Furniture Upcycling Ideas
There are endless things you can do with Furniture Upcycling for your home. I think it’s better to ignore the trends (unless your selling) and upcycle your pieces exactly the way you want them. I have upcycled thousands of pieces over the years, and I love experimenting with different styles. Sometimes you have an idea in your mind. Sometimes the era of the piece of furniture inspires you. Maybe its heading into a certain room with specific colour choices. That room may play a role in the colour and design of your piece.
Sketching
We can all get stuck from time to time on the design of a piece of furniture. That’s why I love sketching out a few designs. Just letting your mind think of the possibilities. It really helps you visualise what the finished piece might end up looking like.
It’s important that when you are designing a piece that you love it!
In this image, it’s giving me 4 completely different ideas that I might play around with, often I might choose a design that I wasn’t really planning on. The one you don’t pick though isn’t a design wasted, it’s a catalogue for creating other designs for the future or even a mix of designs.
Have FUN Furniture Upcycling
I can’t stress this enough; you want to let your creative side out and have some fun with it. At the beginning of my Upcycled Furniture Workshops the biggest worry for people who attend are what will the final design be. But having a play around with different techniques and trying and seeing new things most of the time they leave with something they didn’t think they could create. Once you have the basics right you can’t really go wrong on experimenting.
Changing the function
One thing I love about upcycling furniture is that you can totally change the function of a piece of furniture. An old wardrobe can become a pantry, it can be under the stairs to store jackets. It doesn’t have to be in the bedroom. A tea trolly can become a bar cart, a cart storage solution. A China cabinet becomes shoe storage for your favourite shoes. One of my favourite ones I have done it change a tall boy into a drinks cabinet that I did for my Upcycling Furniture Book Furniture Crush. I just removed one of the middle shelves on the top section of the tall boy. It’s all about the way you look at it.
Adding colour POPS
There are so many ways of adding colour, if you can commit to just one colour it can look amazing, the tiniest hint of another colour even in a new handle can set it off.
Using painters’ tape has endless possibilities for colour lovers and even people who love muted tones. A pop of another colour on the legs to give that dipped look to going all out!
Playing with Pattern
Even when using one colour. White you can create really impactful and interesting patterns that can really make a piece come alive.
Adding wallpaper can be a great way to add pattern. It also use up the last pieces of wallpaper. It can tie the look of a whole room together. And pulling colours from that wallpaper to paint the rest of the piece in and work out great as well.
Smaller items
If you are starting off on your Upcycling Furniture Journey, have fun an experiment with smaller pieces. A smaller piece seems less daunting. Try out some new techniques and play around without the stress of painting something like a sideboard or Kitchen dresser.
If you are really stuck on ideas for Upcycling Furniture I would head to Pinterest and start creating boards. I have boards for colour combos, Inspirational patterns you name it. Having these in one place can help you get inspiration to use images. You might combine a few different ideas. Come up with your own designs that are unique to you.