Style At Home magazine. A well-used but solid wood chair, purchased for $25 on Craigslist.ca, is upcycled into a glam dining chair that will grace a pretty table for many years. Total cost to transform the find: about $325 – a price comparable to what you’d pay for a new chair of equal quality, but now it is a one of a kind piece that you won’t find anywhere else..