Ella Jenkins says the pandemic may well have been good for her by taking her business in a new and more creative direction.

Ella runs Ella Jenkins Design in Little Bytham, where she has lived with husband John for more than 20 years.

She operates a bespoke, designer upholstery business which specialises in the restoration of antique and vintage furniture.

Originally from Ireland, Ella spent her childhood in Liverpool before moving on to Cambridge and then Little Bytham.

Ella explained: "Changes in my husband's job meant we had to re-locate further North, but at the same time I still had to be able to get to London several times a week.

"We looked at a map and my husband said 'Stamford's lovely'. I had never been, but as we came off the A1 and headed into Stamford down towards The George. I remember saying 'Oh yes, how lovely and I can definitely live here'. I still love it today and think it is a wonderful place to live."

Ella's business was something in her blood.

She continued: "I grew up surrounded by a creative, talented family. My lovely Dad was a French Polisher and furniture restorer. I spent many hours with him in his shed watching and learning some of his skills. So you could say making and restoring furniture is in my DNA.

"I trained originally in Theatre Wardrobe & Design but was side tracked somehow into the world of legal services. My creative instincts never left, and for over 20 years I nurtured my artistic appetite by studying upholstery at night school.

"Every Monday night I would turn up straight from work in my heels and business suite and lose myself for a couple of hours in something completely different from the day job."

"My love of furniture, interior design and upholstery skills collided when in 2010 I was suddenly made redundant. Having had enough of the corporate rat race I decided to take the plunge, go self-employed and turn my hobby into a business, making a new start and a new career at Ella Jenkins Designs."

Initially, Ella quite literally worked at the kitchen table.

"At first, I took every and any job I could, but soon found out that this wasn't always a profitable or good for me. So I learnt by my mistakes and having discovered modern furniture is mostly made from chipboard, cardboard and nasty cheap foam, I decided to focus on vintage and antique furniture.

"Old furniture is built to last, and every piece tells a story and is a little history lesson in itself. Fabrics, trimmings, style of upholstery and even things found down the sides of chairs all reveal the era and the lifestyles of the chair and their previous owners."

Ella advises: "Please don't take such pieces to the tip, with a little bit of imagination and a bit of tlc they can be brought back to life, giving you furniture to treasure for many years to come."

Over time, Ella had the outbuildings to her home converted into a proper workshop, and slowly but surely the business grew.

She continued: "Before I knew it, I got a lot of repeat business and didn't really need to advertise as for every job I did, I received at least two recommendations. I gained a reputation for quality work, turning tired and faded furniture back into something beautiful and functional.

"I discovered that the people of Stamford, Rutland and surrounding areas wanted to be really involved in the creative process, to make active decisions about design, colour and fabric so that they ended up with the exactly the perfect piece that reflected their home and their own style and not something you could find on the main stream High Street.

"There also seemed to be a growing market for furniture that is unique, bespoke and personal, so I very occasionally made and sold just a few of my own designs."

"All was going very well. I took on Tim, who was made redundant from Cummins, to work a couple of mornings a week helping to strip off the old upholstery and making repairs to frames. We had a full order book and a three month waiting list and then the Pandemic happened …"

Within a week of the first lockdown being announced

nearly every job was postponed or cancelled. Ella explained: "People were frightened, worried about their jobs, due to health reasons some had to shield or isolate and in the overall scheme of things having your antique chair upholstered wasn't all that important. "I understood that, I was scared too. During the following couple of months everything went very, very quiet. It wasn't possible to go to people's houses to do quotes or for them to come to the workshop to choose fabrics and discuss design options and there is only so much you can do via email. "Lots of my suppliers were also closed. So I finished off the few projects I did have, delivering them back without contact to their owners, tidied up the workshop, gave it a good old clean, decluttered my house, gardened a lot and waited. And then I got bored." Such a situation took Ella and her business in a new direction. She said: "One day I went back in the workshop and pondered. I realised that the one thing I did have in my favour was time itself. At last I had time to work on all those old chairs lying around patiently waiting to be transformed. "Yes, it was a bit of a busman's holiday, but I loved it. I re-discovered my latent textile skills from my theatre wardrobe days and combined them with my upholstery skills to create unique pieces of furniture. "Next I worked on re-vamping my very dated website (with the assistance of an extremely patient friend). I re-visited my almost dormant Etsy Shop and listed my new work for sale. I got to grips with social media, a huge learning curve requiring all sorts of new skills and started promoting my own designs and then I waited…" Ella continued: "It soon became clear that lots of people were stuck at home, they had disposable income and they wanted something functional and comfortable to sit on, but they also wanted it to be beautiful to look at. "My chairs started to sell both locally ( a lovely neighbour has bought 2 chairs and a footstool) and then on-line. I spent a lot of time travelling up and down to Yorkshire (3 times in one week) delivering my chairs in a safe and contactless manner knowing they would arrive safely and in one piece. It was Summer, lovely weather and the roads were quiet. I like driving and it also got me out of the workshop!" Now, Ella finds people asking her to do certain jobs, especially for them. "They will say 'Can you do something with peacocks?'. 'My husband loves owls- can you do a footstool for him?' "In addition to my work people also wanted a bespoke service. I was back in business, a different sort of business, but it's a business that I really enjoy. "I have just done a review of 2020 and was amazed to find that I sold 25 pieces of my own work - and have done 15 commissioned projects, which from pretty much a standing start is amazing." In conclusion, Ella now feels that in a strange way the pandemic has been good for her. She added: "It has pushed me and my business in a new direction, but I am happy with that direction. "I have rediscovered my textile skills and by blending them with traditional upholstery skills and my love of antique and vintage furniture I feel I have the best of both worlds. It makes me happy and I love what I do. "It's good to be creative once again. In a nutshell, my work is local, it's sustainable, unique and lasting. These are my watchwords."

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