Lilac Tree Interiors All About Us
About Us the Lilac Tree Interiors Team
Lilac Tree Interiors started life, literally, in a shed.
Granted, it was a shed situated in the busy Holland House Garden Centre. But the belief in the project was strong, the personalities were positive there was a need. And, the ethos and character being created was sure to be a hit. Of course, it was. A treasured business was born.
The Lilac Tree Interiors team – Lisa, Sarah and Sarah’s husband Darren – began bringing neglected and abandoned furniture back to life as custom designer pieces. Lisa’s flair for interior design seen immediately on entry to the shop. Sarah and Darren brought their skills to re-loving forlorn furniture and produced timeless, elegant stand-alone results. All in all, they created a wonderful, original furniture and vintage collection shop which was quite simply unique.
Customers delighted in purchasing beautiful one-off pieces for their homes and this brought much pleasure to the trio, who were intent on challenging the throw-away culture.
The Lilac Tree – A Dream to a Reality
All things happen at the right time and this is particularly true for our trio. Lisa explains:
“Everything happened by accident really, I’d had to give up work as my son has autism and was off school for a year due to there being no school places. I myself was volunteering at a charity shop and Sarah came in to drop things off, and we decided to go on a re-upholstery workshop.”
Sarah was also at a point in life where she wanted to change her career. She explains:
“I was a civil servant for 23 years and I wasn’t happy,” she explained. “I’d taken leave to care for my terminally ill father, so when he passed away, I was at a crossroads. I’d always been good at DIY and so I was going to charity shops, the local tip, finding pieces, and re-loving them. It was Lisa’s idea – she said ‘we should do this as a business.’”
Whilst browsing at the Holland House Nurseries Garden Centre, Lisa saw an empty shed and pictured the space as a store. Lilac Tree Interiors was open for business just 6 weeks later.
With no business plan to guide them, acting purely on instinct they collected neglected pieces from charity shops and upcycled them. For the first couple of years they just about broke even but the passion kept them going through the hard grind of launching a new venture and the back-breaking work that comes with it.
Business Blossoms
Both keen environmentalists, they avoid using chemicals and source natural materials. Frenchic paint is used for this reason. The shop soon moved on to selling accessories, gifts, cards and County sourced products from creatives and artists.
Soon, there was an evident demand for workshops and beginner DIY classes. These proved extremely popular with the clients.
“Customers bring a piece of furniture themselves and re-love that using our materials and expertise so that they come away with a piece of furniture which they’re happy to put in their home. There’s a lot of personal pride in that, people are really getting into the spirit of it.”
Sarah speaking about the paint-your-own-furniture workshops.
A Team with a Strong Ethos
With Britons dumping thousands of tonnes of furniture each year to landfill sites the team work hard to show that even a tatty, damaged old chair can be transformed. Even to something more beautiful than its original state.
Craftmanship is becoming increasingly rare and saving some of this furniture, that has been lovingly hand-crafted, is surely a welcome break from the norm.
As Sarah says, “There is an appeal reviving something and making it your own. They just don’t make furniture like they used to. We want to give things a new lease of life, that’s our ethos. A designer piece without the designer price.”
And who doesn’t want that!
