Leila and Amie Gray have abandoned their busy professional lives to 'slow down', regroup and share their love and purpose of sustainable living in their new Lismore shop the Upcycled Heart.

Amie Gray told the Lismore App the idea is to limit waste, reuse and repurpose old things and to slow down.

“Textiles in particular are one of the biggest forms of wastage we have now,” she said.

“The general idea is to use old things and look after them as long as we can and when they become no longer useful to turn them into something else so a lot of the art and craft we have is using recycled materials.”

Ms Gray said the other ideal is about slowing down.

“Slow down production of new clothes, slow down our own lives as well.

“Leila was a teacher and I was at University doing psychology honours and both of us were feeling very burnt out,” she said.

The sisters, originally from the Blue Mountains and having lived for ten years in New Zealand have been raising their families in Jiggi for the past twenty years. 

The idea for an upcycling shop has been on the table for the Gray sisters for some time. 

“We just noticed everyone, when they’re talking to each other and asking ‘How are you?’ ‘busy’, ‘busy’, ‘busy’ and everyone is saying ‘We’re all in this together’.

“We’ve all got to stop. 

“Leila and I said to each other one day over a cup of tea, we were looking at rent in Jiggi for somebody else actually and we saw that there were some empty shops in Lismore and that rent was reasonable at the moment and we just said, ‘Should we give it a go? Should we just start? Start slow and see what happens?

“Try and begin what we said we want, a slower life where there’s work/life balance, where we’ve got time for our craft as well and so we actually started renting it around three months ago and we’ve only just opened now because we’ve done every single thing ourselves in the shop.”

The Gray sisters have repurposed all the interior and exterior of the old Fashion Profile shop in Woodlark Street, hand-painting their own signage over the old signs and making furniture from old racks left inside. 

“We’ve made our own curtains, and the wallpaper was a five-dollar roll from the op-shop.

“We paid homage to the flood by just stripping back this wall and we’ve just BondCreted it so that it’s all sealed so that none of that flakes off anymore.”

Upcycled Heart is another addition to what is becoming known as the Woodlark Street hub for antiques, collectables and vintage wares. 

What stands out differently for the Gray sisters is that they invite and encourage makers, artists, and musicians to collaborate in sustainable, natural practises. 

“The evolution of the different crafters includes people who get involved like a woman who contacted us who makes natural face products like the beeswax wraps.

“She’s already selling in a few places so we’ll probably get some of her products. 

“It’s great to be able to invite anyone to put anything in here as a natural market research, what sells is what will bring more in. 

“Local musicians are more than welcome to bring in their CDs and we’ll play them in the shop, just come in and see us.”

With plenty of hand-made ornaments, interesting attire, and an open space for the community to engage with their local upcyclers, The Upcycled Heart is another keystone in the Northern Rivers burgeoning re-use ethos. 

“We love that Woodlark Street is becoming known as a hub and remembered thinking ‘how serendipitous and wonderful!’ 

Located at 59 Woodlark Street, Lismore, Upcycled Heart is open Monday to Friday between 10.00 am and 3.30 pm.

"Mum took us op-shopping as kids and I've been collecting beautiful clothes ever since." - Amie Gray sitting on her repurposed couch in Upcycled Heart.