How to fix and upcycle things with LEGO® bricks

But what exactly is Kintsugi? Kintsugi, or ‘golden joinery’ is the art of fixing (or upcycling, to be fancy about it) a broken object, usually ceramics, with gold. Those clever Japanese design trailblazers literally spun today’s rubbish into tomorrow’s gold.

Good for them and everything, but what if you’re running low on spare gold? That’s where we come in. Inspired by Kintsugi, we want to help the world do some DIY on a budget by turning the old into new, the ordinary into unique and the broken into fixed.

So don’t throw away those legless chairs, smashed plant pots or crooked crockery – get your Kintsugi on with the help of the humble (and amazing) LEGO® brick.

Go heavy on the wabi, double up on the sabi

Wabi-sabi (not to be confused with the pungent condiment, wasabi) is the Japanese idea that there is beauty in the imperfect and impermanent. Before you get started, it’s important to remember that the goal is not to be symmetrical or flawless. This is about bringing vitality, color and a sense of messy originality to everyday objects. Embrace wabi-sabi in your creations and you’ll free yourself from notions of how something should look and open your mind to how it could look.

Balance fun with function

While we all like our table legs to achieve their most basic function as, well... the legs of a table, you can also have fun when upcycling with LEGO bricks. It doesn’t have to be your standard wooden column. It could be a glorious, sprawling oak tree with adorable tiny birds in even-more-adorable tiny birdhouses. Maybe it’s a snake or a spaceship. Maybe it’s something so cool we couldn’t even imagine it. Wow… you’re good.

Work with what you’ve got

Why not start with the LEGO bricks you already have and build on your ideas from there. Maybe there’s an old set lying around that you want to take apart. Could that pirate ship be part of a chipped fruit bowl? Maybe that house you built could bring a new lease of life to a lamp? Limiting yourself to what you have is a great way to get your creativity flowing. If you don’t have any pieces you could possibly dream of letting go of, or if you just want more choice, this box is a good place to start.

Give your plants some personality

You know how it goes, the dog has a Happy Half Hour and before you know it, your cactus collection is in bits on the floor. So how do you fix a broken plant pot? Take inspiration from our cheeky creations by using small connector pieces to add flexibility. Remember that it doesn’t have to fit perfectly into the crack, you just need to create a moveable facade that you can slot behind the gap. Once you have that in mind, you can add a bit of whimsy and fun by adding faces, doors, windows, or even some snazzy flowers with our LEGO bouquet set.

Turn that sad furniture frown upside down

The next time you find yourself in a late-night search hole, googling things like ‘how to fix a broken table leg’, ‘upcycling for beginners’, ‘why do all my plants die’ and the classic, ‘I heard creaky noises, is there a ghost in my house’, maneuver your mind to your LEGO brick collection. Maybe the solution to your faulty furniture nightmares is actually hiding amongst the colorful array of LEGO plates, bricks and accoutrements. So, make the most of their adaptability. Cover that scratch, fill that hole, replace that part and more importantly, bring some joy, color and fun to any living space.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with, so make sure to tag us in your creations on social media.