MUST HAVE: Top salvo buy – London Underground luggage racks

If you grew up in London and were a regular commuter on the Metropolitan Line, you may well remember their high back seats and capacious 1960’s luggage racks with umbrella hooks. When the trains were decommissioned last year the clever folk over at The London Transport Museum decided to rescue the racks, scrub them up and are offering a limited number in three different sizes. Available from March, you can own a little piece of London history in your own home…

What a novel shelving solution! Made from aluminium they are super lightweight but sturdy. Perfect if you need a little extra storage in the hallway or kitchen. Other memorabilia includes a reproduction of the original 1960’s poster that introduced the newly modernised line 50 years ago…

and not sure I’d want to be reminded of the tube this much in my own home, but made to order cushions and cubes are also available in a unique moquette (woven in Yorkshire) based on the Metropolitan line’s distinctive purple and navy, geometric design. – Alice

Rupert Blanchard: KING OF UPCYCLING

Rupert Blanchard is a scavenger with style. He’s been all over London, finding, reclaiming and collecting odd drawers, and has up-cycled them into beautiful pieces for his ‘New Furniture’ collection. ‘Every drawer has been salvaged without its original carcass or housing,’ he explains on his blog. ‘I don’t use or collect drawers that already have a use in an existing piece of furniture.’ The results of Richard’s work are impressive – he’ll be launching the range later this week, but here’s a sneaky peek:

Every drawer has a story behind it. Rupert’s collection includes, among many others: oak haberdashery shop drawers from Battersea, Singer sewing machine table drawers from a factory in Shoreditch, a handle found in Brick Lane and a teak-fronted 1950s office desk drawer from Clapham. I really like these pieces of furniture and they prove, once again, that recycled furniture can be just as stylish as new designer furniture – if not more so, because it oozes history and charm. I’m looking forward to meeting Rupert on Thursday at his launch party to find out more. – Ellie