Watch: How blue-sky thinking gave an old table a new lease of life 

Turning trash to treasure? Upcycling revamps your furniture and earns you  sustainability credentials at the same time 

Carol O'Callaghan working remotely outdoors on her upcycled table on a sunsoaked day. Pictures and Video: Larry Cummins 

I've been harbouring notions of upcycling an old cabinet, with sustainability in mind and to find better use for it than storing board games and empty boxes that I thought might come in handy, though never have.

But hauling it into the light for inspection, I had to acknowledge my general ignorance about how to prepare it for a lick of paint so it wouldn’t look amateurish and chip off in no time: Shabby chic has never been my look.