Discovering a love of upcycling

I have always bought new furniture whenever we have decorated a room. The idea of upcycling never crossed my mind. I suppose having money meant I never really had to bother, I could afford new, so I bought new. I also viewed upcycling as something creative people did- not me…thing is,  I am a creative person- I just don’t give myself enough credit.

I decided to decorate Little G’s room and will be sharing the full makeover in a few days. First I want to share my first ever upcycling project, I am pretty impressed with myself. To some it isn’t much but to me it symbolises a changed person- someone who doesn’t waste money on expensive furniture when a solid second hand piece will do.

I searched on Gumtree to see if there was anything that took my fancy and stumbled upon a cute little bedside cabinet. I hadn’t necessarily been looking for something to upcycle but there is was, a blue 3 drawer unit calling to me. We went to collect it the very next day and actually the lady selling it sources lots of old furniture so I will be using her again for future projects!

First thing we had to do was sand it down to get rid of any cracks, lumps and chips. Little G helped for all of 2 seconds before her arms were ‘going to drop off’ so I carried on while she watched.

Once it was sanded and all the dust wiped off it was time to paint. It felt so liberating painting something from scratch- almost a bit naughty really! I kept expecting someone to ask me what on earth I was doing! It took 3 coats to get rid of the blue, I am not a patient person so this was a bit tedious but I stuck with it!

Little G chose 3 handles, B&Q had a sale on so they weren’t much at all. They give it a totally different look to the original handles.

I am so pleased with how it has turned out and I am now a complete upcycling convert! I now want to upcycle everything in sight!

Have you ever upcycled an old piece of furniture?