Savvy homeowners are increasingly 'upcycling' old furniture to refresh their interiors in 2015. The trend has been championed by celebrities including Kirstie Allsopp, Kevin McCloud and Livia Firth. At its most basic, upcycling can be repainting an old piece of furniture or it can entail a full-scale refurbishment. The art of reusing discarded objects in an innovative way is definitely having its moment in 2015.
Remade in Britain is the first dedicated retail platform for businesses repurposing some of the 280m tonnes of waste produced each year in the UK and launches with over 300 upcycling retailers registered spanning furniture, interiors, lighting, clothing, jewellery and accessories.
More than 300 retailers have so far registered, selling everything from furniture to lighting, clothing, jewellery and accessories. It aims to grow its list of retailers to more than 1,000 in the next 12-18 months.
Upcycled from discarded to desirable
The term ‘upcycling’ was coined in Germany in the early nineties and refers to the reusing of discarded items or materials into items of higher quality and value, rather than recycling which involves breaking down items to create something entirely new.
The UK is only just inside the top ten countries in Europe for the amount of waste it recycles – falling well behind countries including Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Two million tonnes of clothing and textile waste is generated each year - 60 per cent of which goes to landfill, whilst 13 million items of furniture are thrown away every year, with only 23 per cent reused.
Amongst the 300 plus retailers currently registered on the website is Max McMurdo, star of Kirstie Allsopp’s
Fill Your House for Free and founder of eco design business, reestore, which was boosted after securing investment from Dragon’s Den’s Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis six years ago.
Max creates a number of bespoke furniture items including a V8 engine coffee table, bath tub chair and baby grand piano shelving unit. He said: "Upcycling is a movement which is ever growing in both popularity and consumer interest. The beauty of upcycling is that there are quite literally no limits to what you can create.”
Interiors 2015
A growing number of UK companies is tapping into consumer enthusiasm for upcycled products. Although official industry statistics are still to be produced for the UK, countries including the US, Germany and Sweden have seen a huge surge in demand for upcycled products. The popularity of repurposed and vintage items is particularly clear on online artist marketplaces like US-based Etsy and Artfire where products tagged with ‘upcycled’ rocketed from 7,900 in 2010 to 216,024 just four years later.
Increasingly the UK’s throwaway culture is being replaced with a resurgence of the ‘waste not, want not’ ethos from the past. When it comes to recycling, the only way it up.
Max creates a number of bespoke furniture items including a V8 engine coffee table, bath tub chair and baby grand piano shelving unit. He said: "Upcycling is a movement which is ever growing in both popularity and consumer interest. The beauty of upcycling is that there are quite literally no limits to what you can create.”
Interiors 2015
A growing number of UK companies is tapping into consumer enthusiasm for upcycled products. Although official industry statistics are still to be produced for the UK, countries including the US, Germany and Sweden have seen a huge surge in demand for upcycled products. The popularity of repurposed and vintage items is particularly clear on online artist marketplaces like US-based Etsy and Artfire where products tagged with ‘upcycled’ rocketed from 7,900 in 2010 to 216,024 just four years later.
Increasingly the UK’s throwaway culture is being replaced with a resurgence of the ‘waste not, want not’ ethos from the past. When it comes to recycling, the only way it up.
