18.35: hello and welcome to our live blog from The Little Museum of Dublin (visit!) for our event with Crown Paints Ireland and Oxfam! If you weren't lucky enough to get tickets, never mind - we'll be updating the action all evening. Three upcyclers are present and correct: Quirkistuff, Galerie Lisette and Upside Design will be taking us through the process of turning old furniture into treasures. TV personality Neville Nott is our MC for proceedings and it's looking like it's going to be a hugely buzzy, fun and informative evening.
We'll be tweeting on @houseandhomemag on the hashtag #ultimateupcycle - so stay tuned there too for lots of pix and tweets from all our attendees.
19.05: eeek: almost ready for the off! Photographer Paul Sherwood takes a few last minute pix of the upcycled pieces before the action begins. Stay tuned!
19.35: wine has been served, intros have been made and our first upcyclers are up, Quirkistuff. They've created this new look for an old veneered cabinet using a matte Crown paint, which they like because even though it's matte, it's washable. Fabric inside is from Hickeys.
They took the cabinet apart, cleaned it and stripped it down, replaced and repaired any laminate that was delaminating, sanded with 120 grade paper, and used a grey undercoat from Crown, which suited the final colour, all three coats of it. They went through nine shades before they hit on this dusty mauve shade - you like?
19.50: now we're onto Upside Design. They specialise in finding unloved furniture and making it beautiful. They recommend checking the functionality of older pieces and not disregarding something just because it's old. They had some work to do with this piece including putting the cornice back together, which was in four or five bits. When they were working on this wardrobe they found a child's name in chalk inside, Derbhla McNally, so they love how vintage furniture can tell a story.
The panels were also attractive here and due to the amount of colours Crown have, they found it hard to choose but soft duck egg and smoky mist won the day. There's some surprising pink inside too! The panels have been papered with a fun paper.
20.00: the crowd are enjoying the event - and sure the glass of wine or two isn't hurting either!
20.10: Galerie Listette are up last with their upcycled computer desk. Would you recognise it? This was just €25 and they knew they could use it as a real blank canvas for their specialty paint effects. They added the moulded MDF trim to the top for interest and shape and then turned it into a vintage vanity unit. The concept behind the colour was a Venetian fresco and they used an image of a painting one of the Gallerie owners' had already created along with tricks like stencilling, sanding for age effects and paper doillies. Paint used was from the vinyl soft sheen range.
20:30: we're finished with our upcycling experts and now the crowd is meeting all the experts, getting individual hints and tips on all aspects of recycling, repurposing and refreshing their own tired bits and bobs. We're signing off now and hope you enjoyed our live blog of our Ultimate Upcycle event with Crown Paints and Oxfam along with the experts from Quirkistuff, Upside Designs and Galerie Lisette.
