1. 4746
I
sold the wedding gift given to me by my husband for
£500 to help fund this project!’ laughs Elisicia Moore,
founder of the Petit Miracles furniture restoration
project in Shepherd’s Bush, which trains people
who are long-term unemployed to restore and upcycle
second-hand furniture. ‘It was one of my favourite pieces,
a beautiful Ray and Charles Eames lounger. Luckily my
husband is sympathetic to what I do, he jokingly says I’m a
“charity chick” – he knows I’m just trying to help people.’
With a background in interior design and charity work,
Canadian Elisicia came to London in 2005, intending to
stay only a few months. ‘When I first arrived here I worked
for the homelessness charity Thames Reach. I managed
their painting and decorating training programme and
started doing interior design as a way to engage with more
women and encourage them to use our services. That’s
how I inadvertently tested Petit Miracles, and because I had
incubated the idea already so I knew it would work, it just
made sense.’
UPCYCLING AND RESTORATION
Although the charity initially started by offering accredited
interior design training to local authorities, homeless
organisations and abuse centres, a changing economic
climate meant the business plan had to change too.
‘Originally I would take the training to their location and
then we would redo a communal space in the building
while the participants worked for their qualification,’ Elisicia
explains. ‘But when the recession came along our funding
wasn’t renewed – the organisations wanted something more
tangible for their money, it wasn’t enough for people to just
earn a certificate.’
After brainstorming ideas to make the project more
relevant and sustainable, Elisicia decided to reinvent Petit
Miracles into an upcycling and restoration enterprise. ‘We
wanted to keep design at the centre of what we do, but
instead of just delivering training we started to apply our
design skills to furniture. Not just any furniture but pieces
we had diverted from landfill. We use the furniture as an
engagement tool and we teach people who are long-term
unemployed how to restore it, so they learn skills such as
Petit MiraclesLindsey Harrad discovers how
Elisicia Moore is restoring pride and
furniture in West London through the
Petit Miracles project.
FOCUS ON:
‘Luckily my
husband is
sympathetic to
what I do, he
jokingly says
I’m a “charity
chick”
RL29.P46_49.feat_petit.4ng.indd 46-47 12/03/2016 14:07

2. 48 49
ABOVE: Elisicia showing
a trainee some painting
techniques.
BELOW: New life is
breathed into quality
pieces of furniture.
ABOVE
LEFT: The Shepherd’s Bush
shop where furniture from
the project is sold.
LEFT: Each piece is
beautifully restored to
very high standards.
The Hub
In addition to the training programme and shop,
Elisicia also provides a thriving marketplace for other
creative small businesses. ‘The Petit Miracles Hub
is a business incubation project providing low-cost
access to the retail market for local businesses, so
we have 20 pop-ups within a pop-up,’ says Elisicia.
‘We also provide services such as
business workshops, mentoring,
networking events and lots
of other benefits. We have
some really talented
makers, crafters and
designers in the
Hub. Our selection
criteria is strict
and now only
accepts people
if they totally
understand what
the Hub is and
how it works,
and are willing to
completely embrace
the opportunity.’
design, painting and upholstery, but alongside that we are
also embedding employability skills.’
CHALLENGING TIMES
Petit Miracles now has a contract with a work experience
placement provider that takes referrals from the Job
Centre to provide month-long placements and another
with Pinnacle People for six-month placements, as well as
volunteers who approach the project on their own initiative
to work one day a week.
Working with people who are long-term unemployed who
may have a history of homelessness or substance abuse
means that the trainees may be as challenging to manage
as some of the old pieces of furniture that come through the
doors of the workshop. ‘We are often dealing with old pieces
of furniture that have a history, and some
of them are as cantankerous as they look!’
laughs Elisicia. ‘It can be so frustrating
for the team to drag these horrible pieces
into the new century and make them
into something people will be willing to
buy. Equally, sometimes people who are
referred to us are disengaged from the
world around them, disenfranchised from
society and generally angry at everything,
and it can be just as hard for our team to
deal with. But 9.5 times out of 10 by the
end of their month with us their outlook is
a lot happier. In fact, most of them want
to stay on when their month is up, which
I think is a testament to the approach and
attitude of my staff.’
However, some of the project’s biggest
success stories are among their own
team, which is entirely made up of people who have
gone through the programme. Iyoub, the Petit Miracles
workshop manager, came through one of the very first work
experience placements via the Job Centre and
went on to become the company’s first full-
time employee. Elisicia also now runs an
apprenticeship programme, and their
first apprentice was taken on to be
their general manager.
It’s Iyoub’s job to source the
right pieces of furniture for the
workshop. ‘We are a business – we
don’t want to look like a charity
shop. We are a cut above that, so
we do have to be careful about which
donations we take and how we display
it,’ says Elisicia. ‘We only take pieces
that are suitable for restoration. I spent
three years going to auction every Monday,
so I’m kind of over it now! I’ve passed the gauntlet to
Iyoub and he’s really fired up about doing it.’
WORK WITH PRIDE
Elisicia says that quality control is important, as each
piece has to be good enough to be displayed with pride
in the shop in the West12 shopping centre in Shepherd’s
Bush and profits from sales are ploughed back into the
training programme. ‘Each piece has to be restored to a
high standard and this helps our trainees experience what
the real world and working for a real business is like. Each
trainee goes through a progression from learning how to
clean brushes and rollers and how to take care of the tools,
through to sanding, priming, painting, varnishing, waxing
and special effects; they have to earn their way to the top.’
It’s been a tough journey at times for Elisicia and she
admits she’s only survived it because she’s ‘tenacious,
stubborn and determined not to crack under pressure! I
never planned for this to be what it is today. My
original vision was to create a regular business
with a charitable focus, but this wasn’t
sustainable and has since developed
into a social enterprise. The learning
curve hasn’t been so much a curve
as a 90-degree angle!’ she says.
‘But in the end I believe in the
transformative power of interior
design and its positive effect on our
psyche, our wellbeing and even on
our ability to heal ourselves.’ Elisicia
reflects: ‘Recently we worked with a
group of women who were domestic
abuse survivors and we taught them how to
restore furniture. At the end of the project we
redesigned an unused communal room at the refuge
with bespoke curtains, cushions, furniture and painting.
This room is now used all the time and the people who live
there love it. The women who did this work, I swear, they
were walking three feet taller by the end of the project. It
was part of a healing journey for them, building their
self-esteem and giving them pride in being able to give
something back.’
You can take part in upcycling workshops on the first and
second Saturdays of each month. Tickets are £35 per
person, or bring a friend for and extra £5 – making it just
£20 each. Courses are available to book online at
www.petitmiracles.org.uk. Follow the charity’s progress on
twitter and Instagram @petitmiracles.
‘Each piece
has to be
restored to a
high standard
and this helps
our trainees
experience
what the real
world and
working for a
real business
is like’
RL29.P46_49.feat_petit.4ng.indd 48-49 12/03/2016 14:07