Upcycling shop breathes new life into St Helens furniture

Made Up is the latest venture by the people behind Teardrops Supporting the Community which helps anyone in need in St Helens.

It has been set up in the former Ena Shaw building on Duke Street alongside the successful Mellor & Black Enchanted Tea Gardens.

The upcycling shop employs three permanent staff and three extra volunteers as well as further volunteers who assist in sales with all the goods being mended, displayed, and sold on to aid the charity.

The ‘repair shop’ style set up also allows people to take in their items and get them upcycled with the tradespeople and DIY enthusiasts turning their creative skills to breathe new life into long loved items.

'They create amazing stuff'

Nick Dyer, manager of Teardrops, said: “Sustainability is really important and much like the tea rooms, Made Up is about raising funds that go back into Teardrops but everyone here from the staff to the amazing volunteers work really hard and create some amazing stuff.

“We are getting a lot of donated items, and they look at it and work out what can be repaired, reused, and salvaged or completely transformed. It’s incredible to see and we are really proud.”

The three permanent staff based at Made Up are Tom Flaherty from Parr, Jill Dyer from Eccleston and Julie Graham from Fingerpost. They each bring their own skills to the table to create and reimagine pieces, bringing new life to them.

Tom and Julie, who became involved in the project via St Helens’ Ways to Work programme, are now permanent at the site, with Tom adding that though he is paid for some of the days he works, he also volunteers his time because of the joy it gives him.

He said: “I have always loved working on projects and when this came up it just seemed perfect and after the six-month scheme finished, I was taken on properly.

“We’ve created great things and it’s great because we all have different things we bring to the table and help each other to create the pieces or highlight which ones might be better suited to particular people to do.

'We turned a piano into a bar'

“I love the joinery work and currently I’m working on a piano. We had one in that couldn’t be repaired but the wood and everything was good quality so I turned it into a bar.

"I’m really proud to be part of it actually and it’s great to be so creative and know its all priced reasonable and helped Teardrops.”

Jill added: “I worked as a data analyst for years though I’ve been involved in Teardrops voluntarily for a long time and I just felt it was right to get involved.

“I do a lot of decoupages and transform the look of things but actually we each have our own projects but lean on each other’s skills to really rework things.

“We had this dresser come in and it wasn’t selling so Tom helped separate it and it’s become an ottoman and a dresser.

"Right now, we have different things that are either being repaired or transformed, and it changes all the time. Why replace when the older stuff is often better made and just needs a bit of a change or paint or decoration.”

'We help the community and it's fun'

Julie said: “The fact all the profit goes to Teardrops is really good, we feel like we all have our thing but together we help to help the community and it is just fun as well.

“I like the tidying up at the end and stepping back at the finished project and seeing what we’ve done. And it’s always changing too in here there’s always something different out.

“We’ve had loads of people come in thinking it is like other charity shops and it is not really we have stuff like that but also we change anything that doesn’t sell, which is good to do.”

Made Up is located in the foyer next to Mellor & Black Enchanted Tea Rooms and open during the same business hours – 9.30am to 3.30pm Monday-Saturday.