/ DIY UpCycly garden furniture. © Nicolas Barrial

Pallet it Yourself under cover of the peach walls

Published 18 May 2015 by Nicolas Barrial

In Montreuil, the “Festival des murs à pêches” (peach walls Festival) is inviting the green warriors of UpCycly this week-end to the site, several centuries-old, for a reuse festival. At the end of April, Makery attended the same workshop at the same place. Or how to practice DIY urban diversity.

End of April, in the more rural part of Montreuil, up against the peach walls that go back to the 17th century, invited by the association “Lez’arts Dans Les Murs” (arts/lizards in the walls) twenty odd budding makers and confirmed green warriors spent the afternoon making eco-responsible furniture from wood pallets. This reuse workshop is the trademark of UpCycly, social start-up that is organising the UpCycly Fest this Sunday (May 24th).

Building lasting furniture from reuseable pallets is easy. Wassim Chelfi from UpCycly explains, as a preamble, that “these pallets are not part of a recycling program. Since companies need to pay to get rid of them, they are more than happy to hand them to the circular economy.” Directions for use photo gallery.

The much talked about pallets, raw material of the workshop.

What is made on site can be brought back home or left at the association “Lez’arts Dans Les Murs”. The latter regularly welcomes school field trips, workshops and performances on the peach walls site.

Tree house and reuse: a Robinson Crusoe atmosphere at Lez’arts.

Bucolic setting and a refreshment area, the rest remains to be made.

Ideas and plans are made available by UpCycly.

The gesture that will be noticed all day long: making the nails pop out of the pallets.

Simplicity rules: one pallet sawed = one bench seat

This king size bench seat quickly found its place at Lez’arts.

The vertical window box echoes the peach walls

Only just built, the window box is already well watered. UpCycly was far-sighted: the plans are covered with plastic.

The highlight of the workshop: a free-standing hammock

It has been decided to make the hammock adjustable with an extra hole.

Antonin from Lez’arts cannot resist temptation.

New workshops appear all over the garden

Once the shower is over, new groups work out the courage to finish the wood stock.

No carbon footprint to take one’s creation home.

Excursion in the peach walls

Impossible to miss out on the history of the peach walls. Five centuries old, the site, formerly famous for fruit crops, attempts to fight against real estate pressure. On each plot, often only a few metres large, one discovers vegetable crops, medieval gardens and even very contemporary land art.

It is the charm of these small doors that we close behind us that the associations are attempting to revive. Out of the one hundred odd acres, twenty-two have just been classified under “sites and landscapes” by the ministry of Agriculture.

Artists scouting for the “Festival des murs à pêches” this week-end.

No respite in sight for pallets

Peach walls, sometimes collapsed, are looking for hands to rebuild them. It is the object of the 15th “Festival des murs à pêches”, hosted by local associations, that will take place on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of May.

Noëmie and Wassim from UpCycly were in Paris on May 17th for the Fairpride, that they furnished in reuse mode.

UpCycly will be there on the 24th of May, as it was this week-end at the world craftsmen Fairpride, place de la République, in Paris. The start-up hosted at the SenseCubeincidentally did not leave the Mayor of Paris indifferent during her visit to the incubator.

Bravo à @UpCycly qui sensibilise les Parisiens à la fabrication collaborative et responsable ! pic.twitter.com/nD9djMQMYu
— Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) May 6, 2015

UpCycly Fest, May 25th, from 9am to 6pm during the Festival des murs à pêches, 69 rue Pierre de Montreuil, Montreuil

Text and photos Nicolas Barrial