Upcycle Project – Minimalist Aesthetic

I have chosen to reupholster the sun visor in my vehicle for the upcycle project, following the minimalist aesthetic since I believe it would be the most visually pleasing. This project arises from the fact that the sun visor in my daily-driver is something that I see every day.  The current fabric is decades old and in dire need of repair, and it even occasionally folds down and in the way of my vision while driving, since the fabric is no longer encasing the visor. See the photo below of the current state of the visor. By deciding to reupholster the sun visor with a uniform denim that would match my blue interior, I’m upcycling with a cheap material and following the minimalist aesthetic in a few ways. For example, by choosing one rugged material I’m creating a simple design that is as unobtrusive as can be, both visually and in its construction. This is the basic definition of minimalism, in addition to heavy use of simple shapes.

To put these sun visors together, the overall construction will hopefully be as aesthetically pleasing and straight-forward as possible, but there are some expected obstacles. For instance, I aim to make the reupholstery fit as tight as possible to the body of the sun visors to both match the stock design and make it as visually as pleasing as I can. Note: the right sun visor is essentially in new condition, as seen in the picture below. It provides a good reference for what the driver’s side sun visor should look like, in both color and quality of fit. The stock fabric, however, is very thin and will likely start to fade. Considering these facts and my opinion that mismatched sun visors would look odd, I’ve decided to reupholster the right sun visor as well, although it could continue to function just fine.

Furthermore, another anticipated encumbrance involves the driver’s side sun visor, which has starting instructions and other information on my vehicle and its engine (seen in the picture below); I find this information interesting and useful, and I plan on doing my best to preserve it and remount the fabric-paper panel to the new sun visor. This is where things start to get interesting, especially since the paper that stores the information is very old and dilapidated.  I’m planning to overlay some sort of adhesive clear film to protect the text, then frame the assembly of panels with denim so that I can attach all of it to the main fabric. This design is likely to change, however, since I’m not very experienced with reupholstery and there may be a better way.

With all of this in mind, I think the design will follow the minimalist aesthetic for two main reasons. The first of which is the use of one material, denim, a rugged material that should stand the test of time and be visually unobtrusive by matching the color of the stock interior. Secondly, this project will follow the minimalist aesthetic by achieving as little design as possible. The driver’s side and passenger side sun visors will be made as fabric encasements that simply recreate the existing sun visors, with no extra design work that clutters the aesthetic of the installation.