Tahlia – Editor of The Junk Map…& Renovator & Digital Marketer
I’ve always had a keen eye for junk ‘with potential’ and find scouring salvage yards and op-shops akin to treasure hunting.
As a renovator, I often turn to secondhand furniture and building materials as they have so much more character than buying new. I hope to share with you my passion for upcycling, inspire someone to have a go or rethink buying new and support one of our awesome businesses that sell or use recycled materials.
I don’t intend to share too many of my DIY efforts, I’ll be leaving that to interviews with the experts. However, I thought this might be a good way to introduce one of the new names behind the Junk Map to it’s many readers and followers.
Here are a couple of upcycle projects from my current renovation, a 1980s ugly betty on the WA beachfront that would have been lavish for its day. Broken down intercoms in every room, a dated but grand master bathroom that’s bigger than most bedrooms in new builds today and a view of the ocean. I love a challenge, I jumped on this buy in 2020 when COVID was emerging and we all thought the housing market was going to crash… how wrong were we!
In common 80s style, this old house had numerous frilly, pink glass wall lights with cheap gold chandeliers to top it off. Rather than throw them out, I decided to give them a facelift. The pink glass light shades had to go but the brassy gold fixtures have a tonne of character with rust and tarnish from 40 years of beach side, salty air.
I used parts from other lights in the house to replace the light shade, these fittings are a dime a dozen in salvage yards. Then the lights were simply replaced with big decorative bulbs.
Not a complicated upcycle project but I think any project is worth sharing when there is an alternative to buying new & materials going to landfill. Also, I was slightly chuffed when I saw a new trendy cafe in the city with very similar lights!
Any Pinterest loving renovator will have come across this trend of upcycling an old cabinet for the bathroom vanity rather than buying new. This bathroom was the first project I tackled in the house. Our building inspector picked up that there was water leaking into the walls so I had to strip back the shower and waterproof before re-tiling.
Most of the building materials are new in this room and the tiles couldn’t be salvaged but stripping out the worn old melamine cabinet made me think twice about the materials I was putting in. Hopefully the stone bench tops and cabinet will last the test of time or be re-used at some stage.
The cabinet way purchased on Gumtree for $45, this is usually my go-too for secondhand furniture. I applied a wood stain to match the veneer to the jarrah beams and skirting used throughout the house. The legs are made from timber from salvaged curtain pelmets. I cut them down with a jigsaw them shaped them with a mouse sander then stained and varnished.
The stone bench top is an off cut sourced from a local business.
(…Please excuse my lack of photography skills!)
