Karen started the business as she’d upcycled all the furniture in her own home and had caught the bug for making old look new and loved again. When a unit become available at Moss End Garden Village Karen jumped in with both feet and thought “lets go for it as all I want to do is paint furniture rather than sit behind a desk all day!”

What began for them as a small painted furniture venture in 2010, has become their lifetime passion!  The more their customers jumped enthusiastically onto the upcycling wagon, the more they realised how important the planet has become to us all. This is what inspires both Karen and Steve to inspire YOU to forego boring mass-produced decor in favour of gorgeously sustainable upcycled furniture and accessories that reflect your own character. 

Karen comments “I love spending time with customers and seeing their delight when they’ve tackled a project and made something beautiful”.

Karen’s passions evolve around saving the planet one ugly piece of furniture at a time. She loves scouring marketing for unique items for customers houses and creating eco-friendly homewares. Her other passion in life is her dog, Spud, a firm favourite of many visitors to Country Mouse Home!

Furniture painting and upcycling remain at the heart of this small business and they are very proud to be Berkshire stockists of the two leading brands of eco-friendly furniture paint, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Fusion Mineral Paint. 

Over the years we've introduced other eco-friendly DIY products, one of a kind authentic 'flea-market' finds, and ethically sourced home accessories. More recently, Steve has introduced fabulous hand-made furniture and other bits fashioned in the main from gorgeous reclaimed wood.

Our brick-and-mortar shop at Moss End Garden Village is their home-from-home and they love serving their local community.  One of the joys of being based at Moss End is being part of a supportive retail networking, there’s a great community spirit here. “We’ve made many friends over the past 13 years”, commented Karen.

“We’re all about saving perfectly good furniture from landfill and inspiring our customers to do the same. We provide the tools, the know-how and the inspiration for DIY ‘upcyclers’ and/or the labour for those who prefer leave it to us.” Continued Karen

So are you just starting out? Wanting to master a particular technique? Either way ... Country Mouse Home have got a workshop for you! Find out more at www.countrymousehome.com/pages/workshops

And finally… some fun facts about these guys… Sports mad Steve can be found on golf courses around the county a few times a month and around the continent a couple of times a year – he’s still playing off a single figure handicap. Karen’s other passion is music, she’s recently joined a local Rock Choir and can often be heard singing away whilst painting in the workshop.