A little while ago I was invited to take part in an Upcycling challenge with Gumtree UK. This interested me as I’d started Upcycling various bits of furniture around the house already as I am a bit of a hoarder and hate throwing things away so it appeals to that side of me. I love seeing something old and shabby being given a new lease of life.

The challenge was this:

* Buy something from your local Gumtree site.

* Upcycle the item.

* Take it to London for the Upcycle Revolution event to be judged by expert upcycler Max McMurdo.

* Sell it on using Gumtree.

After MUCH deliberation I chose a rocking chair which I managed to get for a bargain £15 as it was a bit of a mess and was missing a spindle. I contacted the seller using the Gumtree mobile app which we have used for selling other items from our home – it’s also great for listing free items that you just want to get rid of. Our old sofa which was very much broken and battered was collected within an hour of listing it! I did obviously disclose the condition of the sofa in the listing.

This is the chair I purchased in its original state:

I firstly gave it a coat of white paint:

Before painting various parts of it in orange and blue shades ( I used tester pots of Valspar paint from B&Q – tester pots are great for Upcycle projects ):

This is the best final image I could get. I washed the old cushion pad to give it a facelift but I did intend to reupholster in a bright yellow fabric. However my sewing machine packed up on me and the courier arrived a little early to collect the chair leaving it like this but I still love it:

Thanks to Gumtree for inviting me to be part of this challenge. I really enjoyed it and I found it strangely therapeutic painting all the fiddly bits..also thanks to Andrew my other half who helped me or I helped him ha.

* I was given a payment with which to purchase my item and Upcycle it.