July Reuse & Upcycle Newsletter.

Today I am sitting in a local coffee shop, yes actually inside it, contemplating what kind of a roundup to give you at the end of this month.

Whilst we are all anticipating throwing our masks away with glee and embracing a brave new world with vaccines, sunshine and live events to rejoice in, I can’t help thinking about those who won’t be able to do that.

Celebration.

July, for my family is a big celebration month. We have so many birthdays and anniversaries and end of terms and all sorts going on in July. Despite the lifting of lots of restrictions we still feel the best way for us to celebrate is outdoors.

With the great British staycation on the horizon for many of us, we are trying to decide if we’re up for the hordes that will inevitably arrive in our beautiful part of the world. We are blessed with some of the most arresting estuaries and coastline in the world, Devon and Cornwall can easily boast countryside to rival anywhere else on this planet. So in this month of celebration I’m happy to sit by the River Plym at Cadover Bridge, in the middle of Dartmoor, watching the world happen around me whilst I ponder on the year since the last lockdown birthday.

The very fact that my immediate family have come through this year with their health intact and a year older is a reason to celebrate.

With everything that has gone on in the last 18 months I anticipate that interiors in the coming couple of years will be all about the celebration of colour, shape and light. I speak for myself when I say that I will want to surround myself with objects and colours that make me happy, calm or excited. That doesn’t necessarily mean new things and the sofa bed shown below is such an example.

Sofa bed before reupholstery

Sofa bed reupholstered in pink velvet fabricric

Sofa bed after re-upholstery in pink velvet

We have recently re-upholstered this gorgeous deep buttoned sofa bed, it was steel blue in colour (shown above) and now it has been transformed by this stunning pink velvet fabric.

Upcycle.

A great way to upcycle or surround yourself with beautiful objects and colours without discarding the old, is to simply re-examine what you already have and alter it. Try and imagine it in a different way. Maybe paint your picture frames, add some trim to fading curtains or recover a lampshade?

This month we had the joy of revamping some of the most spectacular curtains to fit a new property. A stunning luxury embroidered pair of curtains with a strong coloured linen edge added has resulted in a new look for the new space, with echoes of home.

Another project we’ve done is refilling the cushions. See how saggy and limp they looked before. The transformation is tremendous.

Sofa before new cushion inserts.

Sofa after new cushion inserts.

How do we tackle our Waste problem?

I’m not talking about my waist, I’m talking about our remnants, off cuts and teardowns. For every fabric we use, replace, tear down or flawed there is always some left-over. A good use for this can often be scatter cushions and lamp shades to complement what we have been making, but not everyone likes scatter cushions or lamp shades. The other place we can use remnants and off cuts is inside upholstery to attach the face fabric to the wooden structure. This reduces the need for new products.

Even with our best efforts, we can’t save all remnants from landfill.

Remnant or off-cut fabric.

This has been something that has not been a happy situation for a long time. However, a couple of years ago I was at our local summer fare at Saltram House NT, I came across the most amazing couple who run a company called Gentle on the Planet. This chance meeting has had a massive effect on our waste disposal. They collect our bits and pieces, including old zips, that we don’t need and their team turns them into beautiful and useful items to sell at fayres, in shops, and online. You wouldn’t believe just how good those remnants look.

In return for our waste products they donate to the Devon and Cornwall Lupus group.

For us this is a win-win situation. We throw less in our bins,

get regular donations and all of our remnants get a new lease of life.

So, if you ever wonder what has happened to the bits that we have to cut out to make the pattern on your curtains or cushions match, this is where they go.

Learning about sustainability.

I feel that with all of the movement on sustainability and saving this world from our pollution, we need to research every claim that is presented to us about our fabrics and fast fashion, so look out for a new sustainable page coming soon on our website on all aspects of our fabrics and where they come from.

We can’t claim to be experts in this field, we are only just starting out on our journey of learning and discovery. It will be great to have you with us as we learn more about this part of our industry.

We plan to find out who is who in the sustainability world. Who is behaving badly and who should we be backing. And also what do we even do with this information?

We think it will be an interesting subject to share with you. The over riding response so far has been the fact that saving this wonderful planet of ours is going to take time and money and a huge commitment to change!

If you like what we do, spread the word about us.

Meanwhile I’m going to leave you with some images of some sustainable fabric options from Prestigious Textiles while I go off to investigate further.

Yours,

Niki