Dolly Did It

Local Dulwich based business Dolly Did It’s main aim is to upcycle unloved pieces of furniture and make them not only loved again but unique.

I run Dolly Did It with the help of my Mum. We’ve always enjoyed giving items a new lease of life and never throw anything out! After training at The BRIT School in Technical Theatre, I decided I didn’t want to go to university. I’d learnt a lot of new skills so when I came round to leaving at 18 I took the plunge and set it up.

One of the most common questions we get asked is “Who’s Dolly?” Dolly was my little doll when I was younger. When I was 2 years old my dolly was responsible for spilling a pot of paint all over the carpet, sofa and walls. When it happened I toddled into the other room and told my Mum “Dolly did it” and have yet to live it down. However Dolly is applying her paint more usefully now!

Our method of upcycling is very much to support the items original shape but to create new pieces that people want in their home. By using furniture that has already had a full life with somebody else we can upcycle it and make it into something fresh and contemporary. Older furniture was built to last and we have found some amazing pieces along the way that we have restored mainly by painting and decoupaging them. Every piece of furniture has a unique character and we like to keep that by creating one off pieces.

It’s amazing the amount of things that people have thrown out that could be upcycled in some way. When we decoupage we not only use wallpapers and gift wrap but also vintage maps, used stamps, children’s books and comics including vintage Ladybird Books and Beanos. We’ve upcycled vinyl records into clocks and cake stands, vintage tennis rackets into mirrors and even a hockey stick into a row of hooks which we liked to call a “Hookey Stick”.

We sell mainly at local markets including Herne Hill Market where we first started trading in July 2014. We started off by selling smaller pieces like little side tables and chairs but have recently started to expand to bigger pieces such as chest of drawers as well. In the beginning of 2016 we decided to start trading online so you can now find our pieces for sale on eBay and Etsy. We are also open to doing commissions.

Not only can you find pieces for sale online but you can see our most recent pieces on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages, where we post pictures as soon as they’ve been completed.

To see more photos of our work, what we’re selling online and our social media pages see our website www.dollydidit.co.uk.