Carol and Karen’s mission to cut waste and reverse throwaway culture by giving furniture a second life

They call it reloving furniture and the environment – and in the process they’re rather loving doing it.

Born out of lockdown, DD&B Interiors creates and renovates furniture while helping the planet.

The West Dorset business is a collaboration between traditional upholsterer Carol Brown and designer Karen Durham-Diggins.

They launched their ever-changing collection of unique chairs, ottomans and other furniture pieces and crafted accessories in November 2020.

Previously they worked together, successfully fitting out a new home with reloved furniture which was reupholstered in quality fabrics.

Fired by their mission to cut waste and reverse throwaway culture while enabling good furniture to have a second life, they then collaborated on a selection of furniture.

To test the market, 13 pieces based on colours from a Quality Street confectionery tin were displayed at a gallery in Lyme Regis.

Carol said: “13 was lucky for us.

“We sold most of the pieces in 48 hours, at a time when no one could touch, let alone sit on, any of the furniture.”

Based on their success the duo launched DD&B Interiors and have been steadily building their range of furniture and customer base ever since.

Karen said: “We take some very sad furniture and restore it into a fresh, repurposed, useful, and beautiful piece, all with DD&B Interiors distinctive style.

“Using our imagination, skills, and time, we save well-made pieces of furniture and transform them; restoring the frame and traditionally upholstering them in designer fabrics – some of which are made from recycled and rewoven yarns.”

DD&B Interiors – the name comes from Karen and Carol’s surnames – mainly specialises in renovating chairs as well as upholstered storage such as ottomans.

Prices start from around £300 up to £725 for chairs while ottomans start from about £150 to £350.

“It depends on the piece, size, fabric and how much work has gone into it,” said Karen.

The business is committed to repurposing furniture and trying to be as environmentally aware as possible while producing one off pieces of exquisite furniture.

Karen, 65, said: “We use Williams Morris’ quote: ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.’

“There is wonderful furniture that, once reloved, is both beautiful and useful and environmentally better for our planet.”

Carol, 57, added: “People like to buy products that have had another life and are being reused.

“Some of the fabrics are reused fibres and respun as well.

“We do the furniture in our style and reinterpret it sometimes.

“Essentially we buy a dead frame and then quite often strip it right down because we have to make things compliant in terms of fire regulations.

“Sometimes we build it up and it’s a slightly different shape when we finish depending on what we thinks suits it best.

“I was in upholstery for 30 years before meeting Karen.

“Various people had suggested reupholstering and selling furniture as well as doing bespoke work.

“When Karen suggested it, it was the right time.

“Karen has great skills of sourcing the furniture and marketing while I’ve got the skills of upholstering.

“It’s all come together really well.”

From just 13 pieces in their first show DD&B Interiors now averages about 60 pieces in stock at any one time.

The pieces renovated range from early Victorian to very contemporary.

Karen said: “We have absolutely complementary skills.

“I subsequently ended up doing the wood as well as the design side with the fabrics.

“Carol does the upholstery and all the extra bits that I wouldn’t be able to think of such as she’ll flute the back of the chair.

“We’ve learnt heaps in terms of retail, our target market, where we sell best and also the furniture itself.

“We have developed our own style and worked out what people really appreciate and enjoy.”

One chair – pictured right – they were particularly proud of restoring was donated by a woman in Lyme Regis.

Karen said: “It belonged to her grandmother and her mother used it but she didn’t just want to get rid of it.

“We had to strip absolutely everything, including the wood.

“It was a beautiful art deco oak hoop chair.

“We always give a small donation to a charity of her choice if somebody gives us a piece of furniture we like the shape of.

“Her only prerequisite was could she have a photograph when it was done.

“It’s lovely that people have got something they cherish but don’t have the room, or need, for it anymore and want it to go to a good home.”

This year Karen and Carl have increased the number of pop-up shops featuring their furniture.

They appear regularly at Felicity’s Farm Shop in Morcombelake on the A35 and at other local venues.

They also sell their furniture online but concentrate on a 30 mile radius of where they live – Carol in Morcombelake and Karen in Lyme Regis.

Free local delivery is offered within 20 miles of Lyme Regis while Click & Collect or a paid courier delivery service is available.

Karen said: “People congratulate us on doing it and we weren’t expecting that.

“Our furniture has had a life and now it’s getting a second life.

“I absolutely love it.

“I’ve never worked in business with anyone before, nor has Carol, and amazingly it’s worked.

“We actually don’t fall out.

“We have differences of opinion but we really enjoy working together.

“It shows you it is quite possible to have a sustainable business without having to compromise.

“You also don’t need to be young to set up a new business.

Carol added: “I love upholstery and been have doing it all my life.

“Normally I’m working with a client to their brief but this gives me free rein to bring in all my creativity.

“It uses all the skills I had already but adds a real creative flair to it.

“I just love it.”