Thane and Mumbai Residents Fill Upcycling Workshops to Revive Old Furniture
Residents in Thane and across Mumbai are increasingly turning to furniture upcycling, refurbishing, and recycling to restore old and inherited pieces rather than discarding them. This growing cultural trend has seen day-long upcycling workshops filling up weeks in advance with growing waiting lists. Participants include a wide range of busy local professionals, such as Thane resident Mayushri Dalal, who are choosing to preserve the emotional history of family heirlooms and adopt sustainable living practices.
The movement has gained significant traction in areas stretching from Thane to Tardeo, Ghatkopar, Goregaon, and Lower Parel. Instructors of these day-long workshops report that sessions are booking out weeks ahead of schedule. The participants represent a diverse demographic of urban professionals, including lawyers, biotech researchers, finance professionals, actors, and designers, who are making a deliberate choice to slow down and reimagine their household items.
For many participants, the draw is deeply personal, often involving a reluctance to part with heritage items like a grandmother's trunk, a grandfather's writing desk, or a mother-in-law's steel almirah. Dalal, who commutes from Thane to her job at a finance company in Lower Parel, is among those who have embraced the practice to give old furniture a creative revamp.
The workshops combine skill-building, creativity, and community. Ananya Gada from Ghatkopar described the DIY repainting sessions as both destressing and reassuring. For Nanita Pant of Goregaon, the encouraging environment helped her overcome her lack of artistic experience. Workshop instructor Mukesh Mandal noted that easy-to-follow instructions help bring out the creativity in participants, making mistakes easy to mask.
While heritage restoration is a major driver, others use the workshops to personalize new items. Riya Kamwani from Mahim, who has a background in interior design, uses painting techniques to make mass-produced store furniture unique. Similarly, freelance fashion designer Trisha Parikh from Tardeo upcycles pieces for her own home, while Wadala-based lawyer Preeti Bhalerao plans to recreate her dining table using the techniques.
The trend has also attracted public figures. Television actress Gauri Pradhan Tejwani recently took time off from work to attend a day-long furniture painting workshop, noting she wanted to apply the techniques to her ongoing creative projects.
