Tag Archives: upcycle

recreate with handmade by me

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Recreate is a cutting edge interior design range of repurposed furniture and lighting, started by Katie Thompson in 2009.

Using pieces of discarded junk, Katie recreates a unique, recycled range of furniture, lighting and interior accessories, each piece infused with its own previous character but with a new function. By blending South African craftsmanship, with high end finishes and her own eclectic perfectionist flair, Katie creates an original end product with a new integrity that epitomizes the very best of South African design.

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Katie has a beautiful shop you can browse in opposite the biscuit mill in woodstock, or you can supply her with your own pieces of furniture/random items/anything and she can turn them into beautiful new desirable pieces for your home. A selection of handmade by me fabrics are available for this, and I can’t stop dreaming of my fly away birds fabric on the inside of an old suitcase, or even covering one of her famous suitcase chairs! sigh!

Anyways definitley pop in to her shop or check out her website, she has and does everything you can imagine…and more!!

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Here is one of her suitcase chairs…

IMG_0234reAnd my fly away birds design…a match made in heaven no?

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…the Design Indaba Expo…

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As most of you already know handmade by me will be exhibiting at the Design Indaba Expo over the next few days. I am really excited and have been working on some cool new DIY projects which will help showcase my products at the event. Its open to the public on friday, saturday and sunday and well worth a visit! Do pop in and say hi if you’re there. I’ll be at stand J003 if you can’t find me.

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Please also note that I will have limited email access and time over the next few days so if you would like to get in touch please continue to do so and I will try and get back to you as soon as possible.

Here are a few sneak previews of what you can expect to see at the handmade by me stand…

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Origami DIY…

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So you might remember the origami birds chair that I reupholstered and upcycled for Oxfam Ireland last year. Well it seems that is has inspired quite a few of you to go on and reupholster chairs of your own using the same origami birds fabric. One of my lovely customers bought a metre of origami birds a few months ago to reupholster a chair of her own, and today she sent me some pics of how her little project turned out. I am so delighted that she is letting me share the pics with you…the chair looks AMAZING!!! And hopefully it will inspire more of you to try this simple and easy way to turn old not so pretty looking furniture into new beautiful statement pieces for your home. yay for upcycling : )

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Here’s the before/after pic of the chair I originally upcycled for Oxfam Ireland.

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And here is one of a set of deck chairs I recently recovered up for a customer using the Origami Birds design in an extra heavyweight cotton…

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Oxfam upcycle project…read all about it!

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Remember my lovely origami birds chair I upcycled as a part of the Make Space for Oxfam Campaign, well here is the article from Stellar Magazine that featured the different designers and what they did for the project. As much as I hate that there is a full body picture of me in here, the chair looks great and I am happy I could help be a part of such a great campaign!

Here’s the article below, and if you would like any more information on the campaign itself click here. Here’s hoping my lovely chair generates some good money for them!

To see my original post on the project click here.


My original before and after pic…

my first upcycle project for Oxfam

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I was approached by the charity Oxfam Ireland who asked if I would be interested in upcycling a piece of furniture/homewares to be sold in Oxfam Home, and then be interviewed and photographed for a feature about upcycling furniture/homewares to appear in Stellar magazine. The Make Space for Oxfam campaign is about encouraging people to clear their homes of unwanted items and is in response to a fall in donations their shops are experiencing. Its a really good idea, and I think what people don’t realise is that this is such an economical way to make your home look great and you really don’t have to be that DIY savvy.

Now I have ALWAYS wanted to reupholster (or should i say recover?) a chair in one my fabrics so I leapt at the opportunity! Even though I have zero DIY knowhow. Anyway with the help of my lovely DIY fiance and his DIY Dad, I was able to transform this chair in a couple of weeks. The pics below do not do the chair any justice at all as you can’t see the natural wood coming through, but I will be sure to post the magazine feature with its bright shiny professional pics, and well written blurb about my project, but in the meantime here are a few pics of the transformation.

By the way for those who are interested I decided to use one of my first designs, Origami Birds, in a thick upholstery weight fabric to cover the cushion. The chair was cleaned and sanded down and I used a very dark varnish stain to get that dark shiny colour, while still allowing the natural wood texture to come through.

Firstly….the before and after shot….

Here’s me DIYing away….just to prove i really did do the work!

And recovering the cushion…(people who know how to do this properly look away now : ))

So the shoot is on thursday and the article will probably be out in next month’s copy of Stellar magazine, but I was too excited about this to wait until then to show everyone. I’ll be sure to post a bright and shiny copy when it’s ready right here!