I have been asked to design a social enterprise restaurant in the African country of Lesotho for Kick4Life – a wonderful charity that uses sport to educate children about HIV/AIDS and encourages them to be tested.
Read all about my restaurant design challenge here!
Edwin – my contact on the ground in Lesotho, recently sent me a couple of photographs of items he had found at the local recycling centre. Like with any social enterprise, we are trying to keep costs to a minimum so Edwin asked if I had any ideas of how to upcycle these items into restaurant furnishings.
Here are the two photographs Edwin sent me:
I had once been to a great bar in NYC where I saw tires re-used as bar stools, so I took to Pinterest to see if I could find a replica. Boy did I ever! Look at some of these great upcycled tyre seats.
- Cutting foam into round pieces would work well as cushions on top of two-stacked tyres.
- Painting the upcycled tyre seats in a high gloss-white looks fabulous. With minimal sewing skills, we could make simple cushions too.
- These great upcycled tire seat designs are the brainchild of Tyred by Sean Smith. The unique designs may be a great way to involve the students in helping.
I personally love the idea of upcycled tyre seats and think it would provide a great opportunity to get the kids involved in terms of the design & painting. Since tires are so durable, we can use waterproof cushions and fabric so they can be stationed outdoors to supplement the pallet furniture as well.
So that’s the tyres and chairs sorted, anyone got any ideas of how we could upcycle the tin barrels in the top picture?!
– Penny xo
