Transforming Trash

Transforming Trash is the story of a woman who has loved crafting since childhood. Sylvia grew up in England in a generation whose parents sewed their own clothes, knitted their own sweaters, grew their own food, and fixed their own cars. Her favorite toy was Leo the Lion: a stuffed animal as tall as her, and made by her mom.

As soon as she was allowed, she started using power tools, and refinished her parents’ dining table and an old dresser from the garden shed. At boarding school she learned dressmaking from a teacher aptly named Mrs. Button. Ten years after graduating high school she sewed a bridesmaid dress and bolero jacket for one of her wedding party.

A year later the newlyweds moved to America where they soon bought their first home. On walks around the neighborhood Sylvia would sometimes see discarded items that still had so much potential. One or two were optimistically dragged back to the house but, with a toddler and baby twins, it was unrealistic to think there was time to work on them. Eventually, after sitting untouched for a long time, they would end up back at the curb. Twenty years later (three and a half years ago) Sylvia picked up a discarded chandelier which made it through a complete transformation and is now hanging in her gazebo. With her kids all in high school and more time on her hands she decided to make it her mission to transform one hundred pieces of discarded furniture and decor and started a blog to record her progress. At the time of writing this story she has completed thirty-seven transformations.

One of the most popular transformations has been the most recent: a tufted ottoman in a cowhide print fabric. The story of this transformation began over two years ago when Sylvia trash-picked a second-rate occasional table made of a plywood top on what looked like a bar stool. She separated the top from the bottom and, in April 2019, transformed the bar stool bottom into a tile-topped bistro table. The large, circular plywood top remained in the garage while she contemplated what it could be. At times it was imagined as a large, tile-surrounded mirror; but then a trip to Hobby Lobby got Sylvia hooked on the cowhide fabric and a new idea was born. At the same time a serendipitous post on a local Buy Nothing Facebook page put her in possession of a high-quality, well-used floor cushion from Urban Outfitters. The fabric and stuffing of the cushion were just what was needed to make a liner and padding for the ottoman. Using a pair of Fiskar scissors Sylvia easily cut the heavy duty fabric of the cushion cover to release the stuffing. Once the fabric was washed, it and the cowhide fabric were cut into the pieces needed to sew a liner and cover for the ottoman. With the cover upside down, the liner inside it, and both packed with stuffing, the round plywood was placed on top and all the layers were stapled in place. Sylvia had five buttons covered in the cowhide fabric at a local upholstery shop. Tufting the ottoman was no mean feat. Getting the upholstery needle through 12 inches of densely packed stuffing left her fingers raw. The piece was finished with a neat round of weed barrier (in lieu of cambric) and four dark-brown eight-inch furniture legs.

Needless to say Sylvia loved the finished article so much it has found its permanent home in her den.

Her next transformation (already in the making) is the reupholstering of a pair of quintessentially American diner chairs for which—you guessed it—she needed her Fiskar scissors to cut the gorgeous glittery red vinyl!