Eat Your Heart Out IKEA

Getting creative and filling your house with mini projects to be proud of is a great way of making your house a home. Up-cycling is the process of giving new life to something old that would otherwise be unusable.

Up-cycling is something my dads partner Fiona fell in love with after attending a night time work shop dedicated to giving old, unfashionable furniture a spring of life with a lick of paint and some elbow-grease. Now the house has some lovely looking, bright furniture with a quirky old fashioned style.  And I wonder if you can guess where Fiona gets this old fashioned, aged furniture no one really can make use of anymore? that's right, charity shops. 

Something Old Something New is a social enterprise based in Stirling raising money to fight Parkinson's Disease and takes donations of mainly furniture to sell on. Walking in to the warehouse/shop is pretty overwhelming, but if you have time to have a good rummage and look around its a great place to find up-cycling potential.  

The Salvation Army based in Springkerse is another great spot to find up-cycling material, unlike the Something Old Something New shop the Salvation Army has a good store layout and everything on offer is in full view and easy to find. The Salvation also offers a free delivery service which is extremely handy for big pieces that may spark your creative side.