Episode 6 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.

Just before you throw it away,

would it be possible to have a quick look at it?

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's ready to sift through as many boots

and bin bags as she needs to...

That's vintage gold, isn't it?

That's really exciting.

..in her search for tip treasure.

I love it.

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

What are we going to do with that?

Oh, no!

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

Amazing!

..beautiful...

..valuable...

Kerching!

..and, hopefully, saleable items.

That's £80 profit.

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.

Oh, fantastic! That's unbelievable!

Sarah is that the Witley Community Recycling Centre in Surrey,

where the people of Witley and the surrounding area bring

a treasure trove of unloved and unwanted items,

destined for landfill.

It's so exciting, people are flooding in here all day long,

and I'm going to turn their old into gold, their trash into cash,

and make some money for nothing.

Sarah's here looking for three items with the potential to be

turned into something desirable again.

And Sarah has spotted Deon and Trevor removing something

very interesting from the back of their car.

Sorry, just before you throw that away, sorry to bother you -

-I like your jerry can.

-It's yours.

-Really?

Tell me about it, where is it from, how long have you had it, why are you chucking it away?

I've had it for eight years, and it's got a hole in the bottom.

That says it all, I know why you're chucking it away now.

-I'm throwing it away to be recycled.

-Do you know something?

We're trying to take stuff from people and make things

out of it that we think might give things a new lease of life.

There's something about that that's so classic,

it'd be really cool to see if we could make something out of it.

What could you make out of that?

I don't know.

But I'll have a think about it. What am I going to make out of that?

It could be turned into lighting,

maybe we could get some really cool legs on it,

and make it into a little occasional table, something like that.

You could do, if you want to.

Well if I did, and I did manage to make something, could I come

-and show you what I've done, or keep in touch?

-Of course you can.

That would be fab. Thank you so much.

Occasional table, lighting -

I'm sure Trevor and Deon can't wait to see how this one turns out.

I don't hold my breath.

If I'm really honest.

But, who knows?

I don't know what I'm going to do with this. I just love its styling.

I love the fact when it cleans up, I'm going

to get left with something really shiny and cool.

I have to think of something fabulous this can be made into.

With Trevor and Deon's old petrol can saved from the dump,

all we need now is someone to fuel those ideas.

And Sarah knows just the person.

Headphones.

Rob Shaer has years of experience bending,

shaping,

grinding and welding metal.

Years and years of mental libraries

of experience and know-how.

Tips of the trade, so to speak.

Graduating from art school,

his work is now regularly in demand by architects and artists.

Rob has no idea what Sarah's going to bring along today,

but he definitely knows what he'd like.

An old-fashioned, copper hot water boiler. A really big one.

About five foot by 500.

Nice and substantial, like a torpedo.

A copper torpedo, that's what I want.

Hopefully Rob will be able to redirect that

passion for plumbing towards Sarah's punctured petrol can.

At the dump, Sarah's picturing her next opportunity.

What do you reckon, how am I looking?

I think the point is, Sarah, you don't appear to be looking.

And the search is still on for two more items.

I've just seen a table in the back of this guy's car, and I'm hoping

he might be dropping it off and he might be able to share it with me.

Hi, there.

I'm really sorry to be loitering outside the back of your car,

I was just looking at your table and wondering

-if that's something you're dropping off today as well, or...?

-I am, yeah.

-My family's got increasingly bigger.

-Right.

-It's too small.

We've had it for 20-odd years.

But sadly, we've got nowhere for it to go any more.

And there's six of us in the family. It's just too small.

It's got a lovely scrubbed top to it, hasn't it?

It's got loads of appeal to it.

Is it something I could take away and try and remake something?

I'd be delighted, because I'd hate for it to go to waste.

This table really is on its last legs. But the top is fantastic.

This is really cool. They're really solid boards,

and they've got that patina of age to them that you just can't recreate.

That's a second item found that's now destined for a new beginning.

Sarah won't be tackling this tatty table alone.

She has somebody in mind who specialises in working wonders

with other people's waste.

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

I love making things that appear really clean and simple, but the

cleaner and simpler they get, the more complicated they are to make.

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

and spend a lot of time and give 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 it.

He may well love working with rubbish,

but Rupert's yet to clap eyes on Sarah's latest find.

Of course, it's important to remember that not all that

glitters is gold.

Don't you love the dump?

Probably not as much as you, Sarah.

With one item left to find, Sarah's spotted Janet

and her sister Julie, who're helping their mother move

by clearing out items which won't make it to her new home.

Hi, there.

-Hello.

-I'm loving the look of the stuff in the back of your truck.

I'm looking for stuff that we could maybe give another life to

or reuse in some way.

It would be great to get this out and have a look

-and maybe see what other stuff you have?

-Yeah, sure.

I love a carpet sweeper, look at that. Isn't that great?

Sarah's already saved some of Janet's stuff before,

but she's straight back in there for round two.

And for once, she's spoiled for choice.

Don't know what to pick first.

I'm quite interested in the chair, because I know things like this,

re-covered are really good to go into bedrooms, and they're usable

pieces of furniture, because they're quite small.

It was given to my mum by a friend of hers.

She wanted something in her hall.

And as you can see, the cat sat on it most of the time.

I'd love to have a go at giving this a new lease of life, that'd be fab.

It would be nice to see it revamped.

It's not in great shape, it's covered in cat hair,

it's got lovely brown velour on it.

So at the moment, it's not looking lovely.

But it's a really easy makeover, this.

It's got a wooden frame, that means you can staple stuff to it

and cover it. And it will look fantastic.

The chair's going to look lovely, actually, if that's covered in nice

tapestry material, vintage material, that will look really lovely.

But wait and see what she does. It'll be interesting.

Rob's taking care of the petrol can with a hole in it,

Rupert's dealing with the old table.

And Sarah's fixing up an old, velour chair

which the cat is missing already.

I love the things that I've found.

But I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew,

and I can actually make some money out of them.

Walthamstow is not only a suburb of East London, but also the name

of the first album of East 17, one of the '90s' most popular boy bands.

It's also where Sarah has brought her old petrol can,

looking for a spark of inspiration to ignite the imagination of

Rob Shaer, who I'm pretty sure has never been in a boy band.

I think Sarah's coming along today.

I hear she's got a few bits and bobs for me.

Got no idea what they're going to be.

A real mixed bag of stuff she brings, a real surprise.

Sometimes good, sometimes...

Absolute trash.

I've really got to try and make a pearl out of a swine's ear, as they say.

I think it's a silk purse, actually, Rob.

And you'd be very lucky to make one of those out of that old petrol can.

-I've got something for you.

-I thought you might. What've you got for me today?

You know, I saw this and I thought of you,

and then I thought, I'm not quite sure what I could do with it.

First of all, I thought maybe it's a table,

like a sofa table or something like that.

The only other thing I thought about was it's kind of the right

size for carry-on luggage.

-Like a wheelie bag...

-A wheelie bag.

A petrol can on an aeroplane. Good idea, Sarah!

-That's not going to happen, is it?!

-No, it's not going to happen, no.

Go on then, what would you do with it?

What we could do, maybe I could cut this out

and give it a bit of a graphic feel, a graphic flame all the way through?

Seal it off, and maybe put some kind of light feature inside?

-So not candle, but plug-in light?

-A plug-in light, yeah.

That's really cool, so something for somebody's man-office,

-or the garage...

-Man-office?

-You know what I mean, like a den?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's really good. And lighting is a great option.

It's going to appeal to the boy in the man.

Man in the boy? Boy in the man.

Clearly designed to appeal to a cross-section of the male population,

this old, rusty, punctured petrol can

is about to become a unique designer lamp, perfect for gracing any...

"man-office"?

So what are we talking about money-wise to get that done like that?

Well, I'd have to take the surface off, I've got to cut it open,

I've got to make the tube which goes inside, finish it, rivet it on...

It's about 250-300.

So we're looking at quite a high-end item in the end, aren't we?

This has got to sell for a load of money.

It doesn't look great now, but I have every confidence that the next time I see it,

it's going to look really fantastic. So I give you the challenge.

Always a challenge with you, Sarah.

Don't worry, it's going to look lovely by the time you come back.

Rob is a genius. That light is going to look amazing.

I can see it going into all sorts of different places,

so I couldn't be more pleased.

Brilliant.

Sarah's going to have to spend up to £300 for Rob's expertise.

But with premium price tags for lighting,

Sarah is still hoping to make a profit from the old petrol can.

Margate is a traditional British seaside town which has

recently been rejuvenated by a cultural renaissance.

A part of which has been the burgeoning revival of all things retro.

It's where Rupert Blanchard has his workshop.

Today I'm hoping that Sarah's going to turn up with something really rotten,

really far gone.

Something that most people would only assign to landfill.

And hopefully I can pull something out of it.

Sarah knows that if anyone can save Andrew's table, it's Rupert.

There is a really sweet story behind this table.

The guy who was dropping it off has four kids,

and you can see where their glitter's all over it and everything.

And they've just grown out of it.

They've got a new, bigger table and this one is surplus to requirements.

But I was wondering if there's anything we it could do to make

it into something smaller or cubey or... Just not a table.

Ooh, this is a hard one.

Because it's such a nice table,

but it's obviously outgrown its use, and it is actually rickety.

-If we're working with material as it is...

-Yeah.

..it is a lovely, worn kitchen table.

So why not have it as a worn kitchen table?

Maybe just becoming a bigger table.

You're talking about putting slabs of new product in here to make

-it into something really substantial?

-We could have a split.

Perhaps it does pull apart, another element comes in.

Something that just really brings it up to date and celebrates what it is.

It looks like Rupert is convincing Sarah to see

the inner table in this dinner table.

I love that idea, and I love the fact that it was redundant

because it was too small, and now we'll make it into something

really impressive and bringing everybody together around the table again.

That will be brilliant.

However big the table becomes, Sarah will be hoping the cost stays small.

If we're looking for some sort of insert in stone or

something like that, are we looking at something like £400-500,

depending on the material? A little bit more?

It is about two, three days' work,

depending on what we're casting or, as you say, materials.

-So, yeah, I think you're about right.

-Brilliant.

That's a great place to leave this and then go forward,

hopefully come back and find something much more substantial.

I love the fact that Rupert has recognised that that table

has been at the centre of so many good times.

And I know with his radical redesign,

it's going to be surrounded by a lot more fun in the future.

With this transformation costing as much as £400, Sarah's

going to have to sell the table at a premium before she sees any profit.

Back at Reclamation HQ, deep in the Sussex countryside.

Sarah is about to give that tired,

old, brown velour chair a whole new lease of life in the hope

of turning that dowdy cat seat into lots of dough.

To keep costs low and profits high, Sarah has an idea which will

turn her collection of old, free rags into riches.

Sarah's idea is to create a new patchwork material

as a luxurious replacement for that old, brown velour.

I'm going to cut all the offcuts

and all the random bits into the same size square.

I'm going to sew them in strips first and then

sew the strips together to make a whole panel of fabric.

I'm going to put the fabrics with their good sides facing each other,

and then sew along.

And I'll do the same again and again, until I get a long strip of fabric.

But just using all the scraps, and that makes it cheaper.

That's really pretty, and that, on the back of the chair?

That'll make money.

I've given the chair a good old cleanup,

because I'm going to cover it completely as it is.

I've got some fire-retardant calico here, which will bring it

up to the right regulations, so I know that it's safe to use.

I've just given the chair one quick layer of this fabric,

and I think it looks much better already.

Now I'm going to layer on our new panels of patchwork fabric.

I want this to go all over the seat, and the back, and then here,

right round on this side.

I'm probably going to use a piece of plain fabric.

I think that's loads.

The tip of the trade is to begin at the front edge of the chair,

with the fabric turned back on itself.

That way you can achieve a nice, neat finish,

with the staples hidden below the fabric.

That's a really good, neat start, there.

Quite lucky that I've got a line going all the way along the back.

That makes it look like I almost planned it.

There you are. It's fine.

With the new patchwork cover securely stapled,

that old, brown velour chair is already totally unrecognisable.

It looks better already, doesn't it?

In Margate, Sarah's tatty old table find is revealing to Rupert

the reason why it ended up in the tip.

OK, so this one...

Beautiful table Sarah dropped off to me.

Although I say beautiful table, it's had its day. It's sadly knackered.

I'm just trying to work out how it's made.

Just going to try to separate it all.

It shouldn't be too taxing, given that it's already

ridden with woodworm and barely hanging together as it is.

I can already see that this table has had a strong history.

There's marks and glitter

and PVA glue from the previous children playing around the table.

And sadly the family that this came from, they just outgrew it.

You have to remove old wood like this when you start playing with it.

You reawaken old smells.

All sorts of things.

Every meal and every glass of wine that's been spilt on it.

Nice, old, kitchen pine table always makes me hungry.

Could go for a nice sandwich around this table right now.

That's the last piece of the top.

Walthamstow was lucky enough to have a new fire station built

only three years ago.

But hopefully, we won't be needing their services today.

This cover goes into the risk assessment.

Put that there.

Headphones.

Of course, we all know there's a perfectly valid reason why

we avoid all forms of ignition when dealing with petrol.

That'll be OK.

OK, so most important in any of this is to get the proportions right.

So what I've got to do now is cut this right.

I'm only going to get one chance. So...

Tape measure.

Oh, look at that!

Look at that, look at that - the form's right across this line here.

That's good, that's good. It's meant to be, it's meant to be.

Now, at the moment you may be thinking of a flame

silhouette light for a man-office.

But Rob has had a spark of inspiration -

potentially a dangerous thing when dealing with a petrol can.

Having noticed the striking resemblance to the

shape of a Zippo lighter, Rob is now going to cut

the top from the can, and have a light in the lid.

Not sure what Sarah's going to think of this radical rethink.

OK, here we go.

Not looking good.

You know what...?

You're going back to the original plan?

-I'm just going to put a little bit more water in it.

-No, thought not.

If Rob doesn't combust in the making of this new Zippo lamp, Sarah's

going to be in for a big surprise when she sees the new design.

It's difficult to watch.

Woaaaahhhh...

The design's coming out of me!

-I mean, maybe, we could actually...

-Whoa!

I'm sensing another change of plan.

I dare don't say this, because...

But maybe, OK...

So we've got this, instead of putting the light there, if we

could get a light there, almost like a nice, flat LED-type light, yeah?

And then we have a little wooden bar there, so we have a little,

almost like a hip flask and maybe two glasses set in wood?

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

Got to think, Rob, got to think, got to think. OK.

Back in West Sussex - oblivious to all Rob's design detours -

Sarah's pressing ahead with the transformation of Janet's old, brown chair.

It's not perfect, and not all the lines are completely even.

But that's the beauty of patchwork.

It won't be for everybody's tastes, some people like things really neat,

but for me, I think that's pretty.

And once I get the back panel on, I think we're nearly there.

I've got a leftover piece of blanket here.

It looks a bit ugly, but I really like the worn bit on the back,

So I'm going to use that as the panel to go over the back of the chair.

Because I want to get a really neat finish all along the sides,

I'm actually going to hand sew it in place.

Tucking it under as I go.

Like that.

So I don't have to buy any expensive braid of anything to finish it off.

I think some little hand stitches, happy for them to be visible,

so it looks handmade.

Just catching the chair and the fabric,

and that means the whole of the chair's going to feel really

tight and the fabric underneath won't be moving around.

I should've painted the legs first.

But at least now I can see what colour's going to look best.

That's a relief. We thought you'd just forgotten!

Hmm, I think I will have to paint that.

From a chair to a table.

In Margate, Rupert is thinking on his feet as his design develops.

I talked to Sarah about just cutting the table in half,

pulling it apart and inserting a new material.

I'd rather do it more randomly,

almost as if the table had been blown up and glued back together,

introducing some new materials, but they're reclaimed materials.

Every time I walk past a building site or

a skip on the street, I always have a look at what they've got.

These came off the hoarding around a development site.

And I think this sort of colour might be perfect for the table.

So we just take a few of these and start playing with it.

I've kind of worked out what I'm going to do with this project.

It's just a case of doing it now.

Assembling the many pieces of this jigsaw back together.

I've got to work for quite a while to get it all nice and level,

all sanded, all lovely.

But I might put a thick sealant on it,

maybe several coats of varnish to get it to a really clean, glossy surface.

Try to give it a little bit of an edge.

Something a little bit different, table.

With Carlos the cat overseeing things,

this table has grown from a table too small for a growing family,

to a tabletop large enough to seat a party.

By adding extra materials sourced without costs,

which add a splash of colour, Rupert is definitely thinking big.

That is pretty tight there.

Actually, having done all this,

I think I'm just going to have to take this bit out.

This bit is going to come out,

and then we're going to have the light bulb running in there.

That's going to sit up like so.

And I've got to find some kind of catch to hold this -

ooh, that's a bit sharp - to hold this down when it's being moved.

So there'll be a hinge on this side.

Haven't quite found the hinge yet.

Or maybe I'll just make one.

And then when we lift it up, like so...

Got to find some way of actually keeping it up there.

The little bits and pieces are going to take the time.

It's unusual for Rob to have such freedom of design on a project.

More often than not, when working for architects and artists,

specific plans are provided,

detailing the exact dimensions and specifications.

So with all this creative freedom, anything could happen.

Hmm...

Not quite even, so I'm going to have to start again on this.

As part of the ever-evolving plan for the old petrol can,

Rob has placed an order for a hip flask,

which will sit in a copper-lined recess,

sunk into the wooden insert of the bottom half of the can.

At the same time, in the lid,

Rob has installed a light bulb of epic proportions.

What I'll do is quickly fix this in so I know it's fixed in.

As I say, I want to replace it with some...

I might even just use roofing nails, like, zinc roofing nails.

Which might look OK as well.

I just want that kind of, wow.

I know it's kind of changed a little bit...

Did you mention change?

If this continues,

there won't be much change from that old petrol can.

With an ever-evolving design

and limited resources in the shape of the original old petrol can,

it's important for Rob to keep in mind that whatever

we end up with still has to have a potential for profit.

Back at home in the barn, Sarah is nearing

the completion of the revamp of the brown velour chair.

The only thing I'm thinking about now is these legs are looking

really odd because they're still brown.

I do have a few pots of paint that I could maybe try out to see

what looks best.

I think the blue is too harsh, and the green is a bit dull, so...

That one, I think.

I hate painting.

I'm going to give it a quick and dirty coat for the first one,

and then a nice, neat one afterwards.

Of course, if you'd remembered to paint the legs before covering

the cushions, it wouldn't be a dirty job at all.

It wouldn't have been worth a fiver before.

I'm going to ask over 100 quid for it now.

Over £100 for what was a tired, old, velour chair.

But now, after plenty of patchwork, patience and painting -

it's transformed into a modern piece of furniture that's sure to

turn a profit.

With Sarah spending just £15 on a fireproof calico material

and sample pots of paint, this patchwork seat has

the potential to provide plenty of profit.

Back at the dump, Sarah picked up from Janet her old,

brown velour chair which had definitely seen better days.

I'm quite interested in the chair.

It was given to my mum by a friend of hers.

The cat, as you can see, sat in it most of the time.

Sarah took the chair home and provide it with patchwork and paint.

A quick and dirty coat for the first one, and a nice, neat one afterwards.

With the transformation complete, the old, brown velour cat seat

had become a stylish piece of modern furniture.

The revamped patchwork chair was purr-fect to be offered for sale

in Sarah's very own barn sale of recycled items.

With a suggested price of £125, bids were invited written on folded

pieces of paper with the chair being sold to the highest bidder.

Fingers crossed, they might buy it.

Sarah is back in Witley to show Janet how her

old, brown velour chair has been transformed into patchwork profit.

And to hand over the cash.

DOG BARKS Somebody friendly there.

-Hiya! Hello again!

-Hello.

-How are you?

-Very well, thank you.

I've got a couple of pictures to show you.

Because after we took away your brown velour chair...

-Yes.

-SHE LAUGHS

You're laughing, but we did some work on it.

So I thought I'd show you what we did to it.

-We made it vintage-style.

-Oh, wow!

-Isn't that nice?

-I'm glad you like it.

Yeah, it's really lovely.

So I made a patchwork fabric using lots of offcuts

and things that I'd had from other projects and that sort of thing.

It looks really pretty, doesn't it?

-Isn't that nice?

-I think it was a good makeover.

-Do think your mum would approve of it?

-Yes, I think she will.

She likes flowery things,

so I think she would see that as a big improvement.

Excellent.

-So in the end, somebody actually paid £100 for it.

-Good grief!

So that means I've got £85 to give to you.

Oh, wow! Fantastic!

Thank you very much, that's unbelievable!

-My pleasure.

-Good grief, who'd have thought?

Sarah spent just £15 on this transformation,

and was able to achieve a sale price of £100,

which leaves £85 profit to hand over to Janet.

So what does she have in mind for the money?

Behind Corfe Castle, there's a cattery.

And she always used to love to go there.

So what I was thinking is that we could take the money there

and give it to the cattery.

And so I can say that's what we've done with the chair.

Is that going to be a problem,

-does she know that you got rid of the chair?

-It might be! No.

-Really?

-Oh, no!

-It might get me off the hook a bit.

-She's going to know now.

You're going to be in lots of trouble.

Maybe buy her an ice cream to smooth her up first.

Use the fiver for the ice cream and then give the £80 to the cats.

-It was really lovely to see you again.

-And you, thank you very much.

My absolute pleasure. Bye-bye.

See that cat over there?

That's the cat that sat on the chair.

All that cat hair? It's that one over there.

I think if we give the money to the cats' home, buy Mum a cream tea,

that means everyone's happy.

The cats are happy, Mum's happy, so a good result.

With the patchwork chair producing a profit, Sarah now has

high hopes for the punctured petrol can belonging to Trevor and Deon.

She's back in Walthamstow,

where Rob has finished fiddling with the old fuel can.

Which, after a number of different design directions, has come

full circle, and is back to being a table lamp for a man cave.

The original idea was to cut all the way through it

and put a light in it.

After she'd gone, I had a bit of a think about it,

I quite liked the shape, like a Zippo lighter.

That's when I decided to split it.

I was originally going to have a hinge on it, and have a clip.

I prefer the idea of having a much more stationary fitting.

More of a table lamp you would have on a low table.

I'm not quite sure what I'm here to pick up from Rob.

I know that it's changed a little bit from our high-end lighting,

and it's got something to do with a hip flask.

Sounds very interesting.

You might want to take a big gulp from that, Sarah.

I don't know what she's going to say, actually.

I hope she likes it. I really hope she likes it.

When Sarah saved this old petrol can from the dump,

it was on its final journey.

But now it's been refitted

and repurposed with the intention of reselling for a profit.

-Hello, Rob.

-Hello, Sarah.

-How are you?

Dark in here today.

We didn't have any money for the meter.

Oh, no, is that my budget blown?

What is that?!

That's really cool!

Oh, my word. Talk me through it, what have you done to it?

Let's have a look.

Ah!

-Is that why you wanted the...

-That is why I asked for a hip flask.

Turn the lights on, let me have a proper look at the finish, if that's all right?

Yep, of course.

It's really cool, isn't it?

So was it a tricky process?

It looks like it might have been through a few stages of development?

It went through a constant stage of development.

It was designed on the fly, really.

Rob was left with a budget of up to £300, but including

the price of the hip flask, the final cost has risen to £330.

I have just some reservations about the finish for that kind of money.

Just to tidy it up. I mean, I know the...

I think there are a few little things that you could do.

One of them is actually a car trim.

-You know like the trims you get on a windscreen?

-Oh, OK. Yep.

I quite like that reference to the car.

Just like a rubber trim around the edge.

I think that we'll just have to make sure that is tidied up,

if that's all right?

Give me a shout, and I'll get it picked up when that's finished up.

But, for taking on the challenge, well done, Rob.

I love Rob's imagination.

That looks really quirky and it's an interesting piece,

but I do have my reservations about the finish.

I hope he doesn't mind me asking him to push it just a little further,

because with something like that, the devil's in the detail.

I think Sarah liked it.

I think she was pleasantly pleased - pleasantly surprised?

Pleasantly pleased. Pleasantly surprised!

Rob finished his petrol can creation for £330,

so all that remains now is for Rob to smooth out those rough edges

and for Sarah to find it a new home.

Back at the tip, Sarah spotted the potential

of Deon and Trevor's petrol can.

-I like your jerry can.

-It's yours.

I've had it for eight years, and it's got a hole in the bottom.

Sarah's potential ideas were met with a certain cynicism.

I don't hold my breath.

If I'm really honest.

With the help of Rob, that old, punctured petrol can has now,

after a few changes of plan, become a Zippo-style table lamp.

Sarah's returned to Witley to show Deon and Trevor

what has become of their old petrol can.

-Hi, there! Hello, Trevor, how are you doing?

-Very well, thank you.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-All right, thank you.

-Nice to see you again.

-I've got a few bits here to show you about your jerry can.

-Oh, right.

Lovely.

Come on out, let me show you.

So that's what it ended up like.

This has got a fantastic, really bright light inside it.

And he's cut it in half, and opened it up,

so it's sort of like a Zippo lighter.

What do you reckon?

Very different.

A lot of work gone into it.

It's not something I'd have indoors!

Normally at this point, I would say, "Great, it went really well,

"I've got fantastic news, I've got money to hand over to you."

But I haven't managed to sell it yet.

Some things you just think maybe they should have carried on at the tip,

but we've had quite a lot of fun with this.

I'm sorry not to be handing over hundreds of pounds

for a high-end piece of lighting.

We've got some more rubbish, if you'd like it.

I mean, recyclable bits.

So, despite all Rob's hard work,

the search continues to find his light a new home.

With costs of £330 spent and no income generated,

this could be a potential loss for Sarah £330.

We weren't sure quite what she was going to do in the first place.

We were stumped at that one. I think it's been

a bit of a struggle for them to come up with a design.

But they have, so good luck with that.

I think Trevor and Deon were really good sports,

because there was no money for nothing to hand over.

But we've had a good laugh, and quite a lot of fun with that jerry can.

Back in Margate, Rupert has managed to complete the jigsaw puzzle

that was this new table.

But he's not sure what Sarah will think of his radically

different approach to what was discussed.

It was a bit of a battle with this table,

and I've made it into something new,

and hopefully she's going to like it, and find a suitable home for it.

Last time I was here I dropped Rupert off a real challenge -

a table on its last legs.

I mean, hardly attached to its last legs. In a really bad state.

So I can't wait to see what he's managed to do with it.

-Hiya!

-Hey!

-How are you?

-Hey, Sarah, how you doing?

Yeah, really well, really well. How about you?

-I'm OK, I'm just about ready for you.

-Really? Has it been tense?

It's always tense. But it's done, somehow.

-That is amazing... Is it, can I touch it?

-You can, you can.

It's not actually wet. It's high-gloss.

It looks like nail varnish, or something's poured on it.

It's really thick, I wanted it to look like a toffee apple.

That's what it is! It really does, doesn't it?

It's beautiful.

-It's huge.

-It is rather big.

I know, originally, I said maybe I'd just cut it in half

and cast a new bit in the middle.

But when I looked into that, the table was so rotten,

and it would cost so much over the budget to cast a nice piece,

so I decided, I'll work with exactly what I've been given,

make something new out of something old.

It is absolutely amazing.

The red sections are actually reclaimed wood, so the budget hasn't

-changed at all. I've perhaps spent another three pounds on it.

-Really?!

-That's it.

-Well done!

It's ready to go and have a new life,

and hopefully live for some more years.

I think you have absolutely nailed it, it's beautiful.

Thank you so much.

It looks fantastic, glossy, beautiful,

and I'm going to go all-out to try and get that back

into the heart of somebody's home.

I'm really pleased that she liked it,

I just hope that she can find a suitable new home for it now.

The final cost of Rupert's work on the table has come to £400.

Sarah's going to need to convince any potential buyer that

this is the perfect family table if she's to make any profit at all.

When Sarah first met Andrew, he was throwing out

a rickety kitchen table his family had outgrown.

We've had it for 20-odd years.

But sadly, we've got nowhere for it to go any more.

He was pleased when Sarah took an interest.

Is it something I could take away and try and remake something?

I'd be delighted, because I'd hate for it to go to waste.

And now, with some reclaimed wood and a tin of varnish, Rupert has

served up a large and strikingly beautiful family dining table.

Sarah invited Martin, one of the country's leading

retro furniture dealers, to take a look at Rupert's transformation.

Whoever's done this is a very creative guy. It's good.

And he loved it so much, he snapped it up for his shop, The Old Cinema.

Sarah has returned to Witley to show Andrew and his family

what has become of their kitchen table, and to hand over any profit.

-Hi!

-Hi, there. Andrew, it's Sarah.

-Hi, Sarah.

-Oh, hello, girls.

-Hello!

-Hi, there! This is the big family that you were talking about?

-Yes.

-Some of them?

-Most of them.

-There are four, aren't there?

Yeah, there's my son, who's hiding away somewhere.

I don't know if you remember what your dad dropped off at the tip,

-do you know what we're here to...?

-The table.

-Yeah, the table. Yeah.

And did you all grow with that table,

-do you remember it being in your house?

-Yeah.

-The old kitchen table.

Do you know what we did with it? We made it into a table.

-I've got some pictures. This is how your table ended up.

-Oh, wow!

-That's amazing!

-It's had a whole new lease of life.

Your table went to the most amazing designer called Rupert Blanchard.

So he spliced every single bit of your table together with some

-new material to make it into a table for ten.

-Wow, that's incredible!

-Somebody has already bought it.

-Have they?

-Yeah, somebody who wanted a big table paid 750 quid for it.

-Wow!

We spent £400 with Rupert, which means I've got 350 quid

-to give to you guys for your table.

-Really?! No way!

-Yeah, really.

-So that money is yours to do whatever you like with it.

-To the pub?

-That'd be a really good night in the pub!

-Well, I'm amazed.

Thank you very much indeed.

Transforming Andrew's table from a table into a table has cost £400.

But Sarah was able to sell the finished item for £750.

Which leaves Andrew with a profit of 350 quid.

If he can keep it from the bar,

does he have anything else he would like to spend his money on?

A new bed, probably, for me and my wife.

Because we've been sleeping on the same one for 25 years

and it's pretty worn out.

And having just come back from holiday, my wife has got used

to sleeping in a proper bed, so it'll go towards that.

A drink at the pub and a new bed.

What better way to spend money for nothing?

Sarah managed to make a profit

on only two of the three salvaged items.

The dining table, restructured by Rupert,

and the brown velour seat, seen to by Sarah.

Rob's petrol can lighting has still to find a new home.

That's three things saved, and only two things sold.

Sometimes it's not as easy as you think to make money for nothing.