Treasure Hill, upcyling furniture

I came across Leah Spain and her gorgeous business upcycling furniture, Treasure Hill, on Facebook and just had to share with you! She shares her story and her lovely work on the blog today.

Leah was born and bred in Broken Hill, a mining town in far west NSW, famous for its artists, one being Pro Hart. She moved to Melbourne 12 years ago.  She has worked in the world of admin and customer service her whole adult life, but says this is definitely not her passion! She has always been the crafty type and says she can not remember a time where she was not crafting, or creating something in her mind to make. She inherited her crafty hand from her dad, who is a builder. As a child she always remembers him tinkering in the shed, making or fixing something for their family home.

How did you come to start the business?

My husband and I completed owner building our home in 2010, wow what a challenge!  We decided to tackle this ourselves because we wanted to create something unique and put our own style into it, something the big building companies don’t offer. It was tough, as we were both made redundant from our respective jobs during the building. This time off work and in between jobs actually gave me time to work on the house, painting, creating and even upcycling an old fireplace mantle for the home as I couldn’t find a new one the right size. It was after doing that mantle I decided to do more upcycled furniture for our home as it was cost effective and I could create the colours and design to suite my style.

 

What is your own decorating style and sources of inspiration?

My Style is like a bag of mixed lollies, a sweet assortment of colour and taste! My main inspiration is bohemian inspired homewares, particularly Moroccan decor as its a mix of bright colours, intricate pattern and hand carved timber.

How did you end up ucpcyling items for sale and how did you learn the skills and techniques?

Some of my friends suggested that I should upcycle to sell. It took me a while to build up the courage to start selling to the public, I think I was fearful of my product not selling and no one liking it. I created a Facebook page and it went from there. I painted, upholstered (which I learnt from YouTube) and posted it on my Facebook page hoping for odd like here and there, but I received a great response and its a little bigger than what I thought it would ever be!

Where can people buy your pieces?

I now attend the occasional market and sell in my online store. Alongside my upcycled homewares I hope to support other Artisans from Australia and around the world in the near future.