The founder/maker
With a love of textiles and repurposing vintage Reioni Douglas started her career as an upholsterer excited to divert furniture from landfill.
For her it was a romantic notion to take apart old furniture and either restore it to its former glory or use its good bones to re-imagine it into something else entirely.
Reioni dove into an apprenticeship and it became much more than a 9 to 5. She gladly sacrificed weekends experimenting on furniture and making an absolute racket in a share house garage. Entrenched in learning the trade. It was so exciting to have found her calling.
Reioni began to notice was that it wasn’t always the old “romantic” furniture on the workbench. Fixing newer furniture, 5 to 10 years old was common, and it became pretty disheartening. In comparison, furniture used daily for 70 years was in better shape.
Reioni moved to Newcastle in 2019 and started her business Upholstrei.
Over the years she found the same - disappointed consumers had the same issues. Again and again her inbox was flooded with people asking for quotes to repair sagging middles, cushions that fast became uncomfortable and fabrics that just didn’t last.
Why weren’t furniture manufacturers held accountable to such a short life? With consumers and the planet footing the bill.
Admittedly when it was time to find a lounge to re-cover for her home her search landed flat. She either couldn’t find the right configuration for her odd-shaped lounge room, or like many could not justify the expense to fix poorly built furniture.
Armed with hindsight, the lessons of well-made construction and an innate need to do better, Reioni took her passion for furniture to new heights launching Culture Cush in December 2022.