I was excited to take part last week in a one-off training session with Out of the Dark, as part of the May Design Series Silent Auction.  For those not in the know,  Out of the Dark is a charitable enterprise run by Jade and Jay Blade, that trains young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the art of furniture manufacturing and up-cycling. 

Along with seven other well known bloggers & jounarlists we were asked to get our creative groove on to help design a bespoke re-upholstered chair to assist in raising funds for these young people. Each chair will be put up for a silent auction at the entrance to May Design Series from 18-20th May at London ExCeL. The maximum bid for each chair will go to Street Dreams, Out of the Dark’s registered charity with event organisers UBM to match fund all winning bids –essentially doubling the pot!

Here’s a look of us in action 😉

We were each given a chair to upholster.

Jay with Yassir explaining to us the different stages in upholstering a chair…

Time to take some measurements…

Then it was the fun part, cutting the foam with some help from Yassir.

A lot of spray glue was involved…

More cutting…

Choosing the fabric…

A few chats and giggles along the way…

And voila, my upholstered seat . This will be placed on the chosen chair which I currently do not have an image of. As soon as I do will share it on here.

Jade commented:  “We’re looking forward to being a part of May Design Series this year, and we can’t wait to see how much we raise from the Silent Auction – we urge visitors to bid generously!”

May Design Series will take place at London’s ExCeL from 18-20 May. For a chance to bid on one of our chairs during the show make sure to visit the show or you can do it via online by clicking here once the bidding goes live.

Here is a list of bloggers/journalists that are also involved:

• Carole King, co-Editor of Heart Home magazine and blogger at Dear Designer’s
• Yasmin Chopin, interior designer and blogger at YasminChopin.com
• Kate Watson-Smyth, freelance interiors writer and blogger at Mad About the House 
• Tina Bernstein, freelance interiors writer and blogger at Colour Living
• Laura Almond, Web Editor at Achica Living
• Kate Burnett, Editor at The Schemer
• Denise Mahmud, Trendease