Give a touch of newness to your home interiors by recycling or up cycling old pieces of furniture or artefacts.

Old is gold. That's the reason we generally hate to part with our old possessions. The fact that we can play around with old pieces of furniture and artefacts, lend a touch of our imagination to them and re-create them into all-new beauties, makes them even more priceless.

What is the need to buy a new item while decorating the house when you can recycle an old one?

Recycled items not only look antique, but are also pocket-friendly. The key focus of recycled interiors is decorating with sustainability, without compromising on style. You can decorate your home with a sustainable, ecofriendly approach, while adding style, beauty and quality. A beautiful home should embrace those who live in it and increase happiness, health and well-being of occupants.

If you don't want to decorate your house on your own, you can hire an interior designer who could help give your house the look that you want, and re-create those old, forgotten pieces and give them a touch of class and style. "The idea behind using recycled products is reusing and rearranging what one already has. This not only reduces carbon footprint, but also aesthetically creates a naturally vintage, arty or a chic feel, which is a challenge otherwise," says architect Dhruva Kalra.

Recycling is a trend which is very much in vogue these days. "Furniture created with recycled materials is very much in demand these days. Use of natural design materials, recycled metals, eco-friendly wood and handmade decorative pieces are all in vogue. As per the latest trends, antique and vintage décor is in demand; hence, furniture and decorative items made of timber can be repurposed, refinished or otherwise refurbished to give them a new life," shares architect Sanjiv Malhan.

The most popular material being used is refurbished wood, but then there are more unconventional materials and objects that are being used to give new look to old pieces, for example, old bulbs or wooden crates are being converted into planters; tyres of old cars are being converted into chairs. Another material that is now becoming popular is chipboard. A panel made of recycled wood is being extensively used for wall coverings to give the space a feeling of richness.

One thing which every designer, architect or interior decorator takes care of while designing a house with recycled stuff is that the ideating they do includes resource-efficient products for minimum wastage of materials. They also use standard sizes and modules to reduce wastage of materials.

With these, one can sure create wonders out of waste, and give an all-new look to the old, worn-out and forgotten pieces, and give them a fresh lease of life.