Leigh Eide offers classes and classic and stylish finishes

Leigh Eide took her love of decorating and turned it into a money-making venture eight years ago. It began as an online shop on Etsy selling handmade items and grew into today’s Sage + Hearth Home.

Since then, Eide has also branched out into refinishing furniture. She says reimagining a piece is a creative escape. “Painting furniture is cathartic. It’s almost like meditating in a way, because I forget about all the things I have going on and just zone out for a while,” she said. Sage + Hearth Home (formerly Femmesleigh) offers classes several times a year for customers who want to learn how to breathe new life into existing pieces. A small piece of furniture is all that’s needed to attend a class; the shop provides all supplies.

Eide says many people are hesitant to refinish furniture out of fear of messing it up. “Once I go through the steps with [customers], it’s very easy. I show them how to clean their furniture appropriately ... and then we go all the way down to sealing their piece,” she said.

End tables and nightstands are the most common pieces brought to classes. Eide says that’s because these are easy starter pieces, and customers can take their leftover paint and new skills home to refinish a matching nightstand or other pieces of a bedroom suite. “I love seeing a good before and after. It’s nice to see the potential in something that somebody else would throw away,” she said.

Finding furniture and décor is a work perk. Eide says thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets are great places to snag a unique find. She loves going to Canton Trade Days and Waskom’s Market at the Mural flea market. Nonprofits like Rolling Hills Ministries Thrift Store and Christ Fit Gym Thrift Store are good for hunting treasures locally. Eide also enjoys learning the history of her finds and seeing how people have repurposed items.

Sage + Hearth Home is located inside Kings Antique Mall. It is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.