Upcycling Furniture: Give Old Pieces New Life

Upcycling furniture is an innovative and environmentally conscious concept that is rapidly gaining popularity. It’s an excellent method to avoid waste while creating unique, personalised things for your house. This method can make worn-out furniture look chic and new, regardless of your level of experience with do-it-yourself projects.

Here are some great and handy methods to help you in upcycling your old items to new ones.

• Shifting Life from Old to New
• Points to Ponder
• Materials to Look for Upcycling
• Revive Old Furniture
• Prepare Your Wooden Furniture
• Sand Your Furniture
• Prepare Your Metal Furniture
• Upcycling Glass Objects
• Polishing Your Furniture
• Whitewash Look
• Paint It
• DIY Projects for Upcycling Furniture
• FAQs

What is Upcycling?

First, let’s understand the word upcycling. Upcycling means transforming discarded, old, or wasted materials into new and useful products. By doing so, you help the environment by reducing the amount of waste.

Plus, you save resources by giving old things a new and complete life and makeover. Upcycling has numerous environmental benefits.

Shifting Life from Old to New

So, let’s talk about why you need to upcycle your old furniture. When we live in a place like Dubai, buying new furniture is an economically challenging option. Sometimes, you just get tired of looking at that same chair or table. But it’s not easy to just discard it, as it costs a lot. As per expert opinion, you can use quick home decor ideas to upcycle the furniture look.

So, this is where upcycling comes in. Being in the time of technology and media like YouTube and Pinterest, you can do anything at home. From building a house to upgrading your furniture, DIY projects can help you complete just about any project.

These media channels not only give you great ideas but also help you make a list of the required materials. Moreover, you can create a smart home with when shifting from old to new.

Points to Ponder

However, not every piece of furniture has the potential to be upcycled. You need to look past its flaws to see how you can bring it to life.

Before throwing or discarding a piece of furniture, look past its surface appearance to consider a few points:

• The material of the object, like what it’s made of? (metal, plastic, wood or fabric).
• Can you renew or recover it? Like can it be easily painted, reupholstered or lined with wallpaper or any other type of paper?
• The shape of the object matters quite a lot. A square or round shape is easy to work with. Meanwhile, an object with many corners or engraved designs can be difficult.

Materials to Look for Upcycling

• Old suitcases and trunks can be used as side tables.
• Old tires make beautiful and perfect flower planters, swings for your kids or even a seat for the garden area.
• Old mirrors and frames can be upcycled by just giving them a coat of paint or adding a few decorative items on one of their corners to bring it to life.
• Old glass bottles can be used as hanging planters, but just paint them any way you want.

Revive Old Furniture

There is no hard and fast rule to revive any object. If you make a mistake, simply wipe the paint with damp cloth or re-sand it. If you’re new to upcycling, it’s better to start with small objects like trays, mirrors or side tables.

Prepare Your Wooden Furniture

This is a must-have step as you cannot start painting or polishing dirty and dusty furniture. So, ensure that the surface is clean and free from all types of dust, dirt, moist or mould.

You can get all sorts of furniture cleaners from local supermarkets in Dubai. Or you can simply DIY a cleaning solution by mixing water and vinegar and wiping the furniture.

Sand Your Furniture

After cleaning the surfaces of your object, sand it down using sandpaper, if the object is wooden. The already painted surface should be lightly sanded to remove any chipped paint or to smooth out any imperfections. 

Remove all dust with a vacuum cleaner or a soft, damp cloth. After drying, you’re ready to paint.  Get some good quality paint brushes from any local paint shop in Dubai. Cheap brushes give poor coverage and leave bristles in your wet paint job.

Prepare Your Metal Furniture

Cleaning metal is easier than timber furniture. Just wipe it clean with a soft cloth. Clean any rusted area with rust removing product, rust-removing disk machine or wired brush. After that, it’s ready for a new painting job.

Upcycling Glass Objects

Working with glass objects can be an interesting project. Here are a few tips:

• First, wipe clean the glass with a good mirror or window cleaner spray. 
• Then, you can decorate them using paints, puffy paints, shell pieces, beads, small pebbles or things like that.
• You can also do resin art on mirrors and glasses. It needs lots of guidance as well as protection as it contains harmful substances.

Polishing Your Furniture

One way of upcycling is just giving a polish to your object, which gives it a new and fresh look.

Whitewash Look

You could just simply give a whitewash look to furniture to give that translucent look with the wood partially showing. This way you can uphold the character of wood without completely camouflaging its natural beauty. One important point is when you whitewash or paint, always keep your strokes in the direction of the grain.

Paint It

Another option to upcycle an old piece is to just paint it in any colour you like. Give it a solid one-colour look or use many colours of your choice. It’s all up to your taste.

DIY Projects for Upcycling Furniture

Now, we have a clear idea on the prep of your old furniture and basic painting techniques. Let’s look at some of the most common furniture upcycling at home as your DIY projects.

1. Bookshelf from Old  Ladder

You can easily turn an old ladder into a bookshelf. Sand it down, paint it and use it as a bookshelf.

2. Make a Picture Frame with Old Window

If you have old window frames lying around, clean them, sand them and paint them. Then either draw some paintings on the glasses or add pictures on the glasses.

3. Upcycle Old Tyres

Sold your car, or got a new one, but the old ones are still in the garage? You can turn that old black tire into something fresh by painting it and turning it into a planter. Or, you can paint it, add some cushions and make a seat for your patio.

4. Decorate Old Glass Bottles

If you have a few glass bottles lying around, you can use them as decorative items for your living room. Or, paint it gold or silver and add some light inside for an aesthetic touch. Or, add some plants and hang them from the roof on your patio.

5. Old Suitcases or Trunks

You can upcycle old suitcases or trunks into side tables or just use them as a table. Clean them, color them, and make different designs while using your imagination.

6. Mason Jars Lantern

Mason jars can be turned into beautiful lanterns by just adding a candle or some fairy lights in them. These lanterns will add a soft, cosy touch to your place.

FAQs

There are many more ideas to use for upcycling old furniture in Dubai. It’s just the power of your imagination. It’s just the power of your imagination. As it shows the creative side of your character. It’s like giving a second life to that old object. With basic knowledge, DIY skills, patience and vast imagination, anyone can upcycle an old furniture or object.

For more ideas on how to liven up your home, read Property Finder blogs!

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