Please, everyone welcome our brand new segment… “5 Minutes With…”.
Each month we’re going to be looking at interviewing someone cool, prolific and inspiring within the interiors and homeware industry and with that said, we’re thrilled that reestore Director and up-cycling entrepreneur, Max McMurdo, is our first interviewee!
We met Max at the Dulux Colour Futures talk where we chewed his ear off about Fill Your House For Free whilst painting wooden moustaches (what an odd sentence).
Here’s our 5 minutes with Max McMurdo…
Tell us about the first place you called “home” and how did you make it your own?
I actually still live in my first cottage which I purchased as a complete ruin, there was no plaster, electrics or water! Over a 2 year period I renovated it learning loads of new skills along the way whilst reinstating loads of character and period features such as the huge fireplace where I installed a log burner and exposing the beautiful wooden lintels.
What’s been your biggest upcycling challenge so far and what project are you most proud of?
To date the biggest and most challenging upcycle was the airbus a320 for ch4s Supersized Salvage. However my next project I’m about to embark on is to build myself a house out of scrap for 50k – I’m genuinely scared!
How do you know when a piece of rubbish is a lost cause or has the potential to become a masterpiece?
It’s a fine line really, pretty much anything can be salvaged, repaired and structurally supported but I tend to leave things well alone if they are dangerously rusty and sharp. You’ve also got to be aware of fire regs when it comes to fabric.
What’s your next exciting project?
The aforementioned house, it was never particularly supposed to be upcycled but naturally my brain thinks about using scrap first so it’s become a homage to my last 11 years running reestore.
What piece of advice do you wish you’d been given when you started restoring?
Don’t do it for the money! You’ll unlikely get rich from restoring or upcycling, I dread to think what my actual hourly rate is! It’s a labour of love, a passion and the most incredible feeling in the world when you take something from a skip and turn it into a desirable and saleable item.
“Don’t do it for the money!”
You can find out more about Max and reestore here and follow him on Twitter here for all the latest goings-on.
Huge thanks to Max for taking the time to take part in our new interview slot and best of luck with the house!
David & Mark x
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