Growing interest in conscious consumerism and reducing waste are driving the next big trend-that’s-not-a-trend: upcycling. Giving second hand furniture and decor a new lease on life helps make expensive interior design styles more accessible to us all. Melbourne-based creatives Matt Moss and Josh Jessup are leading the charge on upcycling, showing followers how to DIY the maximalist styles you’re seeing on social feeds and Pinterest boards.
The duo are so committed to upcycling, they’ve just launched a collection of limited edition home accessories… made from items they found on Gumtree! Released just in time for National Recycling Week (8-12 November), the 25-piece range saves an estimated 1.136kg of carbon emissions* (compared to what it would take to manufacture each item brand new). Plus, each item is in the bold, bright and playful style that Josh and Matt are known for.
We spoke to Josh and Matt about their best second-hand finds, working on their Gumtree Collection and how to get the best upcycling results.
*Calculated using the Reuse Impact Calculator by Charitable Recycling Australia.
What was your process in developing this collection – where do you even start when Gumtree comes to you and says “we want a collection of upcycled products”?
Matt: We just started off by thinking what would make a cohesive collection with 25 items? So we went for side tables and chairs, a dining table, as well as vases and cushions and stuff.
Josh: Just anything that fits in the home, and allows you to see that there’s a huge range of objects that can be upcycled. We pulled from a lot of our own interests, like space and the universe and architecture, and kind of blended it into this really fun and wild collection. When we saw [the final range] we were like “Do we really have to sell these?!”
What are your favourite pieces in the Gumtree collection?
Matt: My favourite piece is the side table – we put a dichroic film on the glass, so it’s like a colour shifting film. And then we also made it a very shiny silver, with magnetic planets that attach similar to the mobile designs that we make [in their business, Josh & Matt Design].
Josh: For me it’s any of the pieces that are quite interactive, because that’s what we like to do with our own art that we make. With that table, you kind of walk around and it might be green, then shift to pink or purple. But I guess if I had to pick one, I actually really like the hallway table. It’s like a retro-futuristic piece that I don’t want to let go!
How many items in your own home are upcycled?
Matt: Last year in lockdown we kind of started experimenting with art and doing some very simple DIY. We have these like concrete cubes and tiled them, so that was kind of like our first intro to upcycling.
Josh: We couldn’t really stop once we started! We had this fountain and once that broke, we didn’t want to be throwing away things so we turned it into a Jupiter sculpture. It’s a big part of our social media as well, we love to encourage people to look at what they can do with their own space. About 80% of our furniture is secondhand and vintage items that we found from all over the place. I think it makes it more special when you’ve upcycled it or done something to it. Not only have you made it your own, but you’re also helping out the environment. We already have too many things in the world, so let’s try and use what’s already there.
Josh: We kind of surprised ourselves with how much you can do. There’s powder coating, dichroic film, repainting… There’s just so many different ways you can upcycle something, the possibilities are really endless.
If people want to get into upcycling and recycling as a hobby, what tools should they invest in to get the best end results?
Josh: The first thing to start with is the quality of the object, because you also need to make sure you’re not upcycling something that’s just going to disintegrate, or you have to keep upcycling it like once a month. It really needs to be like objects that are what we like to call forever furniture. A lot of our furniture is marble and the way we will upcycle that is we can get it refinished or resealed. In terms of paint, we love to use enamel paint because it also protects what’s underneath. So the item stays very hardy. We’ve also invested in some good rollers and paint brushes, things like that.
Matt: One of the most important things we found is just like making sure you’re doing it properly. I think a lot of the times when we would paint furniture, we would kind of do it without really looking at how we should be doing it. So definitely, invest the time watching some YouTube tutorials on whatever sort of DIY you can. We’re definitely self taught – and being self-taught, there’s a lot of mistakes at the start!
The whole collection is in a maximalist style which is a huge trend at the moment. Why do you think maximalist design is having such a resurgence?
Josh: I think because of lock downs and COVID all around the world, it really forced us to reflect within our own homes. For us, we were in Sydney in lockdown, literally in a little shipping container apartment with four white walls – I think the closest we had to colour was brown chairs! And we just realised we wanted colour. We wanted to surround ourselves with things that had meaning and reflected who we are.
And we also wanted to kind of show that you can be a maximalist in a way that is way more sustainable. When you upcycle and search for vintage items, you shop what’s already there… Because from my experience, maximalism definitely has a bit of negative connotation sometimes. But there’s a way that you can do it sustainably and thoughtfully – we call a curated maximalism. So it’s not just like grabbing things for the sake of it, each subject really needs to be thought about.
What mistakes do you see young people making when they are decorating their own spaces?
Josh: I think for me, our mistake was not investing in quality pieces. We often just thought that to be good with our budget and make sure we’re not spending too much, we’ll get some things on the cheaper end. But in our experience, a lot of those things didn’t last. And sometimes it’s better to invest a little more money into a table that’s going to last a lifetime, rather than saving a few $100 in the present. Because then you’re going to have to upgrade it in one or two years. That was a big learning curve for us. Because it sounds on paper like you’re spending more, but then in the long run you actually don’t spend as much as you would have.
Matt: As well as just looking for secondhand finds – like, there’s just some amazing things that you can find at super cheap prices! That’s basically what we did for most of our place.
What’s the best secondhand find you’ve bought?
Matt: One of my favourite things as is a hallway table that we got recently. It actually used to be like an old shoe display, from that store Emporium. It was custom-made for the shop, but it makes for such an amazing sculptural hallway table in our place.
Josh: We also found these triangle bases that were for a coffee table, that we just ended up buying – we didn’t worry about the glass [tabletop]. And now we use them as mini side tables. It’s really fun doing that. We definitely recommend breaking things down into modular components, it really helps you think about how you could use this part of it or see another way to use an object.
@joshandmattdesign ##ad Excited to reveal our new interiors collection we’ve been working on with Gumtree ##GumtreeCollections ##homedecor ##artist ##interiordesign ##fyp ##diy
♬ original sound – Josh & Matt
What tips can you give us for looking for great items on Gumtree or any secondhand listing?
Matt: Definitely look for quality and things that are a bit different and interesting.
Josh: Yeah, try and think of how else you can use an object rather than like what it was for its intended purpose. We try to reverse-engineer our style. So if you’d like mid-century, what kind of materials are those objects made out? You search for ‘teak’ or ‘cube’ or ‘square’. For us we like to search for ‘post-modern’, ‘Memphis’ or ‘Milano’, marble or granite.
Another huge tip is to search your favourite stores. A lot of the stores we love sell really expensive pieces that would be on our dream list, but you can find them on sale on Gumtree for prices that are way more accessible. We’ve found some pretty crazy things that way!
And on the other side of it, what’s the best way to sell a piece that no longer serves you? How can you set up your item listing to get the best price and get your item to someone who really likes it?
Matt: Taking great photos. I think a lot of the time it can be hard for people to imagine how that item would look in their space, especially if it’s something a bit different. So if you can set it up, in a little styled corner or something, so people can really imagine it in their space – it really helps sell the item.
Josh: If you can’t do that, another great way is to be as descriptive as possible. Describe the features, the colours, how it feels, how it looks, the size… Just really give as much opportunity as possible for someone to visualise that item and go “You know what, this would be perfect for my space.”
Gumtree Collections with Josh & Matt is now available to purchase.
