“Restoring furniture is kind of like restoring yourself,” Jay Blades – the face of the BBC’s wholesome and beloved The Repair Shop – tells The Big Issue.
The other person with us wholeheartedly agrees. After all, Steve Wyatt is the living embodiment of it.
Wyatt, 45, used to sell The Big Issue at Pero’s Bridge in Bristol for three years as he battled to overcome his drug addiction.
After turning his life around to become a successful furniture restorer, he and Blades will open a new shop together in Poole, Dorset, next week – the latest step on a remarkable road to redemption.
So what brought these two men from seemingly different worlds together? The love of restoring scuffed stools, chipped chairs and tatty tables back to former glories, of course.
“A massive drive for both of us is moving forward and
