PERSON OF INTEREST
The host of BBC One’s The Repair Shop and our favourite upcycler on the joy of giving old furniture new life
I’M GENUINELY PASSIONATE ABOUT RESTORING FURNITURE. It started back in 2009 when I ran a charity in High Wycombe for young people who were taught traditional furniture skills by retired craftspeople. I invited the Women’s Institute and Age Concern to come along and teach the students how to revamp old furniture. We had a 92-year-old man demonstrating how to cane a chair and a lady called Rose, who had looked after the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, showing us how to rush a chair. Sharing key skills with young people and watching their confidence grow was wonderful.
‘MAKE DO AND MEND’ REALLY IS MY MOTTO. I believe you don’t ever have to throw away a piece of furniture. Even if it’s broken, you can repurpose it. I remember the culture of ‘make do and mend’ when I was younger and living on a council estate in Hackney, east London. When I think of what it must have been ‘You don’t like during the wartime years, when people made clothing out ever have to of curtains and so on, it was a culture where people cherished throw away things and didn’t waste them. a piece of Sustainability is also about teaching the next generation how furniture. If to repurpose pieces, because no one likes to leave a mess it’s broken, for someone else to clean up. repurpose it’
DESIGNING MY OWN RANGE OF FURNITU
