Springfield, near Chelmsford (Essex), is home to Demi, an artist who takes old, outdated furniture and turns it, on commission, into beautiful, practical, personal pieces of art
After having her first child AND moving to a new area, she felt lost and alone. To fill the void, she started decorating small items, but found her true passion – and talent – when she started to work with furniture.
Her own furniture was the start point for what was to become an exciting, creative business. Following the move, she had an ad hoc collection of pieces that simply didn’t match. Upcycling was to become a natural part of her life.
Today she’s perfected that journey, and Dresser and Drawer was born.
Although she does sell pieces directly through her website, Demi more often enjoys creating bespoke pieces for customers, injecting colour and style into truly unique, one-off pieces. But whilst some customers have a specific piece they want upcycled, others are simply looking for something extra special in a certain colour or style. In order to be able to fulfil those orders, Demi collects pieces with potential that she discovers along the way. She can never guarantee that good pieces will be available at the time a customer is looking, so she keeps a stock of lovely, usable pieces with great shapes or unusual designs.
The downside of discovering her talent, and doing something she loves as a job, is that her home was rapidly filling to overflowing. Rather like buses, sometimes there are no pieces around, and another time five will arrive at once.
As the family now has two children, and whilst a studio is most definitely on the horizon, Demi was desperate for a good arrangement for storing furniture until it is needed. easyStorage Essex stepped up to help.
She describes the easyStorage team who helped her as ‘insanely good’, having understood that price is, of course, an issue – she must, of course, make a profit on her work - as is flexibility. (As an aside, we think with their fabulous sense of humour, just ‘insane’ might be good description!)
She sings the praises of the easyStorage Essex team, who have been really easy to work with and very accommodating. Whilst the easyStorage normal working model is to return things to customers, sometimes it’s been easier for everyone to flex and for Demi to access and collect – or her husband, who’s a driver.
Her business has come a long way, with beautiful, desirable pieces at prices that belie the fact that they are complete one-off designs.
Behind the scenes, our own teams at easyStorage are working hard to try and reduce our own environmental impact, and the idea that these pieces of furniture get a new lease of life appeals greatly.
We see a bright, positive future for Demi’s work, and are proud to be just a small part of that journey.