Episode 11 Money for Nothing

How do you make money for nothing?

The answer could be hiding in the 20 million tonnes of household waste

we throw out every year.

Before you throw that away,

-is there any chance I could have a quick chat about it?

-Sure.

That's why entrepreneur Sarah Moore wants to get her

hands on things before they hit the skip.

I am a passionate buyer, user and renovator of second-hand stuff

and I've turned that passion into a moneymaking business.

I turn old into new and I sell it for a profit.

Sarah is ready to sift through as many boots and binbags

as she needs to...

That is the most fabulous thing I've seen here.

This is so exciting.

..in her search for tip treasure.

I love rifling through the rubbish.

And, with some of the country's elite designers and makers...

-Hello, hello!

-What have you got today?

I want to do what's right for this piece of rubbish...

..she can transform her finds into desirable...

Look at that!

..beautiful...

Speechless.

..valuable...

You're joking!

..and, hopefully, saleable items.

You always talk my kind of money, Jay. I love doing deals with you.

If Sarah is successful, then she can hand the profits back to the very

people who had no idea there was cash to be made from their trash.

-HE CHUCKLES

-Wow!

Today, Sarah is at Witley Community Recycling Centre in Surrey.

Every day up to 400 cars arrive here laden with junk for the tip.

But much of it could be reused instead of landing

headfirst in the skip.

Thankfully, Sarah is here to retrieve rubbish from this

wonderful world of waste.

Some people like going designer shopping,

others go and play golf, but for me this is where it's at.

I'm in the department store for rubbish

and all I've got to do is find the treasure in the trash.

With a team of skilled designers waiting in the wings,

Sarah has special permission to be scouring through car boots

looking for three items that, once revamped and sold,

will produce a pay-out for the person dumping them.

Bring it down, I'm here all day.

-I like the look of your chest!

-Yeah!

That's a loaded remark, isn't it?

Come on, Sarah, keep your mind on the job.

Enter Richard and some interesting looking doors.

-Hi, there.

-Hello.

-I like your doors!

-Well, they didn't fit.

-Oh, really?

-That's an old one. That's one that came out...

-Right.

That was the moulded door I got.

So it's not as good quality as the old one, then?

No, but the old one wobbled.

Do you know something? It might be to my advantage.

I'm looking for stuff that I might be able to recycle or

make into something else, and your solid door might be just the thing.

Well, you're very welcome to have it.

-I think it might make a great table or...

-Table?!

That's...really cool.

I would love if I could take it away

-and see if I could make something from it.

-Yeah.

It actually looks a lot nicer without the paint.

It's really solid. It weighs a lot more than the new one.

I can see lots of potential just because it's so solid

and it's really big, which gives you plenty to work with.

But what does Richard think?

You see, thinking of it from my perspective,

I can see turning it into a trestle and using it as a workbench.

That's what I would do. But my shed's not big enough.

It's really heavy. There's a lot of good quality wood there.

That's fantastic, I'll definitely do something with that.

You haven't got anything else in there...

Yeah, I've got a vintage BT Home Hub that I don't need. Do you want that?

No, the sun lounger's not going. That's on its way to my allotment.

Always worth asking,

but on this occasion Sarah will just have to make do with the old door.

I'm going to break the door!

If she manages to take it away in one piece.

She'll certainly have her work cut out with this old timber.

But she does have someone in mind who can help.

Rupert Blanchard is a sought-after furniture maker based in Margate.

Design-wise, I love making things

that appear really clean and simple,

but the cleaner and simpler they get,

the more complicated they are to make.

Rupert's furniture designs command a premium price

which belie their humble beginnings.

Basically, other people's waste, I find some kind of beauty in it

and spend a lot of time giving rubbish a lot of attention to

try and bring it back into use.

Anything that you might find in a skip, basically,

I'm happy to work with.

That's music to my ears.

This old door which Sarah has been given by Richard

fits that bill perfectly.

So, Sarah has rescued one item from the skip,

but there's two more to find.

Unfortunately, she's spotted something it's too late to save.

That is hundreds of pounds worth of lamp over there.

Sarah, you should know better than to eye up the stuff

that's strictly out of bounds.

Anyway, it's not as if it's quiet -

there's no end to the rubbish that is pouring in just now.

And in no time, Sarah's on to her second catch.

It seems skip visitor Stoyan is about to dump something special.

-These are really cool!

-Yeah.

-So you're throwing them today?

Yes, I don't need them.

Stoyan has had enough of trying to glue his broken dining chairs

back together, but Sarah can see promise in these pews.

I think they look lovely. How many have you got?

-Er...I've got three.

-Three? Lovely!

They're really cool. I love the shape.

-That's fine, all yours.

-Really?

I'm so pleased you didn't put them on the tip. Thank you so much.

These lovely old chairs are going to be made marvellous again.

I've got a maker in mind

to restore them and I think I'm sitting on a fortune.

Thank you so much.

'You never know, someone's rubbish is somebody's gold.'

So if you need something and you can use that...

..you're welcome.

So, item two is all set for a spruce-up

and Sarah knows a perfect craftsman to overhaul these classic chairs.

Jay Blades is a builder turned philosophy graduate

turned furniture restorer.

Jay has his finger on the pulse of modern design interiors,

reworking the very best of British craftsmanship

and bringing it into the 21st century.

I've always had a passion for the kind of heritage that

the British designers have produced over the years.

Traditionalists would love to keep it as it is,

but to be reintroduced into the market

I like to just add a bit of colour and something a bit quirky.

I really enjoy adding my bit.

I'm not necessarily worried about other people's reactions.

-It's more about do

-I

-like it? If I like it then it's good.

The three rickety stick back chairs

are a perfect project for Jay

but, after all Stoyan's repairs,

will he be able to stick them back together again?

Sarah has successfully secured two items for Rupert

and Jay's talents, but now she needs to search for a third

piece of jettisoned junk she can renovate herself.

Anything you fancy in there?

But the pickings are looking slim.

What's in the box?

Shiver me timbers! Some treasure on the horizon.

Or at least, somewhere to store it.

So what is it about the domed captain's trunk

in the back of the car there that I find so exciting?

I don't know if it's being dropped off or if someone's keeping it.

Here's the guy coming now.

The chest looks very old and it could be a great opportunity

for Sarah to make some real profit for its owner Richard.

Sorry to bother you. Is that something you dropping off today?

Yep.

That looks amazing!

Have you just had enough of it? Is there a story behind it?

-There is, actually. It's my wife's grandmother's.

-Right.

So there's a bit of a story. I don't know what she did with it.

She didn't go abroad?

Did she always live in this country? Do you know anything like that or...

-She went travelling when she was about 85, 90.

-Oh, really?

-I bet she didn't use one of these!

-I don't think she used that then, no.

Unfortunately, I never met her, but apparently she was quite...

-Quite spirited?

-Yes.

-Does it open?

-I think so.

One of the hinges is broken but...

I think that is absolutely beautiful!

And I totally understand why you might have finished with it

but is it something that maybe I could take away and try

and restore or do something with?

-Yeah!

-Yeah? You wouldn't mind?

-Rather that than throw it away.

Although it's not a treasure chest, Sarah can see good money

in it for Richard and his family by saving it from the crusher.

'I really honestly don't know how much it would be worth.

'I've never seen anything like that,'

so no idea. No idea.

This is stunning. It's absolutely beautiful.

It's in real original condition

and it would fit into a smart country house anywhere around here.

Sarah's search for the three items is complete.

Rupert will knock the old white door into shape.

The three chairs are going to furniture designer Jay

and the empty chest will be treasured

and given a new life by Sarah.

I love the things that I saved today,

but the real question is can I actually make any money out of them?

Margate is a seaside town on the coast of Kent.

Like Brighton and Southend, Margate was infamous

for clashes between mods and rockers in the 1960s.

Fortunately, it's now well known for the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery

and its very own burgeoning vintage clothing

and retro furniture scene.

It's also home to Rupert Blanchard, who is one of the country's

leading reclamation and bespoke furniture makers.

And he's used to dealing with

Sarah's wild and wacky dump treasure.

I'm really looking forward to Sarah turning up.

I don't know what she's actually turning up with.

I'm hoping it's going to be something that I'm actually

familiar with slightly.

It may be wood, maybe a little bit of metal on it.

If it's mass production or bespoke, if it's rotten or brand-new, I'm

happy to sort of apply my own skills to it and play with it, basically.

I just want to get on with it.

-Hello!

-Hey, Sarah!

I'm a bit embarrassed. It's only a door.

-It's a door, that's great! Let's bring it in, then.

-Fab.

You take that end.

One objective down, then - recognised that straightaway.

Is a door great?

They are great if you've got a gaping wide opening

at the front of your house.

-It's quite heavy. Solid, isn't it?

-It's a pine door!

That's what I thought.

-It's a Victorian pine door.

-That got left in the garden.

-OK. Um...

This one is really quite square, quite solid,

doesn't seem to have much rot to it.

Um...

Nice little metal keyhole cover.

We could incorporate that into something. I don't know why,

but I'm thinking about a dressing table for some reason.

So, dressing table. What, a mirror in the top or... What are you thinking?

It's always been straight all its life.

I'd like to make it a little bit more curvy.

That might mean a lot of cutting, a lot of making it...

It has always stood up straight. Maybe giving it

a nice slinky little...

end round, so...

It's perhaps a lower table.

Turns round, goes up slightly...

So you can sit against it and... you know, have it...you know,

either a tiny little work table or a dressing table.

A slinky dresser for somebody who is a slinky dresser, perhaps.

But how much is this transformation likely to cost?

I'd like to get this done in a day. I would like this done and...

Keep it simple, keep it clean, but keep it quite abstract

and sculptural. And so... Yeah...

-I think in total, no more than two days.

-That's fine.

I think if we signed it off like that we're up to 400 quid on it.

If there is a bit less than that, that's great - that might

mean more for the guy who dropped it off.

So, if we keep it to that kind of ballpark, I'm happy with that.

Yeah, I don't see any problems with this. It's going to be quite a...

sculptural challenge, quite a...

..interesting thing.

I think it won't be to everyone's taste, this one,

but I think we're going to do something new that people

haven't seen before with this one.

So, from distressed door to pop art dressing table. That boy is a genius.

With costs of up to £400 to transform this old door

into a slinky pop art mirrored dressing table,

the pressure will really be on Sarah to sell it for a premium price

if she is to return a profit.

Sarah's next stop on her wander is Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.

It's here in the Victorian backstreets that

retro modern craftsman Jay plies his trade.

Sarah is about to turn up with Stoyan's unmendable chairs,

but will Jay be able to give them a lick of new life?

All she's told me is it's something that's beaten up

and it's a bit broken and I'm going to have to work my magic on it.

Normally, my style is repairing stuff

and then adding a bit of je ne sais quois to it.

For me, colour is a must.

And, hopefully, whatever Sarah is bringing along to me today,

I'm going to add colour to it.

How are you? I'm very good. Can't complain. What have you got today?

-I've got something really special today.

-Look at these.

I can see that, I can see that. That is...

-Whoops! They need some work done, don't they?

-They do need work.

These scrappy seats are actually classic British Ercol dining chairs

that were built at their factory in High Wycombe in the 1960s.

These are one of the creme de la creme of our English designers

and English manufacturers that are still functioning today.

A lot of people want Ercol

because it is the go-to kind of manufacture to have.

So, for someone to throw these away...

it's kind of interesting, I'd say.

But it's very rare that you come across someone wanting to

throw away Ercol. Very rare.

The guy dropping these off said he'd bought them

from a car boot, he'd given up mending them

because they weren't in a great state

and he didn't want to see them any more

because this one's definitely seen better days and the others are weak.

So, yeah, I thought that they just looked so cool.

I love the colour about them. They just need that special touch, Jay.

Yeah, they do.

They need a bit more than a special touch, they do need repairing.

So what we've got is glue that someone's tried to glue them with

and one thing glue doesn't stick to is glue.

So I'll have to remove all that glue. This is coming out as well...

Oh, no. I was hoping the state of them wasn't too bad

and then I thought, you are the go-to man for Ercol.

I've seen the kind of fresh new look that you

put on some of their pieces and I'm sort of wondering how much

colour we can introduce and if it's all right to paint them.

I think that adding some colour is not going to be too detrimental

to the design of this piece.

I will introduce colour but I won't overdo the colour on these.

It'll be very modestly done.

I do love these pieces,

so I can't wait to start working on them, actually.

-You know what my next question is going to be.

-It's going to be money.

HE LAUGHS Money, money, money!

-£50 each.

-That's a deal!

-OK, cool. I'd best get to work, then.

The total cost of renovating the three chairs will be £150.

Sarah will need to find the right buyer

if she is to turn a profit on these.

So, with two items dropped off and hopefully on their way to be

saved and sold,

it's Sarah's turn to get stuck in

back at the reclamation HQ in Sussex.

And at her barn,

she is hoping to turn Richard's chest into valuable treasure.

But sometimes it's difficult to get started.

The dog's run off again. Bramble, here!

Bramble, here! Come on! Here!

Right, I'm just going to put it in the house. Come with me. Come on.

Come on. Let's go.

But preparation is everything.

The dog is under no control. It just does whatever it likes.

It's a nightmare.

Bramble may be a nightmare,

but the chest Sarah's saved might be what dreams are made of.

Actually, I hadn't remember how it was on the inside.

It's a lot better than I remembered, so that's quite cool.

I probably won't even have to line it. It's just... It's in good nick.

Ah, treasure!

It's got a bicycle clip in it! Look at that!

That means it's at least 50 years old because nobody uses those any more.

More like 150 years old.

And a sweet - nice!

The mother lode! A good omen for turning a big profit.

The metalwork and binding on the trunk is in really poor condition

and that is going to affect how much money I can get for it.

So my plan is to try and take as much of the rust

and surface dirt off as possible and hopefully stabilise it,

so it's something I can wax to make it look much more attractive

than it does at the moment.

It's going to need a lot of elbow grease to get this...together.

SCRAPING

With grease applied, it takes Sarah just half an hour to remove

what looks like more than a century of filth.

That's great.

It's missing its clasp here.

Should have one on the side but it's missing.

It seems this trunk also comes with a lot of baggage.

Quite recently somebody's put a couple of screws in here

just to hold the hinge on.

So we need to find out how big they are and go and get some better

ones, hopefully with some sort of rounded top to them.

It looks like they were hammered in before,

so I'm not going to be able to do that again.

All of the polishing is beginning to pay off and Sarah is starting

to get a hunch that this chest could be quite valuable.

What I might do is just take a picture of it

and pop it on social media. I'd like to know how old it is.

If anybody's seen one like it.

Particularly if anyone's sold one before

and knows how much it might be worth.

SHUTTER CLICKS

Now, did you know the inventor of the door knocker

won the NO BELL Prize?

Taxi for me, please!

Talking of doors...

Sarah brought me this old door, which she saved,

and I'm going to make a kind of console table/dressing table.

I could find that it just collapses,

it falls apart when I cut through it.

Especially because there are cracks running through the panels.

But I won't really know until I do start cutting it up.

It's a bit worrying that the success of this project could all

hinge on a few cracks.

I want to make sure that I am cutting the shelf

to the right level. And this thing doesn't exist yet.

I don't know what level it needs to be.

I'm not copying another piece of furniture,

so there's no standard to go by.

There's no rule book. So I can't really go wrong.

Confident - that's what we like to hear.

It's quite hard for me to cut this door. It's quite...

..quite upsetting,

but it is a knackered door that was on its way to landfill, so...

I'm going to give it a new lease of life.

Upsetting it may be, but just think how satisfying it may be

bringing that door back from death's door.

The cuts I'm making through this door,

they're not going to be straight through,

they're going to be at 45 degrees, so I can join it to the next

section of door seamlessly as one flowing line.

I don't want ugly joints just flat against each other, I want to

make this a nice, smooth, flowing line.

Hopefully, I've sliced straight through at 45 degrees

and it won't fall apart, but we shall see.

No, not quite.

Well, the good news is it's not fallen apart.

Not quite through.

By cutting this door in half, Rupert is turning this into a do -

that's half a door.

I have made one, two, three, four, five, six cuts to this door.

Hopefully, six cuts is all we're going to need,

so this little centre section can disappear

and that means that I should be able to...

fold the door together now.

You kind of get the idea of what I'm trying to achieve to...

..to make it appear as if the door has actually folded up on itself.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

I'm still experimenting at this stage.

I'm just trying to work out the piece of furniture

that at the moment only exists in my head.

Yeah, it won't just levitate!

Nobody said anything about levitation.

Once mastered, that's bound to RAISE the value.

And in Wolverhampton, Jay is still purring over the Ercol chairs.

These are a stick back chair.

I think they originated in the 1960s

and this is classified as Ercol's originals.

Britain's manufacturing I'd say at its best.

Sexiest leg in furniture and it does exactly what it's supposed to do.

Looks good, it holds the seat up, um...

perfect form.

This is a part of English history

and I'm just adding my little bit of "ooh" to it.

Although Sarah bought three chairs for Jay, he's decided that

one of them is too far gone.

So he will use the third one for spare parts for the other two.

All of these have to be sanded down and that's all of the sticks,

including this bit here.

That is kind of water damage there.

So it will be interesting to see if that has gone through

and I can't clean it off.

What I might then have to do is just paint this.

So the design what I've gotten my mind is

determined by what the chair unravels to me.

And unravelling before our very eyes is Jay's plan for the colours.

So you imagine a light chair, that colour, with black, and then...

with a hint of that, and those work.

So I'm quite happy with that, actually.

All it means is that I've just got to do loads of sanding.

Sanding down ingrained stains is one of the biggest jobs of any

furniture restoration.

And it will reveal to Jay just how much of the wood

he'll have to paint over.

The wet wipe actually gives a true indication of what

the wood will look like once it's finished.

And it will show kind of all the imperfections that are there.

So it's almost like getting a dry run of how it's going to look.

And although most of the wood is fine, a small number of

ingrained stains means this part of the chair will need to be painted.

Now, this...is going to look...the bee's knees.

I can see a really vibrant mint green.

I might just do one leg at the back but everything else black.

Just that one leg. And then these I'll probably have to paint, um...

This might be black as well. So it will just...

It's going to look amazing.

Back at her house,

the photo Sarah took of the old trunk is generating some results.

She's been directed to a website that deals specifically with

travelling chests, like Richard's wife's grandmother's.

So there's all sorts of different trunks on here,

but basically it's a dome top antique trunk,

and it looks like it might be American or Continental.

It doesn't look like it's British.

And probably 1870, something like that,

are the similar ones coming up on here.

And wow, some of them are as much as 3,000 a trunk,

that look just like our one.

I mean, the condition of ours is not great,

but we might be talking as much as £1,000 for the trunk.

And that would be amazing.

Sarah's success is measured in sales

and she always seeks out the best opportunities to maximise profits,

hosting regularly her own furniture and clothing sales from home...

I just sold the sofa.

..advertising and selling online...

SHUTTER CLICKS

Get that online.

..or meeting commercial buyers in person to sell direct.

Seeing this is really refreshing.

It's good and people are going to want more of it.

It's going to grow, this thing, I think, that you're doing.

With opportunities galore in the things we throw out,

Sarah's always looking to make money for nothing.

So Richard's wife's grandmother's old trunk went on one more

journey from the garage to the dump.

That looks amazing!

She went travelling when she was about 85, 90.

-I bet she didn't use one of these!

-I don't think she used that, no.

And after sitting in the garage for years,

Sarah took it to the barn to rejuvenate it.

That looks a lot better.

And after some detailed research,

she discovered it's possibly an American traveller's trunk from

the 19th century, which could sell for a healthy profit for Richard.

Back at the house, there's been a change of heart.

Knock-knock. Hattie, Richard's wife,

is finding it difficult to say goodbye to her grandmother's chest.

-Hi, there.

-Hi.

-Hi, I'm Sarah. Hi. Come on in.

And Sarah has invited her over

to take a look at what she's been up to.

-There you are. Do you recognise that?

-Look!

-Do you remember, Megan?

-Yeah.

The chest now looks fit to store treasure,

and Sarah is able to give Hattie a bit of history on it.

I think it was probably something around 1850, 1875,

something like that, so quite old.

And some people are suggesting it's an American trunk,

so I don't know if there is any connection with where it

came from with that kind of travel, but probably not English.

Yeah, it's a really fun sort of "olde" piece.

It is, um, yeah, well worth hanging on to, I think. Do you like it?

The chest did once feature prominently in Richard

and Hattie's home, but when they started a family it was put aside.

When we had Megan, as soon as she was mobile,

I was just really concerned about having it in the house

because I thought with the metal...

edge, I was just worried if she lifted her up,

it could literally chop her fingers of,

so that's when it went into our garage which, unfortunately,

is a bit damp and that's when it sort of, um...

got into a bad way.

But with even the briefest of clean-ups,

the chest has been given a new lease of life.

It's literally had half a go at being sanded,

and I think if you want to use wire wool on it or a wire brush,

it would actually come up really quite well.

And inside all we've done is just given it a really good dust-out.

But it's in ready good condition inside anyway.

What can you see?

Sarah can see that Hattie never really wanted to lose this

precious item and wants her to have it back.

-Shall we take it with us, Chloe?

-Yes!

-Yeah?

-That would be great, thank you.

-It's quite heavy.

It's got wheels on the bottom, which is a really good feature

if you want to move it around.

Hattie and Richard almost got rid of the chest at the dump,

but thankfully this family heirloom is going back home.

And for safety's sake, it won't be used as a toy box.

There you go. Well...

It fit. Brilliant.

I am so pleased it's going back home.

Oh!

-Oh, that is really sweet of you. Thank you so much.

-Thank you.

-I'm glad it's going home.

-Thanks very much.

-It's a pleasure.

Isn't that sweet? That's so nice that it's actually gone home.

It's a very sweet ending.

From one sweet ending to another.

Sarah is back in Margate, where Rupert is adding the finishing

touches to the pop art dressing table made from an old pine door.

Every time I come down and see Rupert I get such a surprise.

I don't know how that genius mind works,

but everything he turns out it's just really special.

So today it's a console dressing table made out of a door.

Who knows what that's going to look like?

When Sarah saved it from the dump,

it was a simple pine door which had seen better days.

Rupert's given it an imaginative uplift

and a new purpose in life as a quirky console table.

It looks like it's having a good old knees up

and will add bags of character to someone's hallway.

-Rupert, hi.

-Hey, Sarah.

-How are you doing?

-Good, good.

Back again, I see, for another weird contraption.

Oh, Rupert, it's fantastic!

Yeah, it's an odd one, this one.

I was really worried about you turning up

because I think you'd either hate it or kind of love it.

Essentially, I tried to make a hallway console table,

somewhere just to put your keys, put your gloves on the side.

So I've actually added a new piece of architrave round it.

When I say new, I pulled that out of the skip.

It matches the period of the door.

I had that mirror kicking around the warehouse.

It is of the same period as the door.

I love the fact if it goes on a wall it's going to add so much detail

and it's just so simple, and that is why it's brilliant.

Yeah, I wanted to keep it simple.

I'm really always interested in the history of pieces and, to me,

flaking paint of different colours really tells

the story of its previous home.

I think we said the budget on this was £200-£400.

How did we get on with that?

I haven't spent so much time on it and, luckily,

I haven't had to spend much money on it.

I'd be happy to let you have this for around the 200 mark.

That would be no problem.

With £200 worth of budget, I should be able to make a profit on it.

So thank you.

I think it's gorgeous,

and there is a wall in my house that definitely needs one of these.

So, with Sarah made up with the make-up checking mirrored console

table, all she has to do now is find a new home for it.

Wow, the beauty in that design is all about its simplicity.

It's such a clever idea and it's so functional.

It's a door, now it's a console for a hall.

It's brilliant and I'm hoping that that should be pretty easy to sell.

Who would have thought back in the dump in Witley, that Richard's

ill-fitting door would gain a new lease of life as a console table?

I can see it turning into a trestle and using it as a workbench.

-That's what

-I

-would do. But my shed's not big enough.

Shame the shed wasn't as big as Richard's ideas.

But the good news is, that allowed Rupert to customise and crease

that old timber, turning it into a cool console table.

Sarah has yet to find the right home for this unconventional creation.

Sarah has come to Surrey to show Richard how his old pine door

has been reinvented.

-Hi, there! No, you're not... Oh, hello! How are you?

-Hi.

-Nice to see you.

-Hello, who's this?

-This is James and Jessica.

Hello, guys, how are you? BOTH: Good.

Have you come to see what happened to your old door? BOTH: Yes.

Come on out, I'll show you.

We need to know how a door can become anything other than a door.

James can't really imagine it.

Really? Have you thought about what we might have done with it?

-Yeah, an old TV.

-An old TV?

-Yeah, one of those wooden ones.

That's a really good idea, I wish I'd thought of that.

-Do you want to see what we did was it?

-Yeah, absolutely.

OK, so, it looks a bit different.

It's something that's probably not everyone's cup of tea,

but your door went on holiday.

It went all the way to Margate

to this amazing designer who is called Rupert Blanchard.

And he has made your door into, it's a console table.

-That is...

-Wow.

-I mean, but you still can see what it is, can't you?

And then, when it's in a more household position, I think

it looks quite smart.

So it's not everybody's cup of tea because it looks a bit scruffy,

-but I think it's really imaginative.

-I really like it.

What do you think, Jess?

Um... It looks bit different to how I expected.

I think it would go really well in our house. Do you think it would?

-Yeah.

-You do admit that much, don't you?

Could we maybe have it?

It's funny you say that. Normally I come here and I say to people,

"This is what I've done with

"your old door and I've sold it and I'm here to give you the money,"

but your door hasn't sold yet, so I can either...

give you the door or hang onto it and try and sell it for you.

I'm pretty sure that we're going to want to take it off your hands.

In the few minutes that I've thought about it, I really, really like it.

-So please...

-For MY room!

-It could be for your room, maybe for the man cave.

-Yeah.

Really nice to see you again.

Thank you ever so much and I'll be in touch very shortly.

Take care, bye-bye.

Sarah never sold the piece,

but Richard decided he wanted it for his home.

Sarah may be £200 out of pocket but at least it was a happy reunion

for the old door and its original family.

With two out of three items completed,

Sarah has one more pick-up to make,

and in the West Midlands Jay has finished the Ercol chairs

and is waiting nervously to see if she likes what he's done.

Sarah knows I love Ercol, so her bringing me these,

hopefully she'll be pleased with what I've produced.

I would have these in my house all day, every day.

These are really, really brilliant.

But will Sarah agree with the radical approach to colour

Jay has taken with these classic chairs?

I can't wait to see what Jay has done.

He's Ercol's biggest fan and I'm hoping with the pair and the spare

I dropped off he's managed to create two fabulous Ercol stick back chairs.

When Sarah brought three chairs to Jay, they were on their last legs,

and now, 50 years after they were made,

they are cutting-edge Ercol chairs once again.

SHE GASPS

What have you been up to? You're just a genius. Look at that!

-Just the one leg?

-Just the one leg.

-How quirky is that?

All they needed was a decent amount of glue,

taking the glue that was out of it and then putting them back together.

And they are ready to go for another 60, 70 years, I believe.

Perfect.

Made my day. HE CHUCKLES

Absolutely perfect.

I think you've kept that purity, that Ercol finish,

-and that look and just enhanced it. Oh, just...

-World-class. Thank you.

Brilliant. Couldn't be more pleased.

Flattery will get you everywhere. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Oh, good.

I think we set the budget at 100 quid for the pair.

-Did we come in on budget?

-We came in on budget.

Luckily, Sarah can already see how these ultra-modernised

chic Ercol chairs will sell themselves.

They were tired and they were going to a skip and look what you've done.

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

-Thank you. Thank you.

-I'm glad you're pleased.

-I think you can tell

I really do like them. I knew there were coming home to the right person

and I'm sorry to say and taking them away again.

Yeah, you will take them away.

Yes, they needed a little bit of gluing, TLC, but the beauty

with Ercol furniture is that it will last the test of time.

It will outlive me, most probably.

And it'll be a case of if we can just add a little bit to it

to make it just looks like "Ooh!" or draw people's attention,

that's what I'm all about.

At the dump, these battered

but beautiful Ercol chairs were about to be discarded for ever.

They're really cool. I love the shape.

Sarah thought she could make a profit from them

and Stoyan was very happy to let her try.

They need something and if you can use that...

you're welcome.

And with a touch of Jay Blades' design wizardry,

they became cool retro chairs with a bright future ahead.

Oh, just...

World-class. Brilliant. Couldn't be more pleased.

Sarah showed them to Martin at the Old Cinema

and he snapped up the funky chairs for his retro London store.

It's got a nice sort of fun '50s,

'60s look about it and it's really done well.

I like them.

Now, Sarah's in Surrey to show Stoyan what became of the chairs

and hand over any profit from the sale.

-Hi, there! Hello, hello!

-Hello.

-Hiya. I'm Sarah, hi there.

-I'm Vilyana.

-Hi, there.

-I'm Stoyan.

-Nice to see you again.

-How are you?

-Yeah, very well, thank you.

-I've brought some pictures to show you of your chairs.

-OK.

-Now, I remember you dropped three off at the tip, didn't you?

-Yes.

-And you got them from a

-car-boot sale? Yes.

And they had been stuck together lots of times. Was that you who...

-Yeah, we used that nearly nine years.

-Oh, really?

They were a bit wobbly and they were quite old.

They were unstable and we had no use for them in the room.

-We just didn't have space for them.

-OK.

-So, would you like to see what happened to them?

-Yeah, please.

There's an amazing guy called Jay Blades,

-who specialises in revamping...

-It's very art.

-What do you think?

-Very art, yeah.

-Ooh.

-Nice.

-Good? BOTH: Yeah.

-Do you think it works?

-Yes, and this is bright as well.

-Really good.

-The colour contrast is...

I didn't think you could do that with these chairs.

It turns out those chairs were made by somebody called Ercol.

They have a very strong look.

Ercol is collectable and we paid him £100 to paint it all

and to make them look fantastic. But we sold them for £200,

so I've got £100 here to give to you for your chairs.

-I told you about...

-We can give them to charity ourselves.

-Keep that for the charity ourselves.

-Really?

-Yes, please.

What I'd like to do is,

if I give it to you, you can choose which charity you give it to.

Macmillan's. At school we did some work for Macmillan, so I could...

That would be great if you're happy with that.

And I can send you pictures if you want to show

anybody at school how the money came or what we did with your chairs.

That's fantastic.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much for letting me have your...

-That's lovely.

-Thank you.

-And good luck with...what you're doing.

-It's really great.

-Oh, well, thank you. They were great to work on.

Jay charged £100 to repair and reimagine the Ercol chairs.

Sarah sold them for £200, making a nifty profit of a 100 quid

for Stoyan and his daughter Vilyana.

It's been really emotional to see Sarah

and what she done with these chairs.

I mean, to me it was just...

They were just chairs, which done the job, but now

they looks really, really good and I'm impressed what they done.

Sarah rescued three unwanted items from the tip.

The treasure chest that steered its way back home...

The pine door was revamped into an offbeat console table.

And the swing was put back into those '60s-looking chairs.

Well, that wasn't quite the outcome I expected for that trio of tip

treasures, but it was satisfying nonetheless.

That chest has gone back to the heart of the family where it

belongs to be.

The console table is now a treasured possession,

and the Ercol chairs have raised money for charity.