Sarah Teresinksi: Upcycling for Stylish Home Decor
When Sarah Teresinski was a single mom, she couldn’t afford the beautiful little dresses she saw in stores for her daughter. So she decided to teach herself how to sew. That simple decision sparked a movement — and eventually, Redeux Style, where Sarah transforms old, unused items into something new and beautiful. Today, she helps people see the potential in what they already have or what they might find at the thrift stores — proving that sustainable can be stylish too.
Hear Sarah talk about:
How teaching herself to sew turned into a full-time creative business
What it was like to face criticism early on — and why it fueled her mission
The difference between fast fashion, fast furniture, and true sustainable style
Her viral ceiling fan upcycle that caught the attention of The Drew Barrymore Show and Architectural Digest
How small, beautiful changes can make a big impact — for your home and the planet
Mentioned in this episode:
See Sarah's appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show
Sarah's friend Dan the Organizer Man
“If everybody that follows me across social media did one upcycle a year, that’s upwards of 60,000 lbs. I mean, that’s a lot. That’s like 5,600 garbage trucks saved out of a landfill.”
Episode 21 Notes
Stacy: This is Tell Me What It’s Like, a show about life-changing decisions, extraordinary challenges, and defining moments. I’m Stacy Raine.
Sarah Teresinski was a single mom when she decided to teach herself how to sew. She saw cute dresses in stores for her daughter, but they were out of reach for her financially.
The only option she thought was to make them herself.
That one decision eventually led to Redeux Style, where Sarah upcycles items she finds in thrift stores, state sales, and sometimes even off the side of the road.
She’s turned old fan blades into entryway hooks, old skateboards into toilet paper holders, even drier lint into fire starters plus transformed so many other items that would've otherwise ended up in a landfill into more cool things for the home.
And she teaches people how to do what she does, turn old things into something new and beautiful on her social media pages.
Sarah, welcome to the show.
Sarah: Thank you so much for having me.
Sewing For Her Daughter
Stacy: Sarah, I actually first heard about you through my sister because she sent me a picture of a filing cabinet that she had wallpapered and she said, there's a woman online that had the idea to wallpaper it.
And so here it is. It looked phenomenal. But then she told me she was collecting dryer lint for fire starters.
And I was like, okay, well I need to go look her up.
So let’s talk about how you got started. I talked about that a little bit in the intro.
How did you go from sewing things for your daughter to where you are now?
Sarah: Yes. I started when my daughter, Lennon, was really tiny.
She was a little baby girl.
I wanted to buy really cool things, and I could not afford them.
I was a single mom at the time. [I'm now married with two more beautiful children.]
So I decided that I was going to make my own, so I taught myself how to sew.
I actually watched YouTube videos and I taught myself how to sew.
But I decided I was going to do it with secondhand items, so my old band tees and my old maternity clothes.
So I started making her dresses and bibs and all sorts of fun things out of all of that and that's kind of where it started.
Redeux Kids
Sarah: From that point I started making things for her and then eventually when she was about four, I met my husband.
And from there is where it really took off.
He was like, “Baby, you need to do this. This is great. You should do Redeux Kids.”
And then he said, “Spell it the French way.”
And I was like, “oh, that’s great”.
So on our honeymoon, we came up with Redeux Kids. I literally manifested everything that’s happened all the way up to now with him on our honeymoon, which is crazy because that was 15 or 16 years ago.
It’s been quite a journey.
When I started Redeux Kids, initially it was all about remaking clothing for kids. I had a friend come over to my house one day when we lived in Kansas City, and I had been making little things for Lennon.
I made these little cuffs out of worn leather and buttons. She would ask:
“What are these?
“Where are these outfits from?”
And I said, “Oh, I made that out of an old prom dress.”
She said, “Well, I’m doing a photo shoot for a magazine.
Can I take these for the kids?”
And I said, “Uh, yeah, you can.”
That’s kind of where the whole upcycling thing started.
From Kids Clothing to Home Decor
Sarah: From there, local news wanted to do back-to-school fashion, upcycled. So I literally started doing television segments long before I was ever an influencer.
I struggled to get followers online for a long time. But it just kept growing.
First they asked me to do back-to-school fashion, then upcycled Halloween costumes.
I went from Kansas City to all the morning shows in Chicago, then to Dallas, where I moved next.
Now I’m in Austin.
Everywhere I went, every morning show said “let’s do it.”
I upcycled Thanksgiving tablescapes, then they asked me to do home decor.
I’ve always had a love of interior design, so I started doing mostly interiors and showing people how to rework and reuse what they have. Occasionally I still do a refashion.
Then someone said, “You’ve got to do TikTok.”
And I was like, “I’m not doing TikTok.” And they said, “You’ve got to do it.”
So I made a TikTok, and I started it with, “It’s time for an upcycle,” because I’m always upcycling. And then it just kind of went nuts from there.
It’s been this really amazing journey. Out of necessity, it ended up turning into what I call being a sustainable stylist.
I don’t really know anybody else who quite does what I do, so I’m kind of making it up as I go. But I love it so much.
At first, it wasn’t even about understanding or knowing what my carbon footprint was. It was about necessity but now, it’s so much more.
It’s been quite a journey, and I’m loving every bit of it.
Stacy: I think it’s really neat that your husband was the one who encouraged you to do it. And so you said you manifested the whole thing.
You had this grand idea of where you are now, even 15 years ago.
Sarah: Yes. And I have a lot of things in the works that I can’t quite talk about yet, but they’re part of that. I was like, okay, this is what I want to do. I had this whole concept, and we just rolled right through it.
It’s taken quite a long time, but compared to how it was then, it’s definitely different now.
Early on, I did a fashion show for Kansas City Fashion Week, and I showed my first kids’ collection. I made it all out of old sheets and all sorts of fun stuff when I had just started.
I remember standing on the side of the stage, so excited that I had sewn all this myself.
And I heard two designers on the opposite side of the curtain talking about how tacky my collection was.
Now, if I showed you my collection, you would be like, so cute. Giant oversized harem-style rompers made out of vintage Ralph Lauren sheets.
Stacy: Yeah, I mean—
Sarah: Beautiful old dresses made into little rompers for kids, and old medical scrubs made into really cool surfer shorts for boys. It was so fun. But they thought it was gross that it was thrifted stuff.
Obviously now, I can kind of go, well, you know, who was right and who was wrong. But in hindsight, I needed that.
I needed that moment to say, you know what, this whole thing about reusing and upcycling, finding the beauty in old things, really needs to come to the forefront.
That was literally my niche. That’s what made me stand out and be so unique. And I’m thankful for that moment.
Now, of course, everyone’s doing upcycled clothing collections and all this stuff, and I’m like, yeah, I’m glad everybody’s doing it now. It makes me happy.
From Single Mom to Sustainable Design Advocate
Stacy: You said you really wanted this to come to the forefront. Why did you feel that way? What made you feel that was the need?
Sarah: Well, a couple of things.
Starting with being a single mom for a brief amount of time, even though I’ve been so happily married with more kids for a long time, I will never forget that. It almost chokes me up.
It’s very, very difficult not to be able to have things for your child.
I didn’t have it. I was a single mom. There was nobody else helping, no one taking her on the weekends. It was just me paying for everything, doing everything.
So I really was a single mom.
That ability to help other people know that you can have darling things and give your kids all the things you want mattered to me.
I had a lot of wealthy friends when I was younger, and they would talk about the parties and all of that. And it makes you feel like crap. You’re happy for them, but it’s like, I want to do something too.
I found that by using my imagination and hitting the thrift store, I could do that—almost better than they were doing it. It had that vintage cool.
I’ve always had this old-world feeling. I didn’t want thrifting and secondhand and DIY to be kitschy and crafty. I wanted them to be cool, stylish, and edgy.
So first it was that desire to help people. Then, when I really learned about the waste in fashion—fast fashion—and now fast furniture, I was like, holy cow. We’ve got to slow it down a little bit.
Being able to make sustainability and upcycling fun without being preachy about it was important, because everything I do is already sustainable.
I very rarely give statistics. Sometimes I do, but really, if you just do a tiny bit, you’re making such a big change.
I wanted people to realize, through educating, that not only can you have a beautiful home and a beautiful wardrobe, and vintage and secondhand can be really cool, and you can take care of your kids and save money
—but on top of all that, you’re helping the planet, which is huge.
It just became a mission. And I’m still working on it. I still have ideas where sometimes people, especially in media, push back a little bit.
Everybody wants to be sustainable, but there’s a certain concept of how design should be shown.
And I’m like, no, there’s a whole other way we can show it and do it. So sometimes I have to push back a little bit. But I’m working on it. It’s getting there.
Beyond the Traditional Design Format
Stacy: So I'm curious. I want an example of that. Are you able to give me one?
Sarah: I’ve had different opportunities for different types of things, because everything I produce and put online is about sustainability and design.
My whole concept for myself has always been—I love Martha Stewart, of course. What I love about her is her drive, her ability to do what she does because she’s so good at what she does and she’s authentically herself.
You’ve got to love Martha, right?
Stacy: Right.
Sarah: I’ve always loved that she surrounds herself with people who are better than her in certain areas.
I think I heard her say somewhere, “If someone’s better than me or knows more, I hire them.”
And I love that about her.
You want to surround yourself with people and have a community.
So I’ve always had this vision of a sustainable lifestyle with everything that comes along with that, like Martha Stewart.
My vision for Redeux Style is to be the Martha Stewart— even though no one can be her—of sustainability, with books and a show and all the things.
Because the more I can get it out into the world, the better.
I get a lot of people interested in different things, but sometimes they’ll say,
“Oh, well how much dust is there going to be?”
Or they really want that typical design show format:
“This is our wall, we’re going to paint it, we’re going to pull out this kitchen counter, we're going to do this.”
Which is great. There are tons of great design shows.
But you’re kind of seeing a lot of the same manufactured design things.
There are obviously amazing designers doing amazing things, but I want to up it a little bit and do something different—not even in that category.
So sometimes the pushback I get is that I’ll be offered something, but then they want to mold it into that neat little DIY, start-to-finish format.
And it’s not sustainable, it’s not vintage, it’s not eclectic, it’s not cool.
It’s just the thing that’s already been done.
When I say pushback, I mean trying to get people to realize the vision. And I do have a lot of people who see it, which is so exciting to me. But it’s been tough. It’s been a journey—almost 15 years? Maybe 16 years ago that I started Redeux Style.
The Impact Of One Upcycle
Stacy: You’ve got upwards of 800,000 followers across a few social media platforms, and you made the comment that if each of them did just one upcycle, it would save, I think, 60,000 pounds of waste out of the landfill.
Do I have that correct?
Sarah: Yes, isn’t that crazy?!
Stacy: It’s crazy. And when you think about the impact you could have—number one, helping people make something that makes their house feel more like a home, and also keeping things out of the landfill, that’s a pretty big impact you’re already having.
And when you think about 15 years, that’s a long time to have such a huge impact on so many different people.
Sarah: Yeah. That’s really cool if you look at it that way. It’s very cool.
The statistics are that if everybody who follows me across social media did one upcycle a year—just one little upcycle—that’s upwards of 60,000.
That’s a lot. That’s like 5,600 garbage trucks saved from a landfill.
And the reason that’s so important is because when something goes into a landfill, it doesn’t just go away. It has to break down.
And as it’s breaking down, it produces methane gas, which does a lot of nasty things to the planet.
So if we can just cut back on that, it matters.
There are so many people doing amazing things on the operational and manufacturing side of sustainability, which is incredible.
But I’m trying to reach the other end—the mom in Iowa or the grandma in Ireland.
I want to get those people doing little things, because people make a change, and the people that are the power.
If I can get people to do it because it’s fun, because it’s design, because it’s a challenge, then I love it.
Sustainability Without Judgment
Sarah: Getting the media world to open their eyes to the importance of sustainability but making it fun and approachable is something that I think everybody would love.
I would love to get my platform out to everyone because I feel like everybody, at some point, would love it.
I just hosted a sustainable dinner party at my house. I had about 35 ladies come, and they were all like, “Oh my gosh.”
And I said, you guys can all do this. It’s so much better than just going to a big box store and getting the tablecloth and everything brand new. I love showing people, and it’s so fun to see their reactions.
It’s exciting to me to try to flip the tide and get people who might not be on board yet to start thinking about it.
Early on, when I would say what I do, people would say, “What? I don’t get it.” They didn’t understand that this isn’t just about upcycling.
It’s about sustainable style.
It’s a lifestyle.
And when you watch my videos, you’re not going to be judged.
If you forget your fabric bag at the grocery store and use a plastic one, it’s okay. Obviously we want to use something reusable, but then maybe find a few more ways to reuse that plastic bag at home.
It’s like with your kids. You’re not just nitpicking at them all the time, when they are not getting things right, or doing things the way you want all the time.
It’s okay. A little bit is better than nothing.
Learning Over time
Stacy: Were you always interested in the environment and environmental impact, or did that grow along with you as you started creating things out of what you already had?
Sarah: I remember always caring about animals as a kid, caring about the planet, not wanting trash in the water, not understanding why there was trash on the side of the road. But I didn’t really understand the bigger concepts.
I made a video last week on Instagram and TikTok about words that intimidate people: upcycling, recycling, downcycling, carbon footprint, VOCs, offgassing. I didn’t understand what any of that was.
When I started, it was out of necessity. I didn’t even know what a carbon footprint was. But over the years, through being creative, I’ve really just developed a passion for it, but in a cool, stylish, nonjudgmental way.
It should be a lifestyle. Little things.
It’s like washing your face at night. You just do it. You’re not thinking about what it’s going to do 10 years from now.
So no, not at the beginning. But yes, now. It has evolved. And I’m learning so much more as I go.
I spoke on a panel at the United Nations General Assembly for the United Nations Fashion and Lifestyle Network. I was so honored to be asked to speak on that panel.
Oh my gosh, during that time I learned so many other amazing things.
I just learned so much about the manufacturing and operational side of fast fashion.
I was so honored to be asked to join the United Nations Fashion Lifestyle Network because they don't really have an interior designer on board; it’s mostly fast fashion.
So I’m really trying to bring to the forefront this whole fast furniture concept. I’m learning and the more I learn, the more I love it.
I’m just so inspired by all these amazing women—and men too—who are doing great things to make big change.
It’s pretty cool.
Fast Furniture
Stacy: It is very cool. And I know personally that you’ve inspired a lot of people.
I love your point about fast furniture.
As a military family, we move a lot.
And I have asked this of spouses that are longer time spouses than me whether they get the old stuff from an antique store or buy the stuff that's coming out today?
I have this debate with them because I know in all my moves, the things that I've just bought off of Amazon, the compressed wood or whatever —
Sarah: The IKEA kind of stuff..
Stacy: It lasts one house for me , which is not very long. If we try to move it, it’s probably going to break. If it chips, then that’s it.
Whereas if I go to an antique store or a thrift store and find something that’s solid wood, maybe I have to do a little to it, maybe I don’t.
That furniture’s going to last me 20 years or more. It depends, we move a lot, so furniture takes a beating. The fast furniture thing is real. It doesn’t necessarily last through even, I think, normal use.
Sarah: That’s very true.
But the thing about you buying secondhand furniture is that it probably already is 20 years old.
It’s lasted 20 years already.
You’re not dealing with VOCs and volatile organic compounds, those gases that come off new things. It’s already off-gassed. You’ve got a really cool piece.
I think things look cooler if they’re chipped up and worn in. There’s nothing wrong with hitting IKEA and getting a bookshelf or whatever, if that’s what you want to do of course.
But maybe not all the time.
Teaching People They Can Do This
Sarah: It’s so much more fun to go out and look for things—thrift stores, vintage shops, Facebook Marketplace.
That’s the fun I have in teaching people how to do that. A lot of times people say, “I don’t know how to do this. I can’t do what you do.”
And I’m like, sweetie, you can. You just don’t realize it yet. Anybody can do what I do. I have a bit of an inventor brain, so I look at random things and see things others might not, but people really can do it.
I just moved my daughter into her dorm room. She’s a minimalist. She didn’t want the headboard and wallpaper and pink and all of that. If she had, I would have done it and made it cool and upcycled.
I probably should do an upcycled dorm room, because moms are hiring design teams to do dorm rooms for 20 or 30 grand.
I’m like, ladies, put that into an account for your kid after college and upcycle it. I’m pretty sure if I went head-to-head with one of these designers with only $500, my dorm room would be amazing.
We kept Lennon’s dorm room very simple. We used stuff from the house or bought secondhand. A little peel-and-stick wallpaper on some furniture. It’s the most basic and darling dorm room, and she was very happy with it.
I know there's a lot of programs now where campuses are doing swaps, which is great. I’d love to see that on every campus, especially when kids move out. There’s so much waste—it’s really gross.
I'd like to see when people move out of the dorms, that they do a swap and then the colleges will store it for the kids until they come back.
I think people just don’t know what to do with it all summer.
There’s an initiative starting where people are trying to make this work on campuses. NYU is doing great things. A friend of mine who works with campuses said we should do something, and I said, let’s talk about it.
Fast furniture is scary. I bought some secondhand side tables for my daughter’s room, but they were still cheap and they broke. I’ll be buying something old from a thrift store that I can rework.
People need to understand what happens to that laminate-and-glue furniture. It can’t be recycled. It gets down-cycled and ends up in the landfill.
Not everything can be recycled, and recycling takes a tremendous amount of resources.
If we can upcycle and keep things in the circle without having to break it down and rework it into something else, which is great.
Obviously there's times where that's called for. But if we can just keep it in the circular, just going around and going around and going around. There's so much stuff we could already be using for sure.
Stacy: You made a point earlier about the idea of a swap. There are things I’ve had that I don’t use anymore. Maybe they were gifted to me, or we’ve just moved into a new phase of life.
That’s why it’s so great to go to thrift stores. We’re all in the same boat. Sometimes we need something, and sometimes we don’t. It’s that swap mentality that I find really interesting.
But you take it a step further and make those things new again — adding wallpaper, cleaning them up, reimagining them. I know you turn lots of different things into pillowcases, for example, to make really cool throw pillows.
I think you had a post on upcycling placemats and you turned one into a throw pillow, and stuffed it with old blankets… or were they old sweaters and dog towels? — Yeah, the stained ones.
It just never would have occurred to me to use those as pillow stuffing.
I thought that was brilliant, because I would have thought I needed to go buy a pillow insert. But you already have stuff that you’re not using right now, that you can make something really beautiful out of.
I just think it’s really neat.
Involving Her Family In Redeux Style
Stacy: So you started this when Lennon was a small child, and now she’s in college. What are her thoughts on all of this? Does she love to upcycle like you?
Sarah: People always talk about, do you ever wish your kids were little again? I mean, I have a 9-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy, so they're still little.
But with Lennon, I don’t really wish she were little again. Maybe for a day, because every age is magical. But she is literally my best friend, which chokes me up a little.
Everybody loves Lennon. Everyone loves her. All of my friends love her. They're all friends with her. She is genuinely a better person than I could ever imagine being.
She is incredibly creative. She is a writer and she's in film school. She has an ability to understand dialogue and write. She has been since she was a little girl, so that is her creative outlet.
She’s also an amazing actor. She wants to be a writer and a director and go off into that creative world of visuals. I appreciate that so much about her.
She loves fashion and she loves what I do. She’ll say, “Mom, that’s awesome.” But she’s not really an upcycler. If we’re doing gingerbread houses, she’ll play with it and eat it before she actually builds the house.
But my other two you know, my boys, are designing things. They do television segments and stuff with me a lot, and Lennon, she'll always do anything I ask her.
She's done a ton of segments with me early on. A lot of television stuff.
If I need her, she is there, but if I ask her
“How are you such a performer, but yet you don't..”.
She'll say: “That’s performing. I don’t want to have to be myself.” You know? I was like, okay, okay. I get it. So, I have definite respect for that.
Lennon thinks all of this is amazing. She is my biggest champion, and she'll say, “I’m so proud of you, Mom,” and I always tell her how proud I am of her.
She’s just a cool kid. She thinks it’s very cool.
I tell her she can do anything she wants. She can do literally anything she wants. We try to encourage our kids to be anything they want to be.
But obviously I'm not going to encourage her to be a gymnast. She's five nine. I'm almost five 11. There's no way I'm a gymnast.
But when I see the qualities of my children that they're just so passionate about and really do really well, then I'm like, Lennon, you literally can do anything you want. Just manifest it.
Have your relationship with God, talk to the universe, work hard, be creative, be kind, and you will get anything you want.
We have a really great relationship, and I’m very excited to watch what she does in her future as well. So yeah.
My younger boys are wonderful too. Sebastian is 13 and getting a little too cool for some of the segments. But Ben is always ready — “What are we doing?”
He's like on it. He'll go do anything, or dress up as anything and jump right in.
He's so cute.
Stacy: It’s a family affair?
Sarah: It is a family affair. My husband is — it’s so funny — he’s the biggest supporter, but he doesn’t like to be in front of the camera.
So occasionally I’ll sneak him in there. I did a video once where I was asking everyone what upcycling is to them a few years ago, and I got him on camera.
I said, “What’s upcycling?”
And he’s trying to get the camera out of his face. He goes, “My wife’s happiness.” It was really cute.
He always says he’s labor and I’m management.
I’m like, you’re a smart man. He’s amazing. He’s more of my math guy. He’s an engineer and a vice president of a company, so he’s a little more type A than I am. And I’m all over the place. Creative.
So it’s a good balance.
Stacy: And your mom is an artist.
Sarah: Yeah.
Stacy: So it seems like you’ve got that creative mind.
Sarah: I think everyone in my family is. My dad’s a really great artist.
My kids, all three of them, are great artists.
Lennon’s a great artist. My brother’s a great artist. I’m not.
We painted pumpkins yesterday. I was like, y’all, it’s not my thing. They’re all way better than me. They have the painting artistic ability for sure.
I have a little different skill set.
When It Felt Real
Stacy: I was about to say, you have a lot of artistic ability. Your interior design is incredible.
You mentioned early on that you didn’t want to be so much crafty because you wanted it to be designed, and it really is.
You said you sort of manifested this on your honeymoon, but it took time to get where you are. Was there one point where you thought, wow, this is going to be a thing? Did anything happen that made you feel that way?
Sarah: I would say there were a couple things.
There was a general feeling of interest. When I started doing TikTok, I was doing “It’s time for an upcycle. Today we’re going to rework this.” That started taking off a little bit.
Then I had the Today Show reach out to me. This was February, right before COVID. They were going to come film at my house, and then I was going to go back to the studio and do the reveal. I don’t even remember what we were doing.
Then COVID hit. Everything got shut down. The segment was canceled. I remember thinking, that was going to be my first national segment. I was like, dang.
But I kept in touch with them. I remember thinking, that’s a good sign. If a national show wants to have you on, that’s cool.
Then I focused on other things and did a ton of other segments for my other shows. I love the production value of television. I love doing the design stuff on TV. It’s a great avenue to reach people and be creative.
Toward the end of COVID, I started having people reach out to me from different magazines. Things just kept growing.
Then I posted that ceiling fan blade upcycle. Those fan blades were so ugly, but they had cane on them and they were really cool. I flipped them into hooks and made them for my front entryway.
That went viral. I had maybe a thousand people on Instagram, which was like nothing, and then on TikTok it shot up to 20,000 from one video. I thought that was amazing. From one video like that.
That’s when someone from The Drew Barrymore Show reached out. They said the executive producer saw the video and wanted me on. That was a moment where I thought, okay, this is good. I’m on the right path.
Then Architectural Digest reached out for their AD It Yourself section. They featured me two or three times. That was huge for me because I love Architectural Digest.
Those were the two moments. AD and Drew. When I did Drew with her and Ross, we upcycled a diaper changing table into a bar cart. Drew said, “You have to come back.”
I flew back to Texas from New York, and the next day the producer called asking me to come back the next week. I thought, okay, this is good.
I have such an appreciation for Drew Barrymore. She is the sweetest person and I have loved working with her.
She is very passionate about design and sustainability. She really gave me a platform to put Redeux Style and “It’s time for an upcycle” out there.
That's kind of probably the two things. AD and Drew, those are my two where I was like, okay, we're going somewhere and I'm gonna stay on this.
We're going to keep going up.
Turning Anything Into Something
Stacy: That’s amazing. It does not surprise me that the fan blades caught people’s attention because when I say you have a creative brain, I don't think many people are going to look at fan blades and think, I could turn this into something for my entryway.
You were also challenged at one point to do something with a satellite dish.
Sarah: Yes. A buddy. You know, when you're an influencer, I know people call me that now.. When I first did Drew, Martha Stewart was on, and they're like, TikTok stars, and I was like, oh my God, I'm not a TikTok, but, but I'll take it.
I'm not gonna turn it down. It sounds so corny, but yes, when you're an influencer, you become friends with lots of other influencers, people that have just giant platforms and you have so much fun, talking and becoming friends with them.
It's like being pen pals. So my buddy Dan the Organizer Man, he's very funny.
He's got a great site. Y'all should check it out. He challenged me to upcycle a satellite dish. I had to find one, which was easy on Marketplace because they go to landfills and can’t be recycled.
Stacy: Nothing to do.
Sarah: I thought it looked like one of those bougie little fire tables that you buy at like West or something. I asked my husband if I could get heat-resistant paint that could handle fire. He said yes.
I drilled into it, attached it to a raw iron table, covered it with fire-resistant paint, loaded it with pea gravel, and you could put candles or anything in it, but it was darling.
It was this darling little fire table. So cute. A great way to keep something out of a landfill. We still have it. We live on 15 acres now, so we've got it out on the back part of the property.
That’s one satellite dish out of a landfill.
Stacy: It would never have occurred to me to turn that into a fire pit.
Small Changes, Big Transformations
Stacy: But when I hear you did that, I was like, oh, that actually makes a lot of sense.
For people who are new to you and are thinking, wow, I didn’t realize I could do this — and they start visiting their local thrift stores and making things they’ve never made before — you also teach a lot.
Not just, “Oh, you can do this,” but “Here’s how.” Here’s how you do it. Here are the tools you need. Here’s the glue you should get. Here’s how you clean these types of things.
Besides the practical part of learning how to do all this, what do you think people can learn from being a little more like you and taking these things and making them new for their homes?
Sarah: Well, it’s fun and it’s satisfying. It’s so satisfying.
If it’s only for having a dinner party and using the diaper changing table as an amazing bar cart — it’s tall, it has wheels on it — even if it’s just for the pure satisfaction of knowing you created something beautiful, that’s one of the best parts.
I want people to know that they can do it. They can do anything they want to do. I love being able to give people the tools to understand and think about things in a little different way.
I did a whole video where I took silica gel packets — you know the things that come in everything. There are food-safe ones and ones for other things, but they can be recharged and used all around your house.
I have like 15 ways you can use those. Don’t throw those away. If we had a zombie apocalypse, those things would come in handy.
You can recharge them. I keep a little jar in my pantry. For someone who wants to rework their pantry, I just did mine a month or two ago.
People get frustrated because they feel like they can’t do it or afford it.
But I did mine for under $50 shopping for thrifted items. My pantry looks good. I didn’t hit that one store everybody hits and spend a grand. I did it for under 50 bucks.
I love that when people watch videos, they can learn how to do little things. I love doing big transformations, but with a bunch of small changes — like my laundry room makeover.
Even though I don’t drink martinis, I feel like I should be having one in there. I have a record player in there. I worked with a company called FLOR that does carpet tiles. If I ever work with a brand, they usually have a sustainable element to them.
I did that laundry room for under $500 with a ton of tiny changes. No walls ripped down. No dust. But it’s such a huge before-and-after transformation. I go in there and I love it.
When we realize that you can afford and do simple little things to make big, beautiful changes, it makes it more fun and makes you want to do it.
Design shows are great, but they rework an entire kitchen for 50 grand. Most people don’t have that money. Where is the design help for everyone else?
I do big renovations too, but those are expensive. That’s where I come in with the sustainable twist. You can have beautiful rooms. Both approaches are beautiful in their own ways.
I’m just going to do it very inexpensively, sustainably, with small projects anyone can do. That’s what makes it fun. That’s what I think people like about Redeux Style.
It’s not kitschy and cheesy. It’s not all glue guns. We’re doing real things. We’re using hammers and drills. But you can do it. My kids can do it. You can do it.
A little guidance goes a long way.
Inspired by the Community
Stacy: You’ve got it all. You can help people make individual but really beautiful spaces.
You’ve inspired a lot of people to take things that were going to go into the trash and do something new with them, and make their houses beautiful in the process.
How does that make you feel?
Sarah: It makes me feel content. It makes me happy.
Almost on an emotional level, because I always go back to where I started. A lot of people do this because they love to do it and they’re creative and they like to design or upcycle. They love to make their home beautiful.
But I always go back to the people I know I’m helping who can’t go to all the beautiful designer stores and buy those things.
So content and happy. It really does make me feel that way.
And I’m inspired by people who want to be sustainable and upcycle. Everyone on my platforms inspires me so much. I learn so much from people.
I’m inspired by this community of people who not only love design but love the concept of keeping stuff out of a landfill and creating a better world for us.
So yes, happy and content for sure. Inspired. I have such a love for all of it.
It definitely makes me continue to do it, because I’m still here doing it, and I’ll continue to do it.
Stacy: I love the word content. I think that's a great way to put it.
Sarah: It’s fun. It is fun.
Stacy: Sarah, thank you so much for joining me on the show and telling us all about Redeux style and how to take old things and make them new again.
Sarah: Thank you so much for having me. Loved being here.
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