FK talks to Jacqui from Melbourne based sustainable furniture label, Reissused

Can you tell us about your furniture label, Reissued?
Reissued began in late 2009 and is based in Melbourne. Reissued creates and sells unique furniture and a few other products for the home, shop or office. Vintage or pre loved furniture is restyled using sustainable contemporary and/or vintage Australian & New Zealand textiles. The furniture is sourced locally.

Reissued offers an eclectic range of stools/ottomans small and medium chairs in a range of original designs. Currently other products include lampshades (with or without bases) cushions & covered buttons.

Reissued also offers a customized service for those wishing to satisfy their own personal aesthetic and create their own original piece/s of furniture.

What inspired you to start this business?
I have always had an interest in art, architecture and interior design and a penchant for ‘junk shops’. I was ready for a creative change in my working life, fiddling around with chairs seemed natural enough. I love the idea of recycling and exploring the possibilities that contemporary fabrics may bring to old pieces of furniture.

What materials do you love working with and what keeps you inspired?
I am trying to tread lightly with my business and the furniture redesigns so am choosing sustainable textiles. At the current time I am very interested in Australian hand printed fabrics printed on heavy organic cotton, hemp or linen base cloths. There are a lot of talented designers out there. I also love raiding the upholsterers’ leftover bins – I can spend hours rummaging.  I love using natural bees wax products for bringing tired timber back to life.

What has the reaction been like to the work you do?
Generally people are pretty positive about the furniture and many wish they hadn’t thrown away the old stool or chair they had sitting in the back shed.  So maybe it has even inspired a few people to reconsider some of the potential of their old furniture and reclaim it rather than adding it to landfill.

What is your background and how did it lead you to working with furniture?
As a child I always liked playing around in my fathers shed with old bits of timber and had a preference (or maybe it was a budget) for old furniture rather than new. Resurrecting or repurposing what someone else may consider junk seems a worthy challenge in this day and age.

Where would you like to take Reissued in the future?
Reissued is still a fledgling business. I would like to achieve greater exposure with the furniture and would love the opportunity of working with ‘green’ interior designers on their residential or commercial projects.  Eventually designing my own fabric for particular pieces of furniture also seems to be a natural progression for the business.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reissued