This week we saw a very eye-catching jeep parked in front of Materia offices. From a distance, this jeep appears to have an abstract floral pattern printed on its surface, but up close, it is actually covered entirely with used postage stamps and finished with a lacquer.

The creator of this effect is designer Eelco van Hulsen, who makes beautiful new things from used objects and materials.

In early 2014, he began his ‘stamp’ project. He choose to work with stamps as a design material not only because of their beautiful colour and appearance, but also because almost everyone has collected stamps at some point in their lives. As a result, stamps have a special attraction to many people.

Eelco van Hulsen buys furniture from second hand stores and then glues stamps to their surfaces. His ‘new’ furnishings have both a sustainable and totally unique character.

This summer, van Hulsen woke up and thought, ‘I want to cover my jeep with Dutch stamps.’ At that time he was driving what describes as an ‘ugly vehicle.’ He began the process by sticking stamps on the door of his jeep and the reaction from his neighborhood was overwhelmingly positive ‘It was lovely to do,’ he says. ‘I stood every morinng pasting stamps on my jeep with the joyfulness of a child.’ You can find more photos of his working process here.

He is currently looking to commercialise his work by bringing these stamped surfaces to walls, floors, light fixtures and surfaces within hotels, restaurants, office and more.

Find out more about van Hulsen’s work here.