Each year, the Small Business Centre of Barrie, Simcoe County and Orillia brings on board 20 businesses that are looking for assistance with starting, growing or purchasing a business. The Starter Company Plus program offers these entrepreneurs extensive training, mentorship, networking opportunities and the chance to receive a micro-grant of up to $5,000. Get connected to Barrie's business support network by taking the first step with the Starter Company. Eligible entrepreneurs can inquire about an application package at smallbusiness@barrie.ca.
Some learned to play an instrument, some caught up on a long reading list, and some perfected their banana bread recipe. Stay-at-home orders during the pandemic gave many of us an opportunity to finally explore new things and learn new skills. For Jessica Russell of Sunday Stroll, this was certainly no different as she developed her talent and love for restoring and upcycling all kinds of furniture! What started out as a hobby quickly grew into a flurry of requests to purchase her creations and to breathe new life into beloved family pieces. Jessica quit the corporate world and hasn’t looked back.
With popularity and interest in restoration and upcycling showing clear signs of continued growth, the Small Business Centre of Barrie, Simcoe County and Orillia is sure that Jessica will be able to continue bringing new life to old furniture long after she graduates the Starter Company Plus program.
Read on to learn more about Sunday Stroll.
What inspired you to start a business?
Sunday Stroll happened by accident. During the pandemic, I began to upcycle furniture in my home as a way to keep busy during the stay-at-home mandates. When I ran out of pieces at home to work on, I began to source items curbside left by folks in the neighbourhood. I would bring them into my home, fix them up and, having no further plan in mind, I would post them to a then newly created Instagram account as a means to simply document my work and nothing more.
When I began being approached by users interested in purchasing my work, it propelled me to produce more and soon I was posting refinished furniture for sale almost daily. I never ended up returning to my corporate job and instead moved all my attention over to Sunday Stroll. You can access my story in more detail in a recent blog post “How it Started” at www.sundaystroll.ca.
What products or services do you offer?
Sunday Stroll is vintage furniture elevated. I source older, quality pieces of furniture and bring to them a new life through cosmetic improvements (paints, stains, textiles and hardware), often making each piece more modern and in line with current design trends. I regularly produce from pieces I’ve sourced myself, but I also take on a small number of custom jobs through my program Sunday Bespoke. The custom work program is geared toward people who have a piece of furniture in their home that they may not love but boasts sentimental value from which they cannot part. Through several design consultations, I am able to get a sense of what can be done to restore the piece and the owner’s love for it in their home. In addition, Sunday Stroll has also introduced home decor items an avenue to complement furniture. The collection is specifically curated with our large items in mind and is intended to act as finishing touches on our one-of-a-kind furniture pieces.
What has been your favourite piece of furniture to restore/design?
It’s difficult to pinpoint a favourite piece because most items end up with a total facelift by completion and it’s the potential within each piece that I get the most excitement from. Having said that, I’ve completed several radio bars and their transformation is always really fun. I gut vintage phonographs (record players built into heavy wood furniture pieces) and restore them to function as a minibar. Sometimes it’s obvious and other times it is more of a speakeasy hiding in plain sight. These are especially fun because not only does their appearance change, but the function of the piece does too.
How did you come up with your business name?
Sunday Stroll is meant to epitomize the faultless phenomenon of being you and doing you. Most people associate Sunday with a day to rest, to take the dog on a long walk, maybe visit a farmers’ market or get a pedicure, enjoy a boozy brunch and so on. My intention was to bestow this feeling beyond the homeowner and onto the home itself through one-of-a-kind furniture meant exactly to provoke the same emotion that a perfectly spent Sunday does. Just as you are in the perfect slice of time living your best life, your one-of-a-kind dresser is too.
What is unique about your business?
What’s unique about Sunday Stroll is the furniture itself. Because I source furniture on an ongoing basis contingent on what’s available and where, there is no rhyme or reason as to what products will be brought to market or when. Beyond the pieces produced, there exists a second stream of uniqueness in the production itself. I have never repeated the same exact application to a product. Oftentimes, I will repeat hardware and occasionally I will repeat colour pattern or fabric, but never are two pieces identical.
Where do you see your business going in the next 12-24 months?
I’ve just expanded my business to a larger workshop space in order to facilitate higher production rates and better content opportunities. Within that space I am planning to eventually introduce workshopping and in-person shopping experiences, both of which will be framed more so as special events rather than regular day to day business. My vision is to introduce Sunday Stroll as a concept rather than just home furnishings and to encourage people to spend a day off immersed in that experience. I am also toying with ideas (remember the whiteboard?!) surrounding interior decor on a grander scale. I would really love the opportunity to contribute my style and the concept of restoration to a project in its raw state; for example, the complete furnishing of a motel or Airbnb with recycled and restored furniture.
What advice would you have for someone starting out in the DIY world?
Experiment is everything. Breaking down the abbreviation, you’re literally choosing to take on a task yourself. Rather than outsource or select the paid option, you’re accepting the job as something you’re going to carry out from start to finish using only your own resources. It’s important when doing this to allot time and effort for experimentation. Try something and expect to learn from it. There will always be alternate ways to carry out a project, but you won’t know what works best for you until you welcome experiment.
If you could design anyone’s house, who would it be and what theme would you give it?
I’m predicting that as all iconic television shows do, the Golden Girls will meet a reboot and that is a set I would love to contribute to. Though my inventory isn’t specific to one design era and my design implementation isn’t specific to one aesthetic, I do have a particular appreciation for southern retro. Golden Girls, set in 1980s Miami, perfectly encapsulates a vibe I find myself routinely drawn to. The way tropical plants pop against pastel interiors and the neutrality seen in rattan and warmer wood furniture is something I find myself recreating now and again in my own work. Reflecting a reboot, I would also incorporate some later 1980s trends inclusive of bolder pinks and golds, oversized leather couches, and colour pops such as a basket of oranges atop the dining table, or Martinique wallpaper on the ceiling.
What do you hope to achieve through the Starter Company Plus program?
Being totally candid, I feel like I’ve been working backward through the development of Sunday Stroll. I created the product first, the social media presence came second, and here I am only now gaining a formal education on business management. I am confident that through the program I will be able to achieve a solid foundation for the operations of both my day-to-day work, and the execution of my long-term goals. The grant component within the program would help achieve my goal in bringing Sunday Stroll to my next projected level: a destination for immersive experience. But that’s not something I’d feel confident in delivering without all the knowledge and self-assurance implemented through the educational component.
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www.sundaystroll.ca offers all items available for sale as well as access to the blog Sunday School and information on their custom work program Sunday Bespoke. You can also shop directly from their posts on Instagram @sundaystroll_ or on Facebook @shopsundaystroll_