How did you catch the upcycling bug?

It sounds like a disease! But I guess in a way, upcycling is like having a crafting fever. I've been working on environmental issues since I was 12 years old, when I founded the organization Earth 2000, and grew it into a national teenage eco organization. At the same time, I was also interested in the world of home design, crafting, entertaining—lifestyle, in general. So you can imagine when these two worlds collided—sustainability and style—you ended up with someone who was interested in making things but doing it in the most resourceful way possible.

I've been upcycling since I was a teenager. One of my first "a-ha" moments happened when I was 19 and I realized I could upcycle objects into useful and truly functional things. I moved into my very first apartment in Washington, D.C., and had little money to spend on decorating. A local church was throwing away a podium that I managed to get home. There, I painted it a beautiful matte gray color, added wheels on the bottom, and turned it into a TV stand. Behind, where the shelves once held copies of the Bible, I now had DVDs stored that I could easily access just by wheeling it forward. The ornate wood blended together with the paint created something modern and traditional at the same time. I called it "sacrilegious chic."

What project was the most challenging? The most fun?

All of the projects in Upcycling are three steps or less, so nothing really is difficult. What can be challenging is FINDING the items to upcycle. I've been obsessed with Patron bottles because it seems like a real shame to simply toss them into the recycling bin considering how pretty they are in shape, texture and weight. So, I upcycled them into beautiful tabletop oil lanterns for outdoor entertaining. Finding a dozen of these bottles without binge drinking was a challenge, but then I realized I just had to be very friendly to the owners of my local Mexican restaurant.

The most fun project is the gold "dipped" silhouette plates. You just take old plates, stick tape on top in whatever pattern you like, and spray with a Valspar metallic paint that looks just like, well, metal! Wait three minutes, peel off the tape, and you've got modern-looking, luxe plates.

Can you talk a little bit about your thought process behind the Method Plastic-Bottle Hourglass? How did this idea come about?

Iconic shapes are always fun to play with and the Method hand wash bottles—in their very popular tear drop shape—are definitely something people recognize even if the word "Method" is scraped off. I just played around with the bottles and realized they could be made into an hourglass. Does it really keep time? No...but it looks super cool. All you need is a wine cork, a cordless drill to drill a hole through the cork, and two bottles. Fill with sand and attach the parts together and you're done. No glue, no tape, nothing.

What advice do you have for people participating in our Methodology contest? How can they begin to approach the task at hand?Keep it simple. I once picked up a crafting book that had beautiful photos and projects, but they all involved weird and expensive tools and machines or clearly were made by a team of talented stylists. Big impact, small effort, easy to find materials—scissors, tape, craft glue, a twig—is the way to go. Just think if MacGyver were running a Michaels craft store, what would your Methodology result be? Think like MacGyver.

Appears In

Danny Seo's "Upcycling"