Reuse, Recycle and Upcycle

In my last post I filled you in on my exciting morning at the Ideal Home Show at the SECC. Aside from exploring the amazing array of vendors, we had actually been invited along to learn a little more about how to reuse and recycle items to bring a new lease of life to our homes. We were treated to a talk from the gorgeous Emily Rose who you will remember I was lucky enough to learn all about upcycling with in the past, and a personal walk-through by the lovely designer, John Amabile's show-rooms at the event,  by the man himself. If this wasn't enough we got to get to chat to the amazing team at Revolve who are part of Zero Waste Scotland and what they have set out to do is definitely something close to my heart. For those who follow me on Instagram and twitter- I am a huge fan of second-hand anything, the contents of my wardrobe to the majority of the furniture in my home have all come from charity shops and its something I promote whenever possible. People can still be a bit funny at the idea of  getting something that is not brand new and that is why Revolve are working to add a standard of quality to lots of places selling second hand goods in Scotland. They want to make it more inviting, easier and safer for people to purchase used goods, and if you spot their logo you know you are buying from somewhere that sells good products and are committed to quality and customer service. They are working hard to try and make second hand the first choice and I absolutely love what they are doing, Along with Emily and John, the Revolve team talked us through just how easy it can be to upcycle old pieces with furniture paint and stencils etc and it was amazing to see how different a piece can look after a little TLC that doesn't require any amazing skills just a bit of enthusiasm. John and Emily were in agreement that a lick of paint, replacing handles and using fun fabrics with colour can turn things around really quickly and encourage you to be really creative with your style. For my adventures in re working pieces, I find that using something older makes me less 'precious' about trying my hand with it- nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that jazz means I have definitely been bolder in giving things a go and it really has made the opportunities endless.

John showed us through his show-rooms at the event which were great for getting inspiration for how you could mix new pieces with older upcycled pieces, they had even put together my favourite room of the show entirely from second hand items and I thought it looked absolutely fantastic. They looked like the kind of pieces you might spend a fortune on in Urban Outfitters but were actually just cheaper IKEA numbers with a couple of adjustments, or a chair that a shop was literally throwing out that was given a little love and totally transformed. There is something so inspiring in people getting behind the recycling mindset, I can't wait to get my hands on a project soon and inject some new life into my flat.