hi! i'm colleen mele, the angry elf, vertically challenged woodshop owner. i am a diy'er at heart and a passionate upcycler. I got into the furniture rehab business purely by chance. when i bought my first rowhome in philadelphia decades ago, i was living on a teacher's salary and had no money for furnishings so I repurposed and refinished the 1940's style furniture that came with the house into stylish decor that i still own to this day. Years later when I was a stay at home mom, my family moved into a 100 year old stone home and my love affair for flea market finds and all things vintage began. I love taking old solid wood furniture with good bones and recreating it into new pieces that folks can enjoy for years to come. what started as a way of being green and saving money grew into a personal passion and full time business. so much so that i built a workshop onto my garage to house my expanding collection of tools. though i have done my share of diy'ing from tiling backsplashes to installing wainscotting my passion is still in the furnishings. my business was born of my desire to help people find beauty in their old things. funny story...my first official "client" was a friend of mine who was getting ready to ditch her twenty year old ethan allen wooden claw foot pedestal kitchen table in favor of a new one on the advice of her designer. my friend agreed that the table had been well loved for and had its fair share of nicks, dings, and scratches to show for it (anyone who has girls has had a bottle of nail polish or remover spill on their table at least once:) . my friend hated the look of the outdated table but felt nostalgic that it bore the childhood memories of her kids growing up around it. the lovely chairs even had the scratch marks from when her dogs who've now passed on would go after the crumbs left behind when her kids were in their toddler booster chairs. i told my friend i'd take a look at the table next time i was at her house to see what i thought about refinishing it. when i did, i was amazed that this old table's extension mechanisms were so well built you could still open it with one hand. i told her she was nuts if she pitched this solid wood treasure in favor of a "new" one that would cost a fortune and be inferior in quality. so i made her a deal that i would refinish the table for her and if she liked it she could pay me and if not she would owe me nothing and could put it in basement and get something "new" like her designer had suggested. after some stripping, sanding, staining, and loving the table is now one of their favorite pieces in the redesign. after the table she hired me to do the windsor chairs as well as a bunch of other treasures in her home. and so in a nutshell my business was born. i am so thrilled when my family, friends and clients are happy with my work. Reclaiming old things and creating them anew is why i do what i do!
much love and hugs,
colleen