This Bengaluru woman creates stunning home decor using scrap. Here's how

Everyone knows about the fairy Godmother who could turn the rags on Cinderella into a gorgeous ball gown, this homemaker from Bengaluru is turning discarded items and scrap materials into cringe-worthy home decor. Sarita Karunakaram, 40, who hails from Hyderabad, quit her job last year and has now set up Rasta Creations that sells home decor items like lamps, chandelier and more created from scrap.

Sarita and her family currently are in Bengaluru, where they shifted 17 years ago. "In 2018, I quit my job in finance because of certain health concerns. I became a full-time homemaker, but it didn't take long enough for the quiet afternoons to get the better of me. That's when I began looking around inside the house and the idea hit me. I first used an old cycle wheel and chains to make a chandelier out of it. I discovered some old and worn out car tyres that my husband had put aside and decided to refurbish them and turn it into a seating arrangement. I did interior design for a small space and a couple of other projects too at that time," she says.
The 40-year-old homemaker does not consider scrap to be waste products, she feels they are all reusable and can be remoulded to make something better. "I often searched my kitchen to start with and look around for materials that can be utilised like pans and crockery," she adds.

Recycled chandelier: Made using old cycle wheel and chain. Attached all the chains to the cycle wheel got it welded, wiring and bulbs were put together by Sarita to create the chandelier

Rasta Creations is officially six months old. At first, Sarita was only concentrating on creating things, later she realised that there's a scope of reaching out to people as well. Whatever she was making can be used by others, it's all decor items that can be placed in anybody's home. That's when it came it to her tos et up the online Facebook page for her creations. "I don't have a website yet, I sell through Facebook currently," she says. All of her materials are procured mainly from old 'kabadiwalas', old cycle puncture shops, old markets that still sell items that we don't use now like tea kettles, pots and milk cans.

Sarita does everything herself — from polishing the materials, colouring them and as far as possible, fixing the wires and cables when needed. When it comes to more complicated things like welding metals together, she goes to a trusted shop she has who does the work for her. Till now, she has created around 50 odd pieces of home decor. "The quantity doesn't matter as they are all of different designs and patterns and takes a lot of time to create," she explains.

Sustainable creations: The 40-year-old homemaker does not consider scrap to be waste products, she feels they are all reusable and can be remoulded to make something better

Sharing how her family reacted when they first got to know, Sarita says, "Everybody is surprised, nobody thought we can make such things out of these scrap materials. My relatives and family members, before throwing away anything, they think about me if I can make something out of it. They call and ask if it is of any use to me. If not then they dispose it." Sarita wants to keep creating new and interesting things using old materials, inventing new ways to reuse them and she hopes people will like it. "I do not want to restrict myself anymore, I want try creating new things. I would also like to move towards sustainable creation going forward and reuse more of scrap to create environment-friendly items," she concludes.