Former Morecambe cafe owners branch out into upcycling furniture during Covid-19 lockdown

Sue and Tony Garth ran The Big Breakfast Cafe in Morecambe for 23 years, before selling up in January shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Stuck for something to do, and coinciding with lockdown, they took up furniture upcycling - a recent passion of theirs - to fill their time.

And their son Richard was so impressed by their work, he suggested they turn their passion into a business.

Not expecting much interest, the pair started selling their work online - and have been surprised to find sales taking off, with unique pieces including cocktail bars and side tables being sold to buyers from as far afield as Inverness and Canary Wharf.

The couple - who both grew up in Lancaster but moved to Morecambe 10 years ago to be closer to the cafe - decided it was time to say goodbye to their business earlier this year due to family circumstances.

But they may now have accidentally stumbled across a new venture.

Sue said: "I saw a piece of furniture on a Facebook page that had been upcycled and I thought it looked really nice and I wanted to give it a go.

"I really enjoyed doing it and it just took off from there. We did some pieces for some friends and then started advertising it."

The first pieces the pair upcycled were bedside cabinets which were repainted and stencilled.

They then moved on to an old record cabinet which they kept for themselves for a while before selling on eBay.

Many of their items come from local charity shops including St John's Hospice, as well as Second Chance in Lancaster and 1818 Auctioneers.

Their most popular item is currently cocktail cabinets.

"There's a high demand for them because they are seen as unique," Tony said. "Interesting pieces are what we look for - something a bit unusual.

"We did a Welsh dresser once and put it up for sale, and then decided to keep it ourselves."

Sue and Tony's work can be found online here and their eBay shop is here.

"We started out on eBay and found there was quite a lot of demand on there," Tony said.

"We sold a couple of pieces in London and people had asked where they were from - we are happy to do commissions for people if there's something they like.

"Another piece went to a couple of doctors in Canary Wharf as a wedding gift."

Work on a piece of furniture can take anything from a day to a week, depending on what needs doing.

Sue said: "It's still early days but we have both been pleasantly surprised by how well it's gone, and now we know there's a demand, we will give it a go."