How we turned our out-of-use bedsheets into handmade postcards

Taking out-of-use bedsheets and transforming them into high-quality illustrated postcards is one of the many ways in which Soho House is enacting more sustainable practices across our Houses and our business. Check in for a stay at any of our Houses and you can see the results for yourself. The postcards – all 46,000 of which were handmade and feature illustrations by Soho House Chicago member Angelo Dolojan – are available to members now in all Soho House bedrooms globally.

We sent around 200kg of bed sheets from our UK Houses – linens that through wear and tear would otherwise go to waste – to be transformed by the Paper Foundation at its handmade paper mill in Burneside in the Lake District, which has been a mill village since the Middle Ages and home to a thriving paper making community since 1746.

The initiative, which aims to divert waste from landfill, is part of our social responsibility and sustainability programme House Foundations and acknowledges our wider commitment to minimise the impact of our business on the environment.

It’s a commitment we take very seriously. By 2030, we’ve set ourselves a goal to reduce carbon emissions in our direct operations and supply chain; to promote responsible consumption and divert food and non-food waste from landfills; to minimise environmentally harmful practices in our sites; and to uphold an environmental and ethical standard in our supply chain. Our 2023 ESG report details these goals – and the progress we’re making towards them – and can be read here.

Recycling out-of-use bedsheets is one of the ways we can engage in – and promote – circularity within our business, while celebrating and supporting the heritage of British craftsmanship. Paper Foundation was formed by Mark Cropper, a sixth-generation papermaker and chair of Burneside’s renowned James Cropper mill. It is also a charitable organisation committed to advancing education, arts and heritage, for the benefit of the local community and beyond.

Handmaking paper from cloth is a painstaking process, which dates back to the 13th century. We invited Paper Foundation papermaker Tom Frith-Powell to talk us through it.

‘We obviously follow a very old-fashioned method,’ Frith-Powell says, ‘but even today it is regarded as producing the highest quality paper. 

‘We receive the textiles – in this case, old linens from Soho House – and shred them. We then put the rags and water into a Hollander beater, a kind of oval tub featuring a wheel with metal bars – the wheel pounds the fibres to turn them into pulp.

‘After that, we form the actual paper using a mould, which is like a flat sieve. The fibre from the pulp settles onto the face of the mould and the water drains away. While that’s happening, we’ll shake the mould to create a uniform sheet across it. That sheet is then couched – transferred – into a stack between wool and felt where it’s pressed by a hydraulic press. Finally, it's hung to dry.’

The postcards produced through this partnership can now be found in our bedrooms globally, ready for members to enjoy.

Our 2023 ESG report is now live and can be read here