FURNITURE
Fancy a furniture makeover? H
ilary & Alice, a furniture up-cycling and restoration business in Diss, have worked on hundreds of pieces of furniture since they opened in 2016. Their ethos is to reduce landfill of old furniture by giving it a makeover, creating one-off statement pieces and bringing tired, old family inheritance items back to life. Village People asks owners Pam and Amanda about their business. What are your favourite pieces to work on? We love working on old pieces of furniture which have been inherited or passed down through families. The story those pieces tell – surviving wars, performing different roles in homes over the years, reminding people of their childhoods – make them so special. The piece may no longer fit in today’s style of home, but we can turn it into a show-stopping feature piece in a room. Is there any furniture you can’t up-cycle? Not really! If wood has been wet and swollen it can be difficult to
repair, and old pieces often have woodworm, which can be treated and filled/repaired, or once the worm has been killed the holes can add amazing character. If you think you might have inherited a priceless antique, it’s worth getting a professional opinion on its value before we paint it! What is the hardest part of the job? Old furniture is handmade and solid and can be quirky in its construction! Bits only fit in certain places, old hinges don’t like being messed with and utility furniture (wartime) is varnished in a lacquer that bleeds a brown sludge colour through most paint. Over time, doors can drop, drawers swell and hinges break – all of these things can be really tricky and time consuming to fix! How are you helping the environment? For every item of furniture we paint, it’s one less sent to landfill or burnt. We’ve painted hundreds, possibly thousands, of pieces! It also reduces the need for manufacturing, albeit in a small way; if people aren’t buying
new, they are reducing their carbon footprint. It’s about doing our bit to reduce waste. Can I do it myself? Absolutely! We stock all the preparation equipment, paint and decorating sundries for people to start painting their own furniture. We’re also on hand to offer help and advice and will be running more workshops to get hands-on experience in 2022.
If you’ve got a piece of furniture you’d like the H&A team to paint, send them a picture via email hello@hilaryandalice.co.uk or Facebook for a quote. Hilary & Alice is open Monday – Saturday in Mere Street, Diss and online (including online shopping) at www.hilaryandalice.co.uk. 25
