Turning old furniture into shabby chic gems
When sitting behind a desk was more than Frank Taal could stand he turned his hobby into a business.
He tapped into the fashion for upcycling – for turning one person’s rubbish into another person’s fashionable furniture – and launched Shabby to Chic.
“My wife likes French-style furniture and I started painting items for her. She put them on Facebook and they got a lot of ‘likes’ and people started asking me if I would do pieces for them,” said Frank.
He trawls auctions, second-hand and charity shops and looks on eBay for pieces to transform, and the shop in North Marine Road, Scarborough, is home to his workshop as well as his shop window.
There are Welsh dressers, wardrobes, dressing tables, dining tables and chairs and chest of drawers in various stages of refurbishment in the shop and more pieces in a garage at the back of the building.
He plays down his eye for seeing the potential in a piece of old furniture, saying: “I’ve always been handy with a brush, it comes easy to me.
He said: “A lot of furniture is skipped and most of it is solid furniture. It is such a waste so being able to restore it and give it a new lease of life is great.”
The son of a fisherman and brought up in the Old Town, Frank went to Friarage and Graham schools and studied tourism and leisure management at Yorkshire Coast College.
He met his wife Melanie at college and they have three children, Jessica, eight, Bella, four, and seven-month-old Nellie. They live near the town centre.
Frank has worked as a croupier for Grosvenor casino in Scarborough, run an ink cartridge and toner business with Melanie and laboured for a decorator in between jobs.
“The ink cartridge business was successful and it gave me the chance to launch this business,” said Frank. “I did not like being behind a desk.”
He changes his style to suit tastes – quirky colours are now passe and cream is in.
Much of his business comes from social media, particularly Facebook.
This allows him to sell as far as York and Hull and all places in between.
You can see Frank’s work on https://www.facebook.com/ shabbytochic12/