Preeti and Deepak Jha outside their Chandrasekharpur residence where discarded car tyres have been used as flower pot stands and (below) the couple have rolled mats as wallpapers to decorate their home. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 25: Enter the residence of Deepak and Preeti Jha located at Chandrashekharpur in the city and one would instantly note their striking home décor. The couple recycle waste materials and transform them into beautiful decorative pieces.

Preeti, a 40-year-old homemaker, spends her leisure in her creative pursuits. A student of interior designing, her interest of transforming waste materials is a decade old. Her husband too is fond of her artistic skills and encourages her in every possible way. Deepak, who works as chief freight transportation manager at East Coast Railway, helps her in the evenings.

They have used old car tyres as flowerpot stands and have also stitched tyres with jute threads and use them as stools. Preeti can weave dry sticks into decorative pieces. They do not even have to waste time looking for wallpapers and instead paint mats and uses them to give their walls a different look.

“All her artworks are very beautiful and it saves a lot of my expenses as we do not have to spend heavily on buying various items from the market. Out of all her artworks, the one she created by carving out an outline of Lord Ganesh on a piece of plywood is my favourite,” said 45-year-old Deepak.

“I use all kinds of colours. From acrylic to distemper paints and then apply varnish on them. They do not lose their sheen soon,” said Preeti.

Her friends and neighbours often ask her how they can also use discarded materials into making something creative.

The couple’s teenaged daughter Shambhavi, though proud of the feat of her parents, keeps out of their creative practices. “It is their hobby. I occasionally give them some ideas, but most of the times, don’t interfere much,” she said.

The couple hail from Bihar and have spent most of their married life in Calcutta. It has been three years that they have been living in Odisha.

“We have to change our residence often and that is the toughest past. At times, I have to leave behind something I had created with a lot of interest. But again, the new home throws open the challenge of beautifying it. Given the shape and size of the house and availability of materials, I try my best to decorate it,” said Preeti.