The Upcycled Man makes a lot of grown-up things. Grown-up tables and grown-up cabinets. Grown-up spice racks and grown-up mirror frames. It’s all very…grown up.
It goes without saying that we love what we do. And our materials are overwhelmingly reclaimed and salvaged. It’s part of our ethos to be responsible. But sometimes things can just be fun, entertaining or just plain silly!
But that doesn’t mean we can’t combine our love of the bright, bold and decorative can’t also be made from found materials.
Our Inspiration
It’s been stated in previous posts that we get asked to do a lot of house and garden clearances. And we’ve also mentioned they’re not always fruitful. But a lot of the time we see a collection of things that are beautiful but their use isn’t readily apparent. So we hang onto things for a while.
Sometimes it’s Lego figures, arts and crafts materials, Christmas lights, old LPs or fabrics.
Moo you looking at?
And one day it clicked. NIGHTLIGHTS! Nightlights made from reclaimed materials. Something you’d feel good about if you put it in your kids’ bedroom because it wasn’t made from cheap plastic.
But kids shouldn’t have all the fun. And that’s why we make them for adults too! Our Beatles Yellow Submarine Lego figures inspired us to make a nightlight that wouldn’t be out of place in an entertainment room or behind a home bar.
We have a stack of old LPs that are pretty much worthless. But with some creative use of heat (in the form of a blow torch) to bend a record into a groovy shape, a printed image of the Yellow Submarine album sticker. We added our figures, some bright colours, Christmas lights and some psychedelic clouds to create a 60s dreamscape and we had our funky shadow box.
A cross between Batman and Braveheart…truly terrifying 😳
And pretty soon we had our Scottish Batman Lego nightlight. Complete with sword and Batsignal!
A tartan moon? 😍
Next was a scene from the Scottish Highlands. Carefully placed branches from felled trees, hand painted wooden deer figures and a tartan fabric moon.
And our wee Highland Coo really inspired us to characterise Scotland’s natural rugged beauty but adding clean, straight lines we see the country’s modernity.
And by using reclaimed timber to frame these wee beauties we’re still being…grown-up.
The Upcycled Man 