Matthew Mead's Ultimate Recycled Style Guide

When Matthew Mead contacted me to ask if I was interested in writing a review of his latest book I was delighted and obviously said yes. I love recycling and most of my collection of vases and containers that I use for my floral styling are from flea markets and charity stores. I have also been a big fan of Matthew since 2010 when I first discovered his blog. 

The book, just published, is called Matthew Mead's Ultimate Recycled Style Guide. It's a book full of projects showing you how to transform flea market finds into fabulous treasures.  

In the introduction Matthew talks about his and his team's broad view of recycling, he says: "Transforming one thing into another, breathing new life into tired old wares became our mission." 

There are 25 chapters with several projects in each one - varying from very easy for the beginner to a bit more challenging for somebody with a little more experience.    

I have for obvious reasons focused of the flower arrangements and any floral projects in the book and Matthew had assured me that there was plenty of flowers and I was not disappointed.

Lovely green and turquoise jugs and glass bottles - my favourite kind of vases - wonderful colours to use with flowers.  

Lots of vintage container can be used in the garden for planting and in the chapter called Miniature Gardens you'll find lots of ideas for using flea market finds. 

Match the colour of the flower with the container - like here with some bright yellow daffodils and a painted old sap can.

Changing the colour of clear glass bottles is easy with a bit of paint - just make sure you use a water tube in the neck of the bottles to hold the water and flower.

Hydrangeas in different shades of pink in a simple clear glass container becomes a colourful outdoor arrangement for a summer birthday party. 

Blue and white china is charming to use in combination with flowers - it comes in many different styles and colours and anything that can hold a bit of water can be turned into a vase for an arrangement.

With a bit of inventiveness and know-how you can create some unique arrangements like here: Stack three graduated bowls, fill each level with water and arrange the flowers around the bowls.

A vintage basket with a flat back gets a lick of pink paint - put some pink roses in a watertight container - pop in basket - hammer a nail in the wall and presto - you have a charming and colourful decoration for your wall.  

Matthew also made a sweet dedication to me in the front of the book - Thank you Matthew!

I hope you have enjoyed my little review of Matthew's book and I also hope that you'll have found something that has inspired you to recycle some old treasures.

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Thanks for your visiting and till soon!

xoxo Ingrid