Episode 20 Money for Nothing

Oh, no, I like the look of your rubbish.

How do you make money for nothing?

I love a little rummage!

The answer could be hiding in the 30 million tonnes

of household waste we throw out every year.

I think that I might be able to make something out of that.

That's why entrepreneur Sarah Moore wants to get her hands

on things before they hit the skip.

That's wartime.

I'm a passionate buyer, user and maker of old stuff

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

I make new stuff out of old stuff and I sell it for a profit.

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

-That was brave.

-Oh, the potential!

No!

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

Work of art.

..valuable...

THEY LAUGH

..and hopefully saleable items.

Holy Moley!

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.

Thank you. I'm astonished!

Today Sarah is in Altrincham, south of Manchester,

where thousands of locals come with their rubbish, rain or shine.

People throw away all sorts of goodies.

All I've got to do is make sure I get my hands on them

before they go in the skips.

Sarah has special permission from the powers that be

to have a good old rummage around.

No TV's what? No TV's...

..remotes? There should be something here.

Grammar policewoman Sarah is on the lookout

for a trio of transformable trash.

And Trevor has...

erm, some rotten old wood.

-Is that out of your garden?

-It is, yes.

-What is it?

Hawthorn. It was a tree that I cut down

because I wanted...the fencing was bad at the back.

God, it weighs a ton, doesn't it?

But it's gone through three chainsaw blades.

Just blunted them straight away.

It looks to me like there's enough left in it that I might be

able to do something with it.

I'm not sure that Trevor's too convinced, to be honest.

I shall take that away and if I manage to make a chopping board

and little spoon, can I come back and show you what I've done with it?

Of course you can, yeah. Take it with my blessings.

-Thank you so much.

-Yeah.

Hawthorn is one of the hottest burning woods,

so if Sarah can't come up with a plan...

at least they'll make a nice fire.

But what does Trevor think she'll make?

There's some good wood there.

I'm sure she'll get more than spoons out of it

but it's going to take a lot of hard work.

I hope she's got sharp tools because it's very, very dense.

This may look like dirty old chunks of wood at the moment

but I know exactly who to take it to so I can clean up

and have a real chance of making some profit.

With the first item found,

Sarah knows just the people who can tackle all that wood.

Say hello to Josh and Oli, designer-makers,

business partners and best friends.

These boys use natural and recycled materials to create

handcrafted furnishings and high-end interior pieces.

I'm Josh and this is Oli and we're Forge Creative.

I think the main thing we love is designing new products

and new furniture, where you've got that idea and you come into

the workshop and just see it come to life.

The sort of thing we'd like Sarah to bring us would probably

be something with a bit of character, a bit of age to it.

I think we like something with a bit of a story.

Like a rusty bit of metal or like a weathered bit of wood,

something like that, that's got a bit of history and character to it.

Well, they're in luck, cos Sarah's hawthorn stumps

are definitely old and definitely weathered.

Back at the tip, things are hotting up for Sarah.

That is not the only busy bee round here. This place is buzzing.

Sarah's spoilt for choice...

..but she's homing in on Lydia and her chair.

You after a sit-down, Sarah?

-Oh, I love this.

-Oh, thank you.

Have you had it for long?

I've had it for a long time, yes.

It belonged to my family and it was passed down to me.

It was actually my great-aunt's.

So you've had enough of it, it's not fitting in at home any more.

It's been in my garage.

I'm kind of quite sentimental about these things

but I've just been trying to clear out.

Today was the day I thought,

"I'm going to have to do something about it," so I brought it here.

-Who's got the white cat?

-It's me.

She's like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.

I would love to be able to take it away and see if I could

do something with it. Would that be all right?

-That would be wonderful, it really would.

-That's lovely.

-Thank you so much for letting me have that.

-Thank you.

-Really nice to have met you.

-And you.

Sarah certainly seems pleased with her jolly green armchair,

but what do Lydia and Kate think will become of it?

I suppose, in some ways, it's kind of quite a blank canvas, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-You know, so...

-Maybe some really nice fabric, just completely modernise it.

-Yeah.

I haven't a clue, really.

Such a sweet little chair.

It's got loads of period detail - lovely little cabriole legs,

fat, chunky arms and a really good look.

I've got just the person in mind who will give it the real kick

that it needs to turn this into a moneymaker.

Anthony Devine is one of the UK's most talented teachers

and practitioners of upholstery skills.

First thing I see in a room is a chair.

When I go round to people's houses I look for quality,

I look to see what I would do differently.

Some chairs look like they're almost kind of destined for the tip,

but if you see one ounce of kind of potential,

then save it.

I suppose it is a bit of a love affair I have with chairs.

They are very beautiful things.

That may be the case for some chairs, Anthony,

but you've not seen what Sarah's saved for you.

Sarah's third and final find will be the one she works on herself.

Nothing to see here.

Perhaps Michael can offer up something of interest.

Is it dead? Is it not working any more?

No, it works perfectly well. It works perfectly well.

-The motor's very, very good.

-Right.

It's just that the blades have locked.

But somebody who knows anything about it could do it -

it's quite good condition.

I've never thought about taking a lawnmower

away from the dump before, but...

-You're very welcome to it.

-How old is it?

I don't really know. I think it's 10 to 12 years old.

-OK, so it's had a good use.

-It gets serviced every year.

-Yeah.

-So it's good.

If it still works there's the potential that I may be able

to make something out of it, so I'd love to have

a go at using the parts or doing something with it.

-You're very welcome.

-Thank you so much for letting me take that away.

Does it go backwards?

This is not looking promising.

-If you don't have this on, that'll...

-Oh, that'll stop. OK.

I've got a new lawnmower but I haven't got enough room

in my garage for both of them.

The old one works perfectly well apart from the gears have locked.

Sarah does look confident that she can mow up some moolah.

But what does Michael think she can do with it?

I'm sort of quite fascinated myself.

Somebody with a little bit of mechanical knowledge

or imagination can do something with it.

I'm sure the motor can drive anything, really.

You probably think I'm gaga, taking this old garden mower,

but it's been really well looked after and the engine still works.

That may be so, Sarah, but I still can't see what you're

going to do with that, other than cut some grass.

So, that's all three items scooped up.

Josh and Oli will turn that hawthorn into something spectacular.

Anthony will strong-arm that armchair.

And hopefully Sarah will get motoring with that mower.

I would say, on balance, it's been a great day here at Altrincham.

I've collected a classy cluster of cracking future collectables,

all of which I know will make some money for nothing.

In the West Sussex countryside is the headquarters of

the dynamic duo of wood wizarding, Josh and Oli.

Sarah could bring us anything.

Hopefully it's something with a bit of potential.

I'm hoping for maybe like a raw material,

so something that we can start from scratch and create something with.

Yeah.

Well, they don't come much rawer than this.

I'm really hoping my humble collection of hawthorn logs

is going to come good, because I need to make something

out of these and at the moment, it's not looking that hopeful.

There's a real danger that Sarah's exuberance at the tip

might have a rotten outcome.

Hello?

-Hello!

-Hiya!

-Come and see what I've got for you.

-You OK?

-I need a hand.

Oh, lovely, some logs. Nice!

-So, I think they're hawthorn.

-OK.

-Fairly chunky, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, they're nice.

There's a lot of nice colour in there, you can see it already.

Yeah, it feels really heavy and really hard,

so hopefully it should have quite a crisp look to it.

-Will that translate?

-It's good to be a dense timber.

What kind of pieces could you get out of these size chunks?

Well, I was just thinking ornamental pieces,

because the wood hopefully will be quite interesting in the middle.

So whether we make some kind of vases or...

-yeah, some kind of ornaments out of them...

-OK.

If you really think you can get something out of it...

Yeah, we'll certainly give it a go and try our best,

see what we get out of it.

On closer inspection, it turns out one of the chunks is not quite

so solid in the centre after all.

I think it's got creatures inside it.

Has it? Sorry.

With this one, we'll just have to wait and see and see how much

of it is just rotten soil.

If we get time,

it could be like a sculptural piece.

I think that might be code for "erm, dunno".

So, budget. This set aside, how about those three bits?

We've got maybe either one big vase or maybe two vases out of that.

There's maybe another small vase there,

and then, if we get time...

it could be like a sculptural piece,

but we'll see how it goes with that one.

So, I reckon 250 for these three bits,

and then if we can make something that you sell for thousands

out of that then we'll call it two grand.

I love an optimist!

OK, well, 250 quid on the table for that.

Good luck with getting on with that.

-Always a pleasure.

-Thank you.

I have really left those lads with a challenge this time because

they're going to have to dig really deep and use all of

their creativity to turn those old stumps into hard cash.

But Josh and Oli aren't easily daunted.

I think they will be really nice

because there's clearly some nice wood in there.

Just need to get in there and get cracking with it.

Josh and Oli are looking for £250 to produce

a set of vases and possibly some ornamental pieces.

I just hope that wood holds together.

Manchester is a northern powerhouse of art and culture.

It's also home to master upholsterer Anthony Devine.

So, my buddy's coming back and she's got another item,

and she promised me this is a good one.

And I believe she's giving me free rein on it!

So I'm very excited.

Well, who else was I going to bring this little beauty to?

It's come to Manchester for a makeover.

We've saved it from a skip and now we want it to look lovely again.

Let's go and see what he thinks.

I just hope he likes it.

Anthony?

-Hey, how are you doing?

-Here she is!

Nice!

-It's good, isn't it?

-Yes!

-Shall we get it in?

He really does love chairs, doesn't he?

-Not too bad.

-No, it's good.

-Good sign of quality, good weight.

-Yeah.

-It's good.

-It is, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's good.

I have had some ideas about it.

I was wondering about making it look like something else.

Not too radical, but a bit of a play.

Yeah, because of this style of the chair,

and it's going to sit in a corner of the room

and the rest of the house might be all nice and safe,

there's an opportunity.

An opportunity to give it a little bit of something.

Just leave it with us.

We'll do a sympathetic restoration underneath

and something big and bold on the top of it.

Sounds like this chair is in for a special treat.

But just how much is big and bold going to cost?

-500 quid, as a budget...

-OK.

..would be like, kind of, get it all done.

If it takes more, it's not going to be much more.

If it's less, you can have it back.

500 quid...

-You know, I trust you implicitly.

-Absolutely.

-I know you're going to do something bonkers with it.

-You never know.

Well, I do know, because I've been here before.

You slash things, you stab them, you spray paint them...

You know, I just can't wait to see what you're going to do with it.

-Me neither.

-You're deeply worrying!

I'd say that I've got this one in the bag.

As a trusted member of the team,

Anthony's earned his creative freedom with this one.

But will Sarah live to regret it?

Today, modern interiors,

they're all just getting a bit bland and boring and it's all very tonal.

We want something to be in the corner kind of screaming

and shouting, "Look at me."

And probably you would never sit on it, but we want you to

appreciate it, and that's what we're trying to do with this chair.

I'm really intrigued about what he's going to do with that chair and

I can't wait to come back to find out if he's had a good idea or not.

A budget of £500 for a chair which, when finished,

will look like...erm, no idea.

I just hope that whatever Anthony does, Sarah can sell it.

At home in Sussex, Sarah has already begun the mower project

by having it taken to pieces into its many component parts.

Well, who knew if you took a lawnmower apart

you'd get so many pieces?

And there's some fantastic bits here.

There's lots of lovely nuts and bolts I think would make

some lovely jewellery, but the standout feature, I think,

has to be this fantastic cutter blade.

It's such a sculptural thing and just looking at it makes me think,

"I want to make something out of that,"

and I think lighting is the best thing.

Lighting is really commercial, very saleable

and actually quite a simple make,

if you've got something as lovely and strong as this.

So, with the help of this off-the-peg lighting set,

I'm going to make a lamp with this bit as the base.

But before I can start,

I've got to get the hacksaw out to get this out of that.

Of course, the simple way to remove the blade from its casing

would be to just undo the bolts.

Money for nothing, they say.

It's hard work, making money for nothing.

Before lawnmowers were invented, grass was cut using scythes.

It wasn't until 1830 that an English engineer, Edwin Budding,

patented the first lawnmower.

I'm pretty sure he didn't envisage his invention

being used for lighting.

That was a lot of hard work,

but that is every part as sculptural as I'd hoped.

And this bit, another part of the lawnmower...

..is going to make the best base for it.

I can put it in that way up.

Looks like a light already, doesn't it?

I've just got to clean it up and see if I can get the wire

going through the holes that happen to be there already,

and that's going to look amazing.

Sarah gives the blades a thorough clean with warm soapy water

to remove old encrusted grass and mud.

Next, in order to remove any sharp edges and make the blade safe,

Sarah uses a coarse sandpaper and a whole load of elbow grease.

Finally, the little bits and bobs are given a thorough wash.

I'm just cleaning up these two pieces because these are

going to help me connect this to that.

I love the way that design evolves when you're reusing pieces like this

because that is a really chunky, lovely bit

and it adds so much by putting it on there,

and you probably wouldn't design that unless you'd just found it.

Well, unless, of course, you're Edwin Budding,

inventor of the lawnmower - then you probably did design it.

OK, so, onto the final stage, which is wiring up the lamp.

And I've got this fantastic lighting component,

and loads of lighting shops have these now,

so you can choose the kind of bulb holder and the flex that you have -

ie the colour or if it's twisted like this one.

And it makes a really quick and easy way of making a light.

So I've just got to get this wired up

and I think it's going to look pretty cool.

So I think we'll go from the top.

Sarah's costs for the lawn mower lighting are £60,

which includes the cost of the flex, light fitting, bulb,

and also the services of a qualified electrician

to make sure everything's safe.

But will she really be able to create a desirable interiors piece

from a bit of old lawnmower?

Back in Manchester, Anthony has an extra pair of helping hands

in the form of his assistant Tom,

who specialises in making furniture frames.

So, what I'm thinking with this chair is quotes.

-So, the wise words of Winston Churchill.

-Yes.

British and all, icon.

"Never, never, never..."

Not Rick Astley.

-"..give up", Sir Winston Churchill.

-Yeah, I like it.

Maybe a cigar holder to go in the arm, for extra...

-Extra authenticity.

-Yeah, Churchillicity.

Anthony plans to use the paper stencils to work out

the placement of three well-known quotations...

Give us a V! V!

..all spoken by one of Britain's most influential leaders.

I mean, this is possibly the worst job in the world for me -

I cannot spell to save my life.

But these are all good words, I'm all right with this.

Winston Churchill became Prime Minister on 10th May 1940

and the quotations Anthony has chosen were all spoken

during a time of conflict.

They helped to inspire the nation on to victory in World War II.

I've managed to spell hell wrong.

Hell is spelt with two Ls, Es.

"Heell". "If you're going through Heell."

"If you're going through 'Eell..."

THEY LAUGH

-All right, go on.

-It's a place in Yorkshire.

-Yeah.

Once the boys know the quotations will fit on the chair,

the next stage is to lay them out on brown paper that will later

be photographed and printed onto fabric,

giving the appearance of the chair being wrapped.

The quotations are being sprayed onto the paper

to give a stencilled graffiti look.

This is the alfresco part of the operation. Has it worked?

-Yeah!

-Yes, that's what we want, isn't it?

-Yeah.

That's all right. OK, good job. Good job, me.

In Sussex, Josh and Oli are getting familiar

with their hunks of hawthorn.

OK, shall I...? I'll start working on this piece and make some vases.

Yeah.

I'm going to have to figure out what we can do with this one

-cos it's looking pretty...

-Pretty rotten.

-Yeah.

Looks like Josh has drawn the short straw here.

Stage one is to investigate,

which seems to involve pretty much every method of chopping up wood.

As hawthorn is so dense, Oli's breaking out the big guns.

After all that chopping, is there anything usable left?

Yeah, so I've got some all right bits out of the log in the end.

There's a lot of rotten bits.

You can see there's loads of, like, bits that aren't so great,

but I think there's some good wood in there.

Josh is going to make a set of ornamental trees

that are a speciality of theirs,

while Oli will make a start on one of the vases.

I'm just trying to adjust this and try and get it to sit well.

Obviously it's going to be shaking around a bit,

but I'll just do my best to get it balanced.

It's just a case of slowly getting it rounder

and then we can speed up the lathe and get cracking with it.

Time for the boys to get spinning.

Even though these lathes can spin the wood to up to 1,500rpm,

it'll take some time for Oli to get that wood down to a round piece.

Josh's smaller ornaments are quicker to create.

They've turned well and they've come out all right.

It's really like characterful wood. It's pretty cool.

Meanwhile, Oli's making progress with his vase.

Yeah, it's getting there now.

It took a while to get it rounded off,

but it's looking more like a vase now.

Next is to, yes, just carry on getting the shape I want

and drill the hole in the middle,

sand it and take it off to finish it.

But Josh has hit a problem while making his third tree.

A lot of it's all right, but then there's just little patches

of like, that bit is just really squidgy.

At the end of the day, you've got a bit of rotten wood, haven't you?

There's not a lot I can do, I can't get rid of all of it.

But I can just try and work around it.

Working with rotten wood is certainly a rotten job,

especially with Oli turning what turns out to be fine timber.

In Manchester, Anthony and Tom have successfully managed

to spray the Churchill quotes onto paper.

Having been photographed,

the finished fabric is now back from the printer's.

So this is printed onto like a moleskin velvet.

This is an upholstery-grade, fire-retardant fabric.

In terms of happiness, I love it.

I mean, I actually, genuinely love it.

I, er... Yeah.

We've blitzed the budget.

HE LAUGHS

It's always daunting because we have absolutely no room for error.

And sometimes you can play around with things, but this time,

the printer's are already closed, Sarah is due in the morning,

it's going to be another late one.

Anthony is known for his last-minute makeovers,

but this is perhaps his most ambitious.

He's already stripped the chair, but has to build it back up

and cover it, making sure the quotes are positioned inch perfect.

No room for error on this one.

OK, have a look.

That is a solid 7/10.

Thanks.

I don't know why you gave me a job in the first place, to be honest.

-Yeah.

-Thanks for that, boss.

Yeah. You're welcome.

So, this is elasticated.

And this gives us the suspension.

With the fabric secured to the arms,

Anthony now has to rebuild the seat in the back of the chair.

He starts with the elasticated webbing.

So, basically, because the tension that I'm pulling this under...

..to get the kind of suspension in the back,

this rail is starting to twist.

So...

it's going to have to be changed.

So, where's the right quote?

Here we are. "Never, never, never give up."

And, "If you're going through hell...

"..keep going."

The danger is that obviously we'd have done this

before we'd have got any of the fabric on.

But you never quite know these things until you get them.

It is late, the printer's are closed, Sarah is coming.

Normally, in normal circumstances,

we'd leave this for a few hours to dry.

We don't have seconds, let alone hours.

We'll clamp it and just work around it.

I think another famous wartime quote is apt at this point -

keep calm, Anthony, and carry on.

At home in Sussex, Sarah is busy putting the finishing touches

to the mower transformation.

Great, that's all the dirty work done.

Time for the last adjustments.

Straight.

Time to get to this illuminated.

When Sarah took possession of the mower at the tip,

its days of trimming lawns were over.

Sarah's used the dismantle mower's sculptured blades

to create a unique table lamp.

The surfaces have been cleaned and waxed and it's finished off

with a contemporary colour-matched flex and a classic-style bulb.

The finely finished article is certainly something to behold.

I hope that looks like it's gone from cutting grass to cutting-edge.

I'm going to get some pictures taken of it, share it around,

see if I can turn a profit with it.

Once those pictures hit the net,

I'm sure there'll be a stampede of enthusiastic gardeners

looking to illuminate a dark corner of a room.

When Sarah spotted Michael at the tip,

initially she lacked motivation.

I've never thought about taking a lawnmower away from the dump before.

But it wasn't all bad news about the mower.

The old one worked perfectly well apart from the gears have locked.

So, what do you do with a mower with seized gears?

That's right, strip it down and turn it into a lamp.

The lamp was snapped up by an interior design shop,

Sarah Hughes in Marlow,

run, funnily enough, by Sarah.

I've got memories of old-fashioned lawnmowers,

which I rather like, it's the sort of thing your grandfather used

and you imagine them pushing them along.

Our Sarah has travelled to Sale, near Altrincham, to show Michael

what happened to the lawnmower.

-Hi, there. Hello, Michael.

-How are you?

-I'm very well, how are you?

-Fine, thank you.

-I said at the tip

that I wanted to keep in touch, so here I am.

I took away your old lawnmower, but your lawnmower was still

-slightly working when I took it away from you.

-It was.

-It still worked, but it was jammed, wasn't it?

-Yes, it was.

I have made something out of it, but have you thought what that might be?

I have no idea. Apart from a lawnmower again,

I couldn't imagine what you might have made of it.

Well, it was a bit of a puzzle

and I did have quite a long think about it, but in the end,

I've made a light out of it and I've got some pictures here to show you.

Go on, I'll put my glasses on so I can see it clearly.

Your old lawnmower, I used a little bit of it,

and it turned out like this.

Wow! How on earth did you do that?

Well, actually, it was really easy because your lawnmower blade

-had all the right holes in it.

-That's the blades, yes.

Had all the right holes in it and all the right pieces

in just the position to make it into a lamp.

-It was literally...

-That's your interior design expertise, isn't it?

Well, it did look quite striking.

Your lawnmower blade has gone on to be bought

by a shop down in Marlow.

They have all sorts of very smart things in their shop

and now they've got your lawnmower light.

And I've got a bit of money to share with you.

I've got a £40 profit to give to you

for the old lamp made out of your blade.

That's incredible! That's absolutely incredible.

What might you do with that?

I know what I'm going to do with it because, in the '90s,

I was a bank manager, and I don't tell people very often,

but we were better then, I think.

And I opened a little bank in the Royal School for the Deaf

where they had multiple handicaps

and we had dinners for them and raised money.

And we opened this little bank and they all came and banked,

-so I'll give it to them.

-That's a fantastic place for it to go.

-Really good to catch up.

-Wonderful, thank you.

-Absolute pleasure.

-Thank you.

-Thank you so much.

A total of £60 was spent creating classic lighting from the lawnmower.

Sarah managed to sell the lamp for £100,

which left over a profit of £40 to give to Michael.

Well, I think Michael approved of my cutting-edge design,

and the money is going to a really good place too.

Sarah's back in West Sussex to collect Josh and Oli's work.

I left Josh and Oli with 250 quid and four logs.

What on earth are they going to have made out of that?

Well, they're pretty confident in their creations.

I think she'll really like these. We've got some original designs.

-Yeah.

-So I think she'll be pleased.

Sarah left Josh and Oli with a pile of rotting old hawthorn stumps.

Now they've created a set of beautiful,

hand-turned vases and ornamental wooden trees.

They've carefully squeezed every usable inch out of those logs

and made a virtue of the wood's imperfections.

The vases are bursting with character, with a delightful finish.

And those little wooden trees are an exquisite set of curios

that put the texture of the hawthorn front and centre.

-Ooh, hello!

-All right?

-I'm really well, how are you?

-Good, thanks.

-Look at those.

Let me come and have a look.

I can't believe it. Aren't they beautiful?

-Were you pleased?

-Yeah. We're really chuffed.

They came out really nice, and the wood's amazing.

-It is unbelievable, it feels like marble.

-Yeah, it's really dense.

These vases are a triumph.

They're stylish and beautiful

and you can tell they're handmade

and they have this just fantastic feeling.

How was it to work with? How have you made this out of those logs?

Yeah, we had to do a lot of chopping and splitting

cos there was a lot of rotten stuff in there.

It looks like you've made a virtue out of the faults

because I can imagine that might have been quite tricky to work with.

It looks beautiful, doesn't it? They're like...they're beautiful.

-And...

-And a little forest, as well.

Now, these look like fun.

They've got this beautiful mid-century look to them.

They're just so tactile, aren't they?

Really lovely. And so surprising, given what you were left with.

I left you with a slightly flexible budget at about 250 quid.

-How have we come out?

-I think we're all right. I think that's it.

We did have another piece we were going to try

-and do something with, but it was just too rotten.

-OK.

So, yeah, 250 it is.

Well, I think you've made something special

out of something that was really not very special.

And I reckon we can make money on it as well because they're beautiful.

-Beautiful pieces. Well done.

-Thank you very much.

-Excellent.

-Thank you.

-Great job.

-Cheers.

-Let's get them packed up.

-Yeah.

Well, I don't think there are many people who could have made

all those beautiful things out of a load of old logs.

Massive credit to the lads.

The wood, it had lots of splits in it, a lot of it was all rotten.

I think we managed to get something pretty good out of it in the end.

We were really happy with the shapes

and Sarah seemed to be really chuffed with it, so, yeah.

At the recycling centre in Altrincham,

Sarah unearthed Trevor's hunks of hawthorn

and he was after a full cutlery set from them.

There's some good wood there,

I'm sure she'll get more than spoons out of it.

But it'll take a lot of hard work.

Josh and Oli did their best to help Sarah prove

that sometimes money really does grow on trees.

Sarah advertised Josh and Oli's wooden creations online.

And, just like real trees, sales began to grow...slowly.

Sarah has come to just outside Altrincham to visit Trevor

and to show him what became of his hawthorn stumps.

-Hi.

-Morning, Trevor.

-Hi, Sarah, nice to meet you.

-And you.

-How are you doing?

-I'm good, how are you?

-Yeah, very well.

-Good.

Now, I can see from your immaculate garden why you might have been

throwing away those hawthorn stumps.

But had they been lying around for a while?

No, I actually dug them out just a few weeks before.

Well, I took them to some lovely guys who are based near Goodwood

who actually got quite enthusiastic about them.

But did you wonder what we might do with them when we took them away?

I thought, if anything, you'd make a lamp out of it of some sort,

that's all I thought.

Really? Well, that was actually part of the discussion.

The guys I took them to are called Josh and Oli

and they both got quite enthusiastic

cos hawthorn is a wood, because it's got such a slow growth,

it's a lovely dense wood with lots of colour in it.

So I've got some pictures. Do you want to see what we did?

-Yes, please, yes.

-Here are your tree stumps.

Wow, that's really good, isn't it?

What they did is, the big chunks of them here,

they turned into beautiful vases.

So they've got all the character of the hawthorn

and all the lovely colours and shapes that come out of it

-when you cut through it.

-They look fantastic.

And also, they've turned nine beautiful little trees out of them.

-That's fantastic, that's really good.

-Really? You approve?

Yeah, I approve of that.

Well, they were really pleased with them

and they are lovely, decorative things.

Those little trees sell for about £12 each

and the vases significantly more than that.

They have been for sale and I've been selling them really well,

but I haven't tipped over into the profit point yet.

Well, I'll buy one if there's any spare.

-Really?

-Yeah, I'll have one.

Fantastic. I'll definitely be in touch then.

Hopefully with a small tree and a bundle of cash.

-That's very good, that, yeah.

-Lovely, Trevor.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you for that.

-We'll send something your way very soon.

-Thank you very much.

-Bye-bye.

-Thank you, bye-bye.

Josh and Oli charged £250 to transform Trevor's hawthorn

into beautiful wooden vases and ornaments.

Sarah has so far managed to sell one vase and one tree for £67,

which means, as things stand,

there could well be a potential loss of £183.

It's always great when you make something

and the original owner wants it back, so Trevor is getting a tree

and I'm going to be in touch with profit soon.

Sarah's now returned to Manchester to see the bold makeover

Anthony's been promising, if he's managed to finish it, of course.

This chair, as complicated as it was, that was kind of our own doing.

We could have went simple,

but we chose to basically utilise

all the skills of all the staff here.

Everybody is loving it. Everybody loves it for the impact.

Yes, so hopefully, when she arrives, she's going to love it too.

Anthony was being really quite secretive about my little chair

when I dropped it off, so I'm dying to see what he's done with it.

I left him 500 quid's worth of budget,

and I know one thing, it won't be dull.

When Sarah collected the old chair at the tip,

it had certainly passed its best.

As Churchill himself said,

there's nothing wrong with change if it's in the right direction.

And Anthony has certainly changed the direction of this old chair.

Covered in iconic quotes, hand designed and digitally printed

on velvet fabric, this chair is a one-of-a-kind kind masterpiece.

Anthony promised bold and he's delivered.

But will Sarah like it?

-Hiya.

-Hello and welcome to the war bunker.

-How are you doing?

-Very good.

-Where is it, then?

-It's...

-What have you done to it, dare I look?

Hey!

Anthony Devine...

what an original piece of design.

Basically we wanted to do something, just something...

You gave us a bit of artistic licence and we gave you this back.

So, we went from taking the chair and we positioned all the letters,

stencilled it all out,

worked out roughly where it was going to go, then we went in

and stencilled and sprayed them all up

and then had it all photographed,

sent it off to our printer's.

And then out she popped, or he popped.

This is a lovely transformation, but 500 quid?

Have you blown that out of the water?

Well, let's just say, the 500 quid,

-we owe another 20 quid just to the fabric printers.

-Right.

-This isn't sounding very commercial.

-No.

I'm just going to say 750. I've just said it.

-How much?

-750 quid.

A little bit over budget, but I can tell why.

And I appreciate the fact that you really went to town with it

-cos it is very cool.

-Thanks.

-It's really good, love it.

Sarah seemed to take that very well,

considering it's £250 above the original budget.

Well, that chair is anything but dull, isn't it? And beautiful.

Not cheap, but that's because of all that hard work that's gone into it.

I love the fact that Anthony's had free rein to create something

that's unique that could have ended up in the skip.

When Sarah spotted Lydia dropping off the old green chair,

it certainly had some history.

It belonged to my family.

It was passed down to me, it was actually my great-aunt's.

Sarah chose to save it from the skip and allowed Anthony free rein

to do whatever he liked.

The inspirational armchair was quickly snapped up by Nick Smith,

a regular client of Sarah's who's an online vintage and retro retailer.

It's nice and comfy.

Sarah has returned to the Altrincham area to show Lydia

what became of the old green chair.

-Hi, Lydia, how are you doing?

-Hi, nice to see you again.

-And you.

-It's a beautiful day, isn't it?

-Gorgeous.

Now, last time I saw you,

I loved what you were dropping off at the tip when I saw you.

-Oh, I'm very pleased.

-Your old...

Did you say it was your great-aunt's?

I thought it was my great-aunt's, but actually it was

my great-grandparent's which was then passed on to my great-aunt.

So it's got quite a lot of history,

so I'm intrigued to find out what's happened.

It was a lovely shape, your little chair,

and it was something that didn't travel very far, actually.

We took it to Anthony Devine who teaches upholstery

and is a fantastic upholsterer in Manchester.

-Fantastic. Oh, brill.

-He loved it.

-I've got some pictures here to show you.

-Brilliant.

-Would you like to have a look?

-I can't wait to have a look.

You said it had a lot of history to it.

He's added even more because your chair is now looking like that.

Oh, wow, it's fantastic!

So he took Winston Churchill as his inspiration

and he created all the fabric. He stencilled it all himself.

That is amazing. That is so good.

That's brilliant. I love the history link as well. It's fantastic.

Excellent, I'm really pleased you like it

because, as a family piece, there's always that worry that we might

-do something to it that you might not approve of.

-Yeah.

Good news is that other people did too and it sold.

Wow, that's brilliant!

-I have £75 here, which is profit from your armchair.

-That's super.

Thank you very much. That's brilliant.

I'm going to give it to an animal charity.

That's what I'm going to do, definitely, I've got one in mind.

Really? That's lovely, that's really, really sweet.

It's a little chunk of money, but hopefully it'll be useful.

Yeah, definitely.

-Thank you so much for letting us have it.

-Thank you very much.

It's an absolute pleasure. And a lovely cause for that.

-Lovely to meet you.

-And you, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

Anthony charged £750

for the transformation of the old green armchair.

Sarah managed to sell it for £825,

which left a profit of £75 to return to Lydia.

Well, Lydia loved Anthony's Winston Churchill

historical connection with her chair,

and that animal charity has a very generous £75 donation coming.

Sarah salvaged three unwanted items

from the Altrincham recycling centre.

Michael's old mower became cutting-edge lighting.

Trevor's hawthorn stumps became sideboard essentials.

And Lydia's old green chair was rewrapped

and covered in Churchill quotations.

It takes a lot of talent, plenty of imagination

and lots of good, old-fashioned hard work

to transform every item we save.

But it's definitely worth it,

especially when we get to hand over some money for nothing.