A furniture business in Perth that appears regularly on afternoon television show Money for Nothing has helped refurbish chairs for a local cancer charity by getting them sponsored.
Sarah’s Attic on Princes Street was approached by the Macmillan Quarrymill Coffee Shop which wanted a quote for refurbishing the cafe’s chairs for the new season opening on Wednesday.
However owner Sarah Peterson , whose shop specialises in upcycling furniture, did not agree with charging a charity for her work so the designer slashed her prices by more than 50% and put out an appeal on social media for people to sponsor the remaining price of each chair.
Sarah said although the Macmillan coffee shop only had 28 chairs to refurbish, within half an hour of the appeal going out they had enough pledges to fix closer to 100.
Sarah said: “They approached us and asked if I could price up all the chairs but after trying to cost them we knew it would be far to costly and it didn’t sit right with us to charge a charity.
“So we dropped our cost to under half and then we approached all our lovely customers and all Macmillan’s lovely customers to get sponsorship for the rest of the cost.
“Macmillan helps so many people so it’s such a great cause.”
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Each sponsor will have a small wooden name plaque on their chair which will say ‘donated by’ or ‘in memory of’ and will get a certificate card.
Alfie Iannetta, Sarah’s business partner, said: “The response to our Facebook post regarding the chairs was amazing and we had sponsorship of all 28 chairs within half an hour.
“Thanks to everyone that has supported this project.”
Ruth Makay, chairwoman of the Macmillan Quarrymill coffee shop, thanked Sarah and Alfie.
She said: “First they offered to do them for a very reasonable price and they got them all sponsored so we got them for free.
“It was very good of them to do that.”
Sarah also gave special thanks to a number of local businesses that helped in their project including Fusion Mineral Paint, Jordan Baptie Garden Services, Blind Revolution and Kevin Stephen.
Sarah and her shop have also become regulars on the BBC show Money for Nothing over the last two years which focuses on recycling objects instead of always throwing things away.
She most recently appeared on the show on Tuesday and hopes to begin filming a new season in May.
Sarah said: “It’s been a phenomenal experience.
“We’ve been filming with them for two years and I’ve been on the show about eight times. It’s been really good for the shop and good for Perth because they’ve managed to capture it in the best possible light.”
