Over 10 years in the upcycling industry and I am still amazed at how many times I see people slapping on paint without any form of prep, just barely a wash with some sugar soap.
I'm not writing this to shame upcyclers new or old, but to simply draw attention to bad practice, as I feel this type of behaviour gives us all a bad name and reflects badly on the industry as a whole.
I recently received an order for a Lollipop Interiors signature cocktail cabinet, I didn't have the cabinet in stock and so had to buy one I found on ebay, already painted and apparently upcycled. I don't usually do this, infact I have never done this, but I couldn't find one which hadn't been painted, so decided it was a good idea!
Boy was I wrong, the words from the seller, and I quote "it has to be seen to believe its true beauty"
As you can see below, it was dreadful. I've not seen anything like it before and hope not see it again!! Rightly or wrongly I felt it was insulting to the cabinet haha!
I contacted the seller to explain what bad condition the cabinet was in and her reply was, "well you got it for a good price!" I paid over £300 for the cabinet above, would you say this was a bargain??
Let me make this 100% clear, no matter how much or how little you pay for an item furniture or not, you should get exactly what is described in the listing.
Luckily for me, I upcycle furniture and can sand it all back and bring it back to life again, but imagine someone bought it in good faith to have in their home. This type of thing gives us all a bad name and equally, it is not fair on the customer. No winners here, apart from the 'upcycler' who made a quick buck ripping people off...
Please dont paint us all with the same brush, see what I did there :) most of us take real pride in our work, we work very hard to maintain high standards, research the best products to use and still 10 years on get excited about customers who love our furniture enough to buy it...
Find our cocktail cabinets here
