Join an HFS workshop course this New Year and pick up new skills. Two new courses start this January:
Advanced Furniture Restoration – 8 weeks from Tuesday Jan 7th
Advanced Carpentry kicks off on Saturday Jan 11th for 8 weeks
Both courses are FREE for those in receipt of any means-tested benefit.
More info
Our Workshop on Wheels (WoW van) will be back out on the road in the Spring, ready to offer free skills sessions to local community groups, thanks to a generous donation from the Mason Charitable Foundation.
The van is equipped with workbenches and tools so we can provide short workshops anywhere in Hastings and Rother.
We have helped community groups undertake their own projects such as restoring benches in a community garden, making raised beds or decorating.
We can also provide a short course for members of your community group. The Oasis Community Project based at Ore Community Centre, for example, used their time with the WoW van to learn furniture restoration.
Interested in booking a WoW van visit for your group? Get in touch with Angie Lowe at angie@hfs.org.uk to find out more about what’s on offer.
Make a New Year Resolution to boost your wellbeing and rescue an unloved piece of furniture with our January Furniture Restoration course.
Join a friendly small group and work with our supportive tutor to learn new skills. You’ll find out how to use tools safely, sand down, repair and restore a small piece of furniture from our store to take home.
Wednesdays for 4 weeks from 9th Jan 2019 9.30am – 4pm at HFS Bexhill.
This is a free course – pay just £5 deposit to book a place in-store.
There’s still time to grab a place on one of our New Year courses.
Whether you fancy trying carpentry for the first time, want to polish up your furniture restoration skills or learn how to put up wallpaper, our courses cover practical skills you can use at home.
We run supportive, friendly, small groups of adults so it’s easy to join in and enjoy the experience.
Read more here and enroll at an HFS store.
| Workshop start dates from Jan 2018 | |
| Sessions are weekly for 4 weeks unless otherwise stated | |
| Restore: furniture restoration | Weds 10th Jan |
| Recover: upholstery | Weds 10th Jan |
| Decorate: wallpapering skills | Thurs 15th Feb |
| Revamp: paint effects | Thurs 11th Jan |
| Woodwork: carpentry for beginners | Thurs 11th Jan |
| Woodwork: advanced carpentry | Weds 14th Feb |
| Read more here and enroll at an HFS store. | |
Have you ever wanted to learn about carpentry and woodwork?
We’ve teamed up with Rother Voluntary Action to offer these FREE women’s woodworking sessions in Sidley, with lunches provided by the Chaps Cooking Course!
To book contact Lindsay at RVA: 01424 217 259
Book your place today for our free / low-cost workshops in Hastings & Bexhill. We are offering:
Furniture Restoration
Beginners Carpentry
Advanced Carpentry
Paint Effects on furniture
Mixed Crafts with upcycled materials
Upholstery for Beginners
Our workshops are a great place to learn new, practical skills in a small friendly group. All courses are 20 hours, over either 4 or 6 days, and usually run on the same day each week.
Our workshop team has been working on an exciting new project to reuse and upcycle unwanted bed-heads into fabulous benches for the home and garden.
Sometimes we collect bed frames that can’t be reused because parts are missing but we don’t want the wood to go to waste. These benches use up the heads, ends and slats of the bed-frames to make an attractive new piece of furniture.
It’s been a fun challenge for our workshop team. Our expert Ron has helped the volunteers to figure out how to reuse the wood and make strong sturdy bench seats. Our volunteers are local people who have enjoyed HFS courses and want to do more carpentry, restoration and painting as part of the team. Pauline, Heidi, Percival, Phil and Victor have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and we are really proud of the stunning results.
Each bench is unique. There are children’s benches as well as full-size and we have painted several in fun bright colours.
Child-size benches are £70 full price (£45 benefit discount price) and adult-size ones are up to £195 (£145 discount price).
The benches will be on sale at our Bexhill store from Friday 28th April.
Learn skills and make items to take home with pride!
Small supportive groups of adults—no experience needed.
Tools & materials provided.
Mixed Crafts Tues 4th April 6 mornings 10-1.30 Hastings
Carpentry Thurs 13th April 6 mornings 10-1.30 Bexhill
Upholstery Weds 19th April 6 mornings 10-1.30 Hastings
Mixed Crafts Thursday 11th May 6 mornings 10-1.30 Hastings
Shabby Chic Paint Effects Tues 9th May 6 mornings 10-1.30 Hastings
Furniture Restoration Thurs 25th May 6 mornings 10-1.30 Bexhill
Upholstery Saturday 27th May 4 days 10-3 Hastings
Course fees are £60 per course. Free for people in receipt of means-tested benefits.
Pay a refundable deposit to book your place.
We’re excited to be launching our ‘Workshop on Wheels’ – making DIY and craft activities accessible to people in a wide range of community venues and neighbourhoods around Hastings and Rother.
The large WoW van has been customised with workbenches and tool cupboards so that our skilled tutors can take the workshop to visit groups of people and provide practical activities such as repairing furniture, making items from scrap wood and craft projects.
Having run workshops and courses at our stores in Hastings and Bexhill for many years, we are excited to have found a way to take some of these activities out into the community so that more people can enjoy taking part without the difficulty or expense of travelling to us.
The positive impact of making activities on health and wellbeing is well documented, and we hope that the small neighbourhood groups will be a great way for people to meet up with their neighbours as well as getting to know new people in their area. Our in-store workshops have taught us that, for many people, making or repairing something for their home is a deeply meaningful activity that increases their confidence and gives them a more positive outlook on life.
The WoW project has been supported by the Hastings and Rother CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group), allowing the workshop sessions to be offered totally free of charge to local residents.
The interior of the WoW van has been kitted out with funds raised by HFS patron Mark Thomas at a pre-gig talk at St Mary’s in the Castle in November last year.
First stops on the WoW van’s journey will be:
The workshops will run every Friday at 10am and 1.30pm respectively for four weeks starting from February 10th. Future venues and dates will be added to our workshop calendar throughout the year so watch out for WoW popping up somewhere near you!
To take part, just come and say hello to our team with the WoW van at your nearest location.
Our springtime workshop dates are now available!
Join a small, supportive group to enjoy decoupage, furniture restoration, carpentry or paint effects at one of our workshops in Hastings or Bexhill.
Free or low cost – discounts for low income households. All materials and tools provided.
Make something special to take home with pride.
See the calendar and joining info here.
Call HFS
