Drysdale upcycler gives vintage furniture a modern twist

FURNITURE often has a story to tell, especially when it has lived in a home for decades.

Drysdale local Jacinta Osmond takes those pieces, upcycling, recycling and refurbishing what were once tired and worn items, giving them a new lease on life and a modern twist.

Osmond fell in love with the craft in 2017 after doing a workshop at Ginger Revamped with Kaylene.

At the time she was working in administration, leaving her role shortly before COVID hit and turning it into her full-time career, launching Embellish.

“I sort of just bunkered down and just started doing this for our family friends, a bit for myself,” she said.

“I then started helping her [Kaylene] in the shop, so I learned more about the paints and what they did and decoupaging, and we used to run workshops there, I learned so much from her.”

 

 

Once Ginger Revamped moved into the Amazing Mill Markets, Osmond started teaching out of a studio in Drysdale, an aspect of her craft she enjoyed before finishing and converting her garage into her new space.

“I went to the mill [The Amazing Mill Markets] and that’s where I’ve been for the last two years and converted this area into my workshop.

“I can just come and go, although I have a bit of a routine. Once my son goes to school in the morning, I’m out here and then I’m out here until four in the afternoon, just painting.”

Osmond has always enjoyed doing something creative, although has long thought she didn’t have a creative bone in her body, describing herself as a painter, not an artist.

“I couldn’t draw a stick figure to save myself but give me colour and put something together and I feel confident in that,” she said.

“I think most of my life, my mother always encouraged me to do something crafty, she taught me knitting, crocheting, cooking and sewing and all those things back in the day.”

 

Her journey of restoring pieces has often led her to the stories associated with the furniture, some of which was made decades ago.

The fascination runs deep, especially when discovering items have been made in Australia and recently working on a chest of drawers crafted in Geelong.

“A piece of furniture, I’ll see it and it’ll talk to me. I just think that the way it was made, this vintage stuff is probably 80 years old, whereas the antique stuff is 100 years old but it was made so well.

“When I do custom work, the story of the people that trust me to do their things, I often think about their family.”

 

When the creative first started selling her furniture, she couldn’t believe people were willing to buy it and it has been a learning curve for her to discover what she’s able to do,” Osmond said.

These days, a lot of her work is pieces she does to be sold in the market, allowing her to bring her visions to life without the added stress of meeting other people’s ideas.

“I feel a bit of pressure with custom work: will it live up to their expectations, will it be what they think it’s going to be?” she said.

There is no one style that suits Osmond’s taste, instead going off what appeals to her. Since being at the mill, a lot of retro pieces have become popular.

Customers won’t find much white in her works, with Osmond often painting with bright colours, giving a piece character as it enters its next phase.

Raw timbers and colour are a favourite combination for the painter, often mixing the two to create her look.

“It could be anything from a table that I might sand to get a beautiful finish on the tabletop then paint the legs,” she said.

 

“At the mill now, I’ve got an old Victorian bar there that I’ve painted in a flat black, but the top I’ve got highlights of timber on the drawers and the top.”

Selling a piece of work always gives Osmond a bit of a boost, often hoping the furniture is found by the right person seeing it and falling in love with it.

“It gives me a bit of a high when I sell something, I take a lot of care from start to finish with what I do and that it appeals enough to somebody to buy it.”

While Osmond continues to work on her pieces and is happy with what she is doing, she hopes more people embrace it and start doing some work themselves.

For more information, head to Embellish on Facebook or drop into the store at the Amazing Mill Markets.