My TRUNK on the Ecologist by Julia Nelson

Another expert upcycler is top ethical fashion stylist and founder of Ethical Heaven, Lupe Castro. ‘If a beautiful chair is missing a leg it doesn’t make it less beautifuI,’ she explains. ‘I feel I need to sort of help it along by maybe using a rolling pin covered in material or a varnished brick, a marble bauble or part of an iron balustrade. The trick is to give it a new but beautiful twist.’ The latest pieces she’s been refashioning are some travelling trunks that she found tucked away in her new apartment. She describes them as ‘a little bit worse for wear’ but says they’re evocative of a bygone era where train travel, painted faces and cocktails at six were de rigueur. ‘I took the trunk and stuck an old mirror in the flap and covered the rest with leftover materials that both my mother and grandmother had knocking about, and have used them as dressing table. I love boxes and ribbons and secret nooks and crannies – every time I open the trunk I feel like I’m jumping into another time and it makes me so happy.’When it comes to sourcing furniture, Lupe swears by the Salvation Army shop in Wandsworth, flea markets and small town auction houses, although she admits that some of her best finds have come from skips on the street..... read all the article at
http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/home/855347/upcycling_2011s_greenest_decorating_trend.html