Upcycling · Eco-Chick

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Repurpose or Reuse Common Household Items in Your Home Decor

The following is a guest post by the contributor of DIY-Guides.com, where you can find other useful decoration tips. Photo by suzette.

If you have an old household item that you just don’t use or maybe even don’t like any longer… why not give it new life and use in your home? It will be more eco-friendly – by not filling up our landfills, and help on the pocketbook at the same time. It’s a win-win situation.

So don’t think of a piece of furniture or household item as “old” or “useless” – repurpose it into something useful that will fit and even enhance your home decor.

While searching for some ideas, I found some great ways to repurpose some old items I have hanging around the house. One of them is on how to make new pillows. I happen to need new pillows for my guest bedroom – without having to trash the old ones and spending more money.

I fell in love with this first idea. In fact, I’m working on the pillows right now. And plan on giving these other ideas a try, too. Maybe you’ll find them useful as well:

Turn a Shirt into a New Pillow

As I said, I was looking for a way to make new pillows, so this idea was up my alley. My husband had several button-down shirts in his closet that don’t fit anymore or have had small stains on the sleeves. Perfect. And my guest bedroom is blue and white so blue, white and white/blue striped dress shirts are just what I’m looking for.

Here’s the easy to follow instructions to make your own button-down pillows at MarthaStewart.com. I also ran across another idea using old blankets. So I’ve decided to use one of my son’s baby blankets to make a special pillow as a keepsake. Here’s an easy how-to at DIY Guides.
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craft, decor, DIY, Home, reuse, upcycling

Eco Fashion Designer Samantha Pleet: A Newspaper Dress from Sketch to Reality

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by Starre Vartan · 07/06/10

Designer Samantha Pleet, who we’ve featured on Eco Chick several times (see her Greenshows runway collection here, and her Fall, 2009 collection here) is one of the creators behind the Yesterday’s News Do-Gooder Design Challenge, wherein they are to create an original design using recycled newsprint.

According to the site:

The key here is that they are not being compensated – they’re doing it all for charity. Before being auctioned off for charity, their one-of-a-kind designs will be unveiled at a Green Catwalk Event in New York City this fall.

More to come as the design challenge heats up!

eco fashion, Fashion, newspaper, Recycling, upcycling

Amazing Art Sculptures Made From Recycled Clothing

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by Starre Vartan · 04/08/10

“The Ocean is the Underlying Basis for Every Wave” (2008)

Artist Derick Melander creates large geometric structures from carefully folded and stacked second-hand clothing that weighs between five hundred pounds and two tons. What seems like a straightforward process – procuring the clothing, sorting it by colour value, folding and stacking it – soon takes on a life of its own. Thousands of once loved and lived in pieces of clothing can’t be discarded that easily.

Look at the images above, for example, showing the 2008-installation “The Ocean is the Underlying Basis for Every Wave,” an “S”-shaped wall of folded and stacked clothing sorted by colour. A total of 2,908 garments were used, weighing 1,859 lb.

Why second-hand clothing items? Says Melander: “As clothing wears, fades, stains and stretches it becomes an intimate record of our physical presence. It traces the edge of the body, defining the boundary between the individual and the outside world. … When I come across a dress with a hand-sewn repair, or a coat with a name written inside the collar, the work starts to feel like a collective portrait.”

art, Recycling, upcycling, used clothing

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: Edgy and Sweet Reclaimed Jewelry

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by Stephanie Rogers · 03/15/10

While random pieces of metal, bottle caps, nuts and bolts might not be obvious choices for jewelry, they prove to be striking and dramatic when paired with delicate chains and gleaming jewels in UK designer Alessandra Rigillo’s jewelry line, ‘Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining’.

I caught up with Alessandra to talk about her inspiration for transforming such rough, gritty materials into savagely beautiful necklaces, bracelets and earrings that are more than just a little bit rock n’ roll.

SR: Your jewelry is packed with items that are rarely associated with ornamentation: metal scraps, nuts & bolts, electrical wiring, bottle caps. What first inspired you to work with these sorts of materials?

AR: I kept my first bottle top, the one with a bee, because I thought it was too cute to throw away. Around the same time I found old drawings of mine from years ago when I started the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam. At that time I wanted to do Jewellery Design but, the school, friends etc…etc…took me on a different path. Here in London, where I moved from Rome in 2002, I discovered the work of Fashion Designers like Traid Re-Made and Junky Styling, that have been producing very interesting garments with recycled material for years. I was fascinated!

I like the challenge of transforming “junk” into beautiful jewellery. My collections aims to inspire people to consume less and to find the “silver lining” in every little thing.

SR: The ‘Nimbus’ line is so sweet and colorful – are those Barbie shoes I spy?!

AR: Yes! They are. I can’t remember exactly why I bought a packet of vintage Barbie shoes on Ebay. The 80′s were the times when you could buy just shoes without the whole outfit. Great! The same shoes in ALL different colours!!!! Things like this make us all want to be Barbie. Decision decision decision..let’s get all of them!!! Girls love Barbie and shoes. The perfect match: a Barbie shoe. The symbol of the little girl inside each of us that still wants to play and have fun.

SR: It’s definitely an unexpected juxtaposition of delicate gold and silver chains, sparkly jewels and objects that are generally considered to be ‘junk’. What other reclaimed objects might we see from you in the future?

AR: At the moment I’m working with used Italian playing cards, jumbo size puzzle pieces, scrap leather, metal mechanical pieces from old sewing machines, vintage chess players….etc…etc… I just wish I had more time!!!

Thanks, Alessandra!

Ecofriendly Jewelry, Fashion, Recycling, upcycling

Mark Langan's Recycled Cardboard Art: Texture and Form

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by Starre Vartan · 04/28/09

I was in Ohio last weekend to attend the Beachwood, Ohio Greendream gathering and while there I ran into recycled/upcycled cardboard artist Mark Langan, who is local to the area. He was nice enough to let me ask him a few questions about his creative reuse and he filled me in on his process. Thanks Mark!

The Greendream, which brought together Cleveland-area’s greenest businesses and services (and there were plenty!) was a project of Greg Perry’s high school class, who were just awarded TDG’s 2009 Heart of Green Local Hero award.

See more of Mark’s work on The Daily Green’s slideshow.

cardboard, Recycling, upcycling