With a musician husband, I am all too familiar with how the pandemic swept in and turned careers upside down overnight. Those who previously had busy, enjoyable, thriving jobs and businesses in events, hospitality, the arts, travel, and tourism saw them unexpectedly come grinding to a halt in March 2020. As we still currently remain in lockdown halfway into 2021, it is no surprise that many have switched careers and turned their hand to something new. As part of my ‘Spotlight On’ series, I want to highlight and share with you eight new independent home and garden businesses that successfully and inspirationally launched during the pandemic. Without the safety net of their previous employment, many felt it was ‘now or never’ to launch the interiors business they had always dreamed about owning. For others, lockdown drew attention to a previous imbalance in work/life upon which they could not return. For one business owner, the deep connection between the severity of COVID-19 and environmental destruction made her re-evaluate her entire product supply chain - ditching it completely for a fully sustainable new eco business.

The Way We Live London

Londoner Sarah Horner-Sigre had a long-standing, 20 year career in the busy events industry before COVID-19 came along. For the previous 12 years, she had been working as a Freelance Event Producer for high end, high-profile, design-led events including weddings, award shows & film premieres. “Overnight, all events stopped, and so did our family income. With my husband also working in events, you could say this was somewhat of a COVID career crisis,” says Sarah. The previous year, Sarah and her husband renovated their house in Pinner, North West London, and Sarah spent a significant amount of time searching for unique fixtures, fittings and homewares to create an individual and bespoke home for herself and her husband and young family. “I found myself searching high and low for a playful, unusual, statement basin at a price point which I could squeeze into my ever-expanding renovation budget,” says Sarah. In the end, Sarah worked with a joinery workshop to create her dream basin, who she now works alongside to produce her capsule range of luxury vanity units of the finest quality under the name The Way We Live London. Sarah says she was “spending hours upon hours standing in front of my basin singing Happy Birthday (twice through, 20 times a day) when the lightbulb moment came…the rest as they say, is history!”

Since launching at the end of 2020, The Way We Live London has featured in multiple publications such as Livingetc and Real Homes, and there are now 26 different basin designs available to buy via the website. Click here to be taken to the webshop, or you can follow The Way We Live London on Instagram via @thewaywelive_london.

Our Layered Home Studio

Colourful creative Tara made personalised matching toddler and parent clothing before COVID-19, yet the pandemic had a transformative effect on Tara, resulting in her re-inventing her business and revolutionising her supply chain process. “The pandemic was eye-opening to me,” she says, “the time I was missing with my family, that I wasn’t happy doing what I was doing and that my business was contributing too much to climate change, which I became much more aware of! I shut my old business of three years, took a course on climate change and environments online and set up a new business doing something I love - ensuring all packaging and branding was recyclable, made from recycled materials or carbon neutral.”

Tara now runs Our Layered Home Studio - a selection of homeware and gifts such as cushions, lampshades and kitchen textiles featuring hand-drawn designs by Tara. All the designs are inspired by nature and everything is made in the UK. Click here to visit the Our Layered Home website, or follow along on Instagram via @ourlayeredhome.studio.

Dahlia Beach

Being a dahlia flower lover, I started following Dahlia Beach (AKA Andie) on Instagram for her bright, beautiful floral pictures. Yet, it was soon Andie herself and her story that made Dahlia Beach one of my favourite Instagram accounts to indulge in each evening. Incredibly honest, funny, hard-working and inspiring, Andie shares the highs and lows of how since the pandemic she has gone from running a successful wedding video company which produced nearly 300 weddings a year, to losing the business overnight, to now running the UK’s largest pick your own dahlia farm and supplying dahlia tubers and seeds via a home delivery service to garden lovers.

“Overnight, I went from running a busy, thriving business to having no purpose, no income and worst of all, no idea what the future held. I needed something that would nourish my mental wellbeing and give me something positive to focus on, and it became dahlias,” says Andie. With gardening becoming a popular new hobby for many during the lockdown of 2020, Andie had the idea to turn her new-found passion into a business. “What if I could inspire and educate these newbies and give them everything they needed to grow a thriving cut flower for themselves?” says Andie, “What if I could create a brand that was accessible and relatable, reducing the overwhelming choice to make gardening accessible, mindful and fun?” Since launching, Dahlia Beach has gone from strength to strength (even winning a gold award at the Blenheim Palace Flower Show last month).

To buy tickets for the farm, attend a dahlia workshop or get some tubers for your garden, click here to be taken to the Dahlia Beach website. Follow Andie’s transformative year over on Instagram via her account @dahliabeach.

Swish Colour

Newcastle-based Emily Harnasz worked in business development before being made redundant due to the pandemic. Unable to find new employment and with time on her hands, Emily took an online course in interior design - something she had always wanted to do but couldn’t fit in with her old job. Emily used everything she learnt from her interior design qualification to create Swish - a colour consultancy business which helps people choose the right colours for their home. “I’m utterly fascinated by colour,” says Emily, “how it transforms with light, how it triggers memories, it just brings me joy helping others discover how wonderful colour is.” For a small fee, Emily aids her clients in picking the perfect shades, tones and paint colours when decorating. “Choosing colour can be so overwhelming and time consuming, but our goal is to take that stress away and find the perfect palette for our clients as well as recommending the exact finish and quantities too”. To be taken to the Swish website and book a consultation with Emily, click here.

Swoon Worthy Scents

Award-winning interiors blogger and freelance writer Kimberly Duran first started making her own natural, hand-poured candles as a hobby back in 2014. Her blog documenting her first attempt at the process is now one of the most popular candle-making posts on the internet. When COVID-19 came along and Kimberly lost 80% of her income, she decided that now was the time to throw herself into taking her favourite hobby to the next-level. “I started the business partly because I didn’t want to be reliant on other businesses’ financial health, and partly because it was something I’d considered for years but just never had the time for!”

Kimberly pours every candle by hand in her kitchen in Shrewsbury in Shropshire. “I ended up spending the best part of 2020 perfecting my creations,” says Kimberly, “ensuring every element of Swoon Worthy Scents is something I am proud of and the result is five distinct, quality candles that not only burn beautifully and smell fabulous, but look gorgeous in your home -even unlit.”

Made from natural plant-based waxes, natural cotton ribbon wicks and a mix of luxurious vegan-friendly fragrance combinations and dyes, you can view the full collection on Kimberley’s dedicated candle website Swoon Worthy Scents. To be taken to her popular interiors blog, click here.

My Colourful Jungle

Artist Christine Durrant worked in a gallery in Devon before the pandemic - a job she absolutely loved. Yet, as time passed and the gallery remained closed, Christine rediscovered her love of painting and enjoyed being more in control of her daily schedule. Spending more time out in the garden, Christine started hand-painting her terracotta pots, photographing them, and uploading them onto social media. When she was made redundant from the gallery, she started selling her creative pot designs on Etsy. “The plant community on Instagram are insanely supportive and encouraging,” says Christine, “so I set up my Etsy shop and it has gone from strength to strength.” Christine now runs My Colourful Jungle full-time. “I love being able to be available for the kids,” she says, “and it was therapeutic for me to be able to paint again.”

Christine’s colourful pot designs emblazoned with tropical leaves start from just £10. Click here to be taken to her Etsy shop. You can also via the Instagram page @mycolourfuljungle.

Hooj Upholstery

One of the biggest industries to be hit by the pandemic has been the wedding event industry. Olivia Mockett had been running a successful wedding venue for 7 years pre-COVID (and did upholstery as a hobby), but with no guidance as to when large wedding celebrations could return, Olivia decided to utilise her skills and start a new upholstery business from her Old Pigsty Workshop in Worcestershire.

Specialising in modern, traditional, bespoke and classic car upholstery, Olivia will help you choose the right type of upholstery fabric for your piece and bring it back to life. To view her projects and get in contact with Olivia, click here to be taken to her website.

Homemade Handmade GB

After working as a childminder for 25 years, Lisa Bourke suddenly found herself only being able to care for key worker children, thus, her hours were drastically reduced. To give her a sense of calm and wellbeing from the stress of the pandemic, Lisa started designing and creating bespoke wreaths and floral displays from faux flowers. “I wanted to create something that looked real, but lasted forever,” says Lisa. After setting up a successful Instagram page showcasing her designs, Lisa now has a popular 5-star shop on Etsy and sells a multitude of designs (including seasonal and themed door wreaths). Click here to be taken to her shop page, or you can follow her Instagram handle @homemadehandmadegb.

I would like to thank all the business owners featured for letting me use their imagery and photography within this blog post and telling me their story. All image rights are owned and belong to the respective business owners.