Eventbrite sees 23% jump in number of upcycling events from 2020-2021 // Upcycling workshops by Petit Miracles Interiors consistently sell out
The number of UK upcycling events on ticketing and event platform Eventbrite has grown by almost a quarter last year (comparing 2020 to 2021). This included workshops for anyone looking to spruce up old furniture they might otherwise have sold or thrown away.
Celebrities Stacey Solomon and Kirstie Allsopp are major advocates of upcycling and have brought the craft to millions on TV. Meanwhile, BBC One’s The Repair Shop, where a team of Britain’s most skilled craftspeople rescue and resurrect precious items, has also been watched by millions, often moving viewers to tears with emotional backstories of individual pieces of furniture. This spotlight on improving – rather than throwing away – old furniture seems to have inspired people to look more closely at what they can repurpose – and how.
Willing to get hands-on with their previously unloved pieces of furniture, budding restorers are flocking to upcycling events on Eventbrite to learn to repair, paint, , upholster and accessorise their old pieces to breath new life into them.
One of the event creators putting on weekly upcycling workshops on Eventbrite is Petit Miracles Interiors.
Rachel Schwartz, programme director at Petit Miracle Interiors said: “We’re a social enterprise and hold workshops to fund our main work, which is teaching valuable upcycling skills to disadvantaged adults and people with disabilities. Our workshops always sell out and such is the appetite for learning how to upcycle furniture, we could sell out many more if we had the capacity to do so.
“The aim is to introduce people to upcycling and empower them to go away and do it themselves by giving them the basic tools and ideas. We teach them really simple things like the importance of sanding furniture down to create a smooth surface for painting and changing out handles on doors.
“Feedback has been that people are really enjoying doing something that’s hands-on. They want to feel engaged, have a visceral experience instead of looking at a screen and have fun while they’re doing it. Coming out of lockdown, the appetite for furniture upcycling and upholstering has increased massively, and it’s fantastic to find more and more people considering sustainability and protecting the environment.
“In our day-to-day work, we upcycle tonnes of old furniture donated from landfill and in doing this, every hour spent in our upcycle workshop improves the confidence and creativity of the people we work with. As a community organisation, we also hold upcycling tasting sessions for local people, which always sell out too.”
Eventbrite’s Sebastian Boppert said: “The recycling and upcycling movement is taking action on sustainability where others just talk. It’s hard to think of a much worthier use of our platform than to create community around our shared future.”
