Destroying beautiful furniture in the name of 'upcycling'

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I present to you exhibit A...

(reduced to125 from £175).

I uploaded 3 photos- my photo limit of the day well and truly reached!

Coincidentally I got talking to a lady in an antique/vintage furniture shop (that stocked chalk paint) earlier today and we were in agreement that certain items of furniture just shouldn't be touched.

I've upcycled a few items of furniture, but they tend to be things such as mass manufactured (and out of date) pine, etc... However, I've inherited some beautiful antique furniture which will remain untouched as it would be such a shame to cover up beautiful oak/craftsmanship/etc.

On the other hand... better to upcycle vs sending perfectly good furniture to landfill?

Oooo yes this truly pains me 😭 it's criminal some of the gorgeous furniture I've seen totally destroyed in the name of "upcycling"

A few more upcycled 'improvements' on the originals...

😮Those are truly horrific (and they painted walnut in one case!). I'd call it downcycling...

We have a lot of brown wood furniture as the people who we bought our house from didn't want it any more so left it for us for free. I quite like it although I appreciate that it's unfashionable. I think give it 20 years we will be the height of fashion again!

I got a cheap display cabinet and painted it blue and turned it 8n to the ubiquitous gin cabinet with jazzy paper. It saved it from landfill…for the time being.

we also have gorgeous Victorian dark word furniture bought in a house clearance. A friend keeps suggesting she’ll paint it, but it’s veneered and has patina. The drawers have ivory escutcheons. We have a Victorian sideboard that is shiny dark old wood. I see similar painted on Facebook…why? Just why?

I've upcycled furniture. I've attached a picture of a 50's wardrobe I painted fir my sons bedroom. It was bought from marketplace for exactly this reason.. it was knackered, mass produced and Was going to the tip, so no hand wringing here.

I also have Ercol, Nathan and G~Plan furniture that I would never ever touch.

@EmmaH2022

Look at the left-hand 'leg'.

Maybe someone branching out into a new business venture.

That wardrobe has been done well and I know that type of furniture. It was the IKEA of its day. There is no substance to it and the whole thing is flimsy so adding a bit of paint would probably double the thickness of the doors and walls.

Who knows what was under the blue paint and tree branch leg of that table.
Maybe the leg was missing. I have seen some really nice tables that have tree branches instead of legs and they have been done carefully and with flair

It could have been a knackered modern pine table with just 3 legs or a Georgian side table with 4 tapered legs like this

www.thakehamfurniture.co.uk/antique-tables/side-table-dressing-table/georgian-side-table-3-7-refno-4698/

I am not against upcycling but I feel like someone I knew years ago who collected grandfather clocks when people were giving them away or throwing them away. They took over his house. He built housing for them in the garden then one day they seemed to come back into fashion. He sold them all and bought with the proceeds a 5 bed detached house in a huge garden in one of the most expensive areas around him.

For me I love good furniture design and good quality furniture. (I wished I didn’t when I had to move it when we moved out of our last house and couldn’t get removal men)
I have friends who get cheapie tables and chairs that aren’t designed to last and usually end up in landfill or recycled a few years later and then they go out and buy more.

I get things and they have already out lasted generations of other peoples families and will out last me.
Without the need for chalk paint.

Did anyone see a programme called "My second Hand home" on C4?
Two couples have to furnish their home with second hand stuff.
One of them found an old wooden bed and was going to paint it white. The "expert" talked them out of it.

Wtf is it?

I completely agree. What bugs me is when people paint beautiful oak or walnut furniture! If you want a modern piece of furniture, go to IKEA! Leave the antiques alone 😫

I agree. The other day I saw a video of someone who had BLEACHED a beautiful mahogany chest of drawers to lots of acclaim. I felt quite upset about it!

Yes it breaks my heart when they do it to antique/ vintage furniture

I don't mind upcycing, there is so much furniture in the world and reusing is positive. I have a nice bedside table that has got terribly marked and I am going to do something with it, it was only a fiver from a car boot sale but it is real wood.

People used to burn old furniture - is painting it really any worse?

Obviously if you make it look hideous or paint something truly rare that is another matter.

Totally agree with you OP. This has always upset me, particularly as most people don't know one kind of wood from another. In the 1950s teak was very popular for G-plan type furniture, and to my mind it is criminal to paint it as it came from the rainforests and is uniquely beautiful as it is. Same goes for mahogany and other precious tropical woods, and I hate it too when oak furniture gets the paint treatment. If only people would be more sensitive about what they are doing.