Tag Archives: upcycling

SPOTTED – screenprinted vintage mirrors of asintended

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We adore finding beautiful, handcrafted pieces to feature here on The Ecospot, or for the projects we work on with our clients. We are particularly in love with anything letterpress inspired, and this traditional way of printing often crops up in our projects in some way or another.

she stood in the storm

So we were delighted when we spotted these gorgeous letterpress inspired screenprinted vintage mirrors by graphic studio asintended, who we discovered on an Artists Open House trail in Brighton.

Using vintage mirrors  the studio prints inspirational quotes over the top to create a beautiful decorative, reflective piece with stacks of depth.

she stood in the storm

Perhaps not the mirror you would choose for a bathroom  but we are thinking about this for a hallway, or even a kitchen diner space to add a bit of extra character and to bounce the light about.

Stunning – and one we will be specifying without doubt. Contact asintended for further information on the mirrors or the other great letterpress prints in the studios collection.

(image via asintended)

Monday musings – the Artists Open Houses, Brighton

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Each May, our home town of Brighton is put into overdrive with the Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe and the Artists Open Houses, running all month. Even though Brighton is already an incredibly creative city, you literally cannot move for pop up theatre, comedy, exciting new venues and wonderful performances. It is as exhausting as it is exciting. And as official reviewers this year for the excellent EggMag, we are enjoying it even more.

However, there is one element to May that is a real joy and we look forward to each year – the Artists Open Houses.

Springing up through the various art collectives that scatter the city, they are all brought together under the Open House banner for the month  arranged neatly into trails in most of the major areas of Brighton.

Using the brilliantly produced (and free) Artists Open House brochure or mobile app, you can discover areas of Brighton which you perhaps had never visited – peeking into the homes of the artists themselves, purchasing a cup of tea and home made cake and having a chat with the people who actually created the art, design and craft.

And this is the real bonus to the Artists Open Houses. Not only do you find wonderful pieces which span the realms of fine art, illustration, photography, jewellery and design collected together beautifully, you will probably get the chance to chat to the maker themselves.

So much of the creative process is a personal thing – particularly with solo artists and designer/ makers  so having the ability to talk through the reasoning to a piece, their inspiration or even whether they could do you the same item but perhaps in grey is priceless. In an age of the mass produced, the personality that is poured into art, design and craft is something that we have tended to lose – it is this great collective that allows us to reconnect.

It does feel as though these wonderful artists, designers and makers have been hidden away in their studios across Brighton, all working independently and the Open Houses is where we all get to discover them, so get out there.

Find a piece, talk to the maker and treasure it.

We will be posting some of our favourite makers here on the Ecospot, so keep your eyes peeled for a variety of both art, design and craft suitable for the eclectic interior.

see the Artists Open Houses website for details on all the locations across Brighton.

SPOTTED – hand crafted lamps by Sarah Lock

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As yesterday was a Bank Holiday Monday, there were no Monday Musings here on the Ecospot, but rest assured – we were not sitting idle. The merry month of May is a particularly great time to be in the city of Brighton as we have the fabulous Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe and the Artists Open Houses.

This is where trails across the city wind their way from house to house each weekend, stuffed full of wonderful pieces of art, craft, graphics and homewares. And often, the creators are there too, so you get the chance to chat directly to the makers.

sarah lock

So, this month we we will be spotting quite a lot of stuff that we have hunted out on the Artist Open Houses trails, starting with these great lamps by designer Sarah Lock.

Currently on show at 3 Florence Road, Brighton, we were instantly drawn to the hand turned decorative wooden side lamps, each of which was topped with a bespoke shade.

With an eclectic mix of forms, some of the wooden bases were painted in both bold and delicate bands to match the contours of the base, whilst others were left natural.

Shades are matched perfectly with each base, from oversized florals to plain and neutral, but our favourite has to be the shades created from maps.

We were very drawn not only to the balanced nature of the pieces, but the slightly eclectic nature that each piece had. They would be perfect in any eclectic interior – as a set of bedside table lamps or as a single piece on a side table in a living room.

Plus, the lamps and shades by Sarah Lock are available together (£150) or you can purchase the shades separately (from £30 each)

See them on the Artists Open Houses Trail or at www.sarahlock.com

(images by claire potter design and Sarah Lock)

Monday musings – shipping container homes as transitional housing gets go ahead in Brighton

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A few weeks ago, when we were still deciding what to call this series of Monday blogs, we wrote about a new project in Brighton which planned to use converted shipping containers as transitional housing. This project was still in planning, so despite the masses of value that we could see for such a scheme, there were no guarantees that the shipping container homes would actually be realised in the city.

shipping container homes

However, the end of last week saw some great news. The project by Brighton Housing Trust and developers QED has been given planning approval by Brighton and Hove City Council.

The project was described as an ‘imaginative and appropriate’ way to create temporary  transitional low cost housing in a location that is not suitable for permanent housing in the centre of the city.

Plus, when the land is required for part of the extended redevelopment of the New England Quarter in Brighton, the shipping container homes can be relocated with relative ease.

We are very excited that this scheme has been granted planning permission as it shows a real move forward not only for innovative architecture in Brighton, but also as it will provide real change for those who will call these shipping containers home.

We will be following this story closely, so expect updates as the project develops in Brighton.

Weekend Colour Inspiration – accidental combinations

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Colour is a very personal thing. Colours that I love together, you could absolutely hate. Colour links into the deepest of our memories – just like a scent can transport us to a particular point in our lives, colours can take us back there too.

But sometimes we think just a little too hard about colour – and colour combinations and what ‘goes’ well together. There is a great deal to be said for the accidental and the slight clashing nature of some pairings when you are just not thinking about it. And this can be really exciting.

This image we found illustrates this perfectly – when you look at each of the colours as they sit together, there are a few really odd sections, but overall? The colours sort of blend and work as a whole, because they are all part of a similar palette – in this case, almost autumnal.

This kind of treatment is perfect for a charity shop find, or to rejuvenate a cabinet that has seen better days and is very fitting for the eclectic interior design aesthetic that we tend to work with. If the cabinet is nicely battered too and has lovely cup handles like the example above, then it sort of gets a little industrial too, which is only a good thing in our books.

(image via 16 house)

Open source design – the Sea Chair

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Great design is not highly polished. It is considered from start to finish. Great design adds to the world – for the better. Great design, to coin a phrase from Cradle to Cradle thinking – is elegant. And this very unassuming stool has to be one of the most elegant we have seen to date.

The Sea Chair has been created by Studio Swine and Kieren Jones and is one of the featured Designs of 2013 currently on show at the Design Museum in London.

The design is extremely simple. It is a stool created out of plastic, in a highly recognised and familiar form. But what is beautiful about this stool is the story of its creation.

Created by hand, each stool uses only pieces of waste plastic fished out of the sea – cleaning up our oceans whilst championing the beauty of the accidental and the hand made. It has a real raw beauty which we find stunning.

But the Sea Chair is not one of those very worthy designs which are made from recycled materials  by hand, but cost a small fortune to purchase.

The Sea Chair is also an open source design.

So, for anyone wanting to create their very own Sea Chair AND clean up a section of beach in the process, the full methodology of how to create the piece can be found on the Studio Swine website. Right down to how to create your own furnace and how to identify different types of plastic.

This type of project really gets us excited – using an otherwise waste material, a low tech process and a hand made finish to produce an item which will be different from the next.

Visit the Studio Swine website for full details on how to create your own Sea Chair.

(image via Studio Swine)

Repair is alive and well at Milan

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We are big fans of repairing items in the studio, with us often working with clients existing pieces of furniture - re purposing then into new pieces to fit a scheme. As well as saving money that can be spent on other elements of the design, there is great satisfaction to be gained from taking something that no longer fits the needs of the client and transforming it into a new piece to be loved.

This ‘fixing’ and repair movement is gaining momentum with an increasing amount of designers taking otherwise discarded pieces and creating new pieces. Plus, the craft element of fixing which was previously dismissed is quite rightly being celebrated within the realms of ‘design’. This is not only a vital development for the processes of design but for the reinvention of the hand made - with the new ‘limited edition’ of one single, repaired piece being born.

Plus, repair has shown up at the recent Milan Design Week – a design festival which showcases the very new, high end pieces by a global design community.

This chair by Progetto Pronto Intervento we spotted at Inhabitat and we instantly fell in love with the unashamed repair and clean method of reinvention.

 green design,  green design event,  green materials,  green packaging, salone del mobile, milan furniture fair, green furniture,  Milan Design Week,  Milan Design Week 2013,  young designers,  zona tortona

The timber frame has been retained in its natural form, with a new seat being cut in translucent acrylic – playfully yet functionally stitched to the supports below with cotton string in a contrasting colour. A very simple yet effective addition to an old frame that not only rescues it from the scrap timber pile, but reinvents it for a modern interior.

Great inspiration for those charity shop furniture finds…

(image via Inhabitat)

Weekend Colour Inspiration – cautious colour

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We know that the use of colour is a very, very personal thing. We adore the colour grey and have fleeting love affairs with loads of other colours, depending on our clients needs, seasons and even the levels of light in a room. But there are ways of including colour into your spaces, even if you do want to be a little cautious.

Which is why, for this week we are looking at one way to get colour into your space, completely hassle free. Quick and cheap to do. Quick and cheap to change. Perfect.

We have used a very similar system in a gallery refurbishment we completed for a client who wanted to have a quick rolling display of photographs, without having to rehang everything. This great example we found on Pinterest, but comes from Young House Love.

Ledge for cards and postcards

First, decide the length of your display (using a piece of furniture as a guide is always good) and purchase timber battens to suit. They do not have to be too beefy in section if you are only displaying lightweight pieces.

 

If you can, use a router to cut a shallot slit in the batten around two thirds across the top surface. This is not essential, but it does help to locate the postcards safely.

Screw the battens to your chosen section of wall (with spacing between to suit your pictures), fill the screw holes, rub back when dry, then paint the same colour as your wall.

Then, choose your images.

And when you get bored of them, pack them away and put different ones up. An easy route for those a little cautious of colour.

(image via Young House Love)

UK company creates first food safe, 100% recycled plastic products

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Recycled plastic is now widely used by companies to create goods and sheet materials, but until recently, 100% recycled plastic could not be labelled as food safe.

Until now. 

UK company Invicta has revealed a new, patented process called rPETable which can recycle plastic and remove any toxic additives, meaning that the resulting injection moulded plastic can be classified as food safe.

 

food-safe plastic, Invicta Group recycled plastic, injection moulding technology, toxic plastic bottles, health issues, toxic plastic food containers, Bisphenol A plastic, recycled materials, polycarbonate plastics, toxic additives

There are a few toxic ingredients in plastic which can leach from packaging into food stuffs, the most common being Bisphenol A, or BPA, which can interfere with the bodies hormonal processes.

The trial stage of this new process has taken around four years and millions of pounds of investment  but it is hoped that it could herald a new drive forward in the use of recycled materials in industry.

And with Coca Cola, Guinness and Reckitt Benckiser already involved in the testing of the process and products, it could not be too long until you will be sipping beverages from a 100% recycled bottle…

(image via inhabitat)

Wednesday Walls – wooden peg board wall

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Utility styled design has to be a real studio favourite (right down to the new ‘utility’ fashion trend), with industrial, clean lined and organised interiors pushing our buttons. Great materials are key - timber, metal, exposed brickwork, peg board – and function is at the heart of all those selected.

And whilst at Ecobuild last week we found that this styling was being used for quite a few of the exhibition stands, with bare timber and steel fixings being employed very nicely indeed.

thread 1

There was another stand that caught our eye for it’s simplicity and effectiveness using just two materials - perforated birch faced plywood as a peg board and coloured thread.

thread 2

Using nails and thread, the signage had been stitched 3D onto the surface of the board, creating a very tactile section which contrasted well with the smooth birch.

But these perforated boards are also really great additions to areas in need of organising – think kitchens, offices and workspaces – where they can have hooks, storage boxes and even adjustable shelves added. These have the beauty of being adjustable, so your space can alter to your exact needs.

plain plastic cups - drill 2 holes in them and use zip ties through the peg board to keep them in place...

And with any open display, you have to ensure that you are organised and tidy, so even though this type of peg board system is on show, you are far more likely to keep things where they live…

(images by claire potter and via associated links)