Cult Store: the London upcycler turning waste into homeware

Orange peel, yesterday’s newspaper and used takeaway cups have little worth for many, however for Petko Tashev and his associate Desislava Vangelova, they maintain the potential to turn into lovely objects. The duo’s Islington-based store The Dwelling of Sustainable Issues is fully dedicated to the duty of upcycling waste into artisan-made homewares which are zero or low carbon-emitting, making it one of many first retailers of its variety to curate completely round and sustainable design objects. 

“We’re attempting to shut the loop with items that don’t pollute the planet or use virgin supplies,” says Tashev. “Our merchandise beg the query: why dissipate our finite pure assets if we will use what we have already got?”

Wherever it’s not round design, it’s natural

Modern choices vary from the upcycled and recycled – terrazzo-like door handles created from meals waste, slippers felted from recycled plastic – to the ethically sourced, comparable to yoga mats handwoven in India or homewares created from paper waste by ladies artisans employed on everlasting contracts in South Africa’s Eswatini. “Wherever it’s not round design, it’s natural,” says Tashev. “Our merchandise created from wool, willow and so forth get folks nearer to nature, permitting them to scent it and discuss it, which reignites their love for it,” says Tashev. 

It was whereas working collectively in occasions that the pair first began imagining serving trays fabricated from hemp as a substitute of plastic ones, and so they quickly determined to focus their attentions on homewares and way of life. After 10 months of analysis and sourcing, The Dwelling of Sustainable Issues opened its doorways in 2019. 

In the present day, in the calm, minimalist area with uncovered brick – a listed constructing that was as soon as a family-run butcher’s store – you will see that items far faraway from what they as soon as had been: mouth-blown vases long-established from microwave glass, textured coasters created from rooibos tea and sculptural lights crafted from, erm, sure, horse manure. Modern supplies comparable to Malai, a material created from banana fibre and coconut milk, are used for baggage and wallets. “The merchandise are implausible dialog starters due to their uncommon origins,” says Tashev, whose clients embody designers, architects and environmentally minded enterprise leaders. Tableware tends to be snatched up shortly. Plates are created from the bark of felled timber, whereas their saucers and egg cups are crafted, with a contact of humour, out of discarded eggs.

Tashev and Vangelova now work intently with 37 designers from everywhere in the world. They hope to maintain discovering extra: “There’s a lot work to be achieved – we are proper originally of this complete motion so it’s very thrilling in addition to difficult,” he says. “The one factor that’s sure is that we have to change our habits now.”

The Dwelling of Sustainable Issues, 53 Barnsbury St, London; thehost.retailer