Industrial Architecture and an Upcycled Railway Chair!

There is nothing like seeing a remarkable upcycle, something completely unexpected. It shows how resourceful people can be and opens your mind to possibilities – that is why we all love upcycling so much don’t you agree! Sam Payne contacted me a while back to share an extremely cool upcycle of an old steel casting bin into an upcycled railway chair, which is one of my all time favourite upcycles, and that is why I am bringing it back to life with an updated post.

I loved it so much I dug down further to find out more about him and his design business, Attic Salt. His portfolio consists of cafe, restaurant and office fit-outs which utilise recycled materials, locally sourced products, prefinished surfaces which do not require paint treatments and “whatever else he can jam in there.” The result is sustainable, beautiful spaces that have buckets of character and make you want to linger in them.

A lot of the projects Sam creates are in existing buildings and he aims to reuse as much of the fabric as possible. In an office fit-out he worked on for example, he reused the galvanised sheeting from the existing shed door as the backing to the shelves. How amazing does it look! “I am very big on repurposing and finding new use for materials. I often source secondhand or unwanted goods to use as furniture and feature lighting in our works. It creates a beautiful warmth and the pieces have unique qualities which can’t be replicated,” says Sam.

As well as the commercial projects, he works on renovations on older character homes. “Our clients see the beauty and charm in their homes and want to retain their character whilst adapting and adding on to their homes to suit the way in which they live. I look closely at how each family use their space and the designs we produce reflect that.”



Not only does Sam create beautiful, sustainable projects in his design work, but he has created this very cool upcycle! He clearly has a brain that can think outside the square and a strong commitment to principles of sustainable design across all areas of living.

Sam says he went to an auction at the beautiful old Midland Railway building (one of Perth’s oldest railway buildings) where they were selling items from the workshops where they used to work on the trains and make the parts for them. “The first lots of items to go were the gorgeous Jarrah tables and cupboards and all of the obvious ones which you can put straight into a space and they look amazing, they also all happened to be way out of my price range. Then we came to the auction of these old steel casting bins, which no one knew what they would do with them. At the time I didn’t either! But that meant I got them for a steal!” he told me.


From there the following happened explained Samuel:
+ I had a boiler maker friend cut down the legs
+ I sealed all of the beautiful patinated steel
+ I chose some 100% wool fabrics
+ I had carbon neutral commercial grade foam cushions cut
+ And wallah MR King Chair was born (the MR derived from Midland Railway) 🙂

It is so GOOD! Do you love it too? A real upcycler’s eye to see the potential in something most other people would just walk past.
Have you ever thought about or turned, any old railway materials into something? There is so much you could salvage when you start thinking about railway yards!
Helen
xx