Creative ideas make a big impact at lifestyle expo

A glitzy mobile perfume truck, 3D décor murals and manbags made from old billboards are some of the unusual drawcards of this year’s Your Home Expo at the International Convention Centre (ICC) at the East London beachfront.

While last year’s hot-ticket items were centred around inverters and other gizmos aimed to take the pain out of load-shedding, this year eco-friendly and recycled products had a strong presence at the expo which continues until Sunday.

At the Restore Job Creations stand, Shaun Gunton was selling frames, shelves and clocks made of pallett wood and patterned crossbody manbags and surfboard bags that had once been vinyl billboards.

Also recycling old furniture into bright and functional pieces was Janet Fourie of Fabulous shop in Berea, who turned stepladders into bookshelves and gave old chairs and desks new life with a lick of chalk paint.

At the Boxman stand, Fiona Rooy was selling cardboard box kits to move a three-bedroomed house.

Young fashion designer Luxolo Jita also bought into the war on waste with his leather neckpieces made of leather offcuts intertwined with bits of metal chain.

Expo organiser Rodwell Sims said yesterday that the 16th annual expo was running smoothly. “There are more window blind and shutter products than before and furniture is doing very well.

“One exhibitor sold R250000 worth of furniture on the first day.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za