Celeb stylist, TV host Leshana Theodore builds up pallet design business

WOODEN pallets are a common sight at local hardware stores. After fulfilling their use of transporting items they are commonly discarded. But what if these pallets could be repurposed into furniture and other items?

It was this idea that led Leshana Theodore to create her business, Leshana's Pallet Designs.

She chatted about her journey to this unique venture during a recent interview with Newsday.

Theodore left Trinidad for the US at age 11 and had a passion for fashion. She attended the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York and worked as a stylist for celebrities like Britney Spears, Mary J Blige, Serena Williams and Kerry Washington.

"I have always been an artist. Always been creative."

She moved back nine years ago with another passion –contributing to her homeland.

"So much learned from being abroad and I wanted to invest in the country that I love. I am literally in love with Trinidad. It's me."

She opened a personal styling boutique, Styles, which was later rebranded as Therapy Styling. But she did not feel she was being properly stimulated.

She next took to the screen as host of her own series, The Leshana's Before & After Show on TV6, in which she would style women in Trinidad and Tobago and "make them feel great." The show ran initially for a 12-episode first season, but into the second season, she felt people did not really see her vision.

"That is what happens when you are visionary. I feel in Trinidad that is one of our flaws. We need to see it happen abroad first before we understand it."

Theodore recalled she had to "fight" for sponsorship of the show.

"Everyone should be in this and understand we need something positive on local television. And to make the women of TT feel amazing."

She lamented that it started to feel too much about the money and became stressful.

"I decided to step back. Took a break."

She then decided to use another of her talents and opened a food business.

"I'm a really great cook: Indian, Nigerian, Thai – aclectic cuisine."

Unfortunately, she stopped her food business when the covid19 pandemic hit. She took another break and finished her PhD in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Furniture frustration

Last year, while studying, she went looking for an apartment and found a beautiful one. She then went looking for furniture for it. But when she visited a furniture store she was disappointed in the quality.

"Most of it looks great, but it is not real wood inside. It is MDF (medium-density fibreboard), not pine or teak. What am I paying this for?"

She also recalled that the style of the furniture was not "touching her heart" and the nice pieces she saw were between $8,000 and $10,000.

"Oh, my God. The prices. I could not afford it."

Theodore once more drew on her creative mind and decided to buy wood and hire someone to make furniture for her that she would design. She then hit another stumbling block.

"The prices of wood were so crazy. It was a lot. I was not expecting it to be so much."

And the prices the joiners were giving her were quite high as well.

"What is going on?"

She felt very demotivated and decided to buy cheaper wood. She visited a hardware store in Port of Spain and while walking out of their lumberyard she noticed a stack of wooden pallets, four stacks of 15 pallets high. Her mind started ticking.

"I could actually use that. (I wonder) how much it costs?"

She asked one of the workers if she could buy one stack.

He replied: "What pallets? You want to buy that?"

The worker told her it was free and she could take all of them. She thanked him and then paid a "hustler" $200 to transport two loads to her apartment.

"I was so happy. A lightbulb went on in my head."

Pivoting into pallet design

Theodore began researching what pallet wood is made from and learned it is pine.

"It is good wood. Why did I get it for free and why are people throwing it away? There are pallets all over Trinidad."

She found this wastage of good material "horrible."

"A plethora of things can be done with it."

She stressed that other ways  must be found to clean up the country and use recyclable products.

"It is pretty filthy. Our consciousness needs to be heightened as to what we as individuals can do to clean up."

She called her friend, Dirk Ahue, and they started building sets with pallets at her home in Belmont. She explained she had experience with woodworking while at FIT and had made a few wood pieces for her New York condo.

With her interest in making designs out of pallets, she started to delve much deeper into the craft.

But when her neighbours began complaining about the noise at night (which she had not thought about) she started working during the day, when people were at work.

When she invited friends for dinner they would be impressed by her pallet designs.

"They would say, 'In here looks like Westmoorings.' I thought, 'Wait, I am on to something.'"

She said at the time there were many stories of people needing furniture at an affordable price, including flooding victims who had lost everything. She added people want tasteful furniture that looks good and represents who they are.

"Just because something is cheap doesn't mean it has to look cheap."

And so Theodore decided the "gift" she gave herself of pallet furniture she wanted to give to the country.

She phoned her mother and told her about the idea, but she did not understand it. Theodore, however, was not deterred.

"When you see (the designs) it opens feelings in you. A great conversational piece."

Her business started informally with her selling her pallet designs to her neighbours.

"It was not for money but out of love. It was just money for material. The feeling of being happy beats any amount of payment any day."

She began several items including doors, living-room sets, baby chairs, closets, cupboards, kitchen counters, toilet-paper racks, lattes for floorings, outdoor panelling, and desktops for schools.

Building a business

Theodore decided to get serious about her pallet designs and registered her business, Leshana's Pallet Designs, last year. And since the launch she reported receiving amazing feedback.

"I call it '#palletlife.' When you start living it you don't want anything else."

She explained clients would ask her to make something and she marvelled at the simplicity, beauty and creativity of their suggestions.

"Where else would you get an outdoor patio, made out of pinewood, and looking gorgeous, for $2,500? Or a king-size bed for $2,500 with two pockets for poodles to sleep together?"

She approached her father with a business proposal and he invested $200,000.

"I had no idea starting a business requires so much seed money. It does."

The money was used partly to convert her family house in Bon Air Gardens, Arouca, into a workshop, buy equipment and for staff.

"Gotta go big or stay home."

She explained  it is not an easy business.

"There are days I am up at 6 am and still in the shop at 1 am. Every day I look like a mad person (with all the dust).

"But I look in the mirror for the passion. Because of the vision, I know where it is going to lead me. And you don't stop your dream."

Her method is to strip apart every piece, stock each on a shelf, choose each piece for a particular design and build it from scratch.

"It is not just joining pallets; it is making forms from the wood itself. It allows room to be creative."

She said her team was a lot more educated in terms of joinery and has helped to propel her to the next level.

"I am the creator and vision; they come up with logistics and how to execute what I am seeing."

She recalled it was difficult in the beginning to get a team together and several workers came and left. She currently has a team of five and predicts they will be busy with the Christmas season.

She took the opportunity to thank God, her team and her supporters: William Monroe, Verna Theodore, Mr Jones, Dr Livet, Dirk Ahue, Jayde, Tyson, Paul, Francis, Jamillah, Stephon, Keston, Kesean, Keron, Jamie, Tariq, Charles and Smokey.

Leshana's Pallet Designs currently sells online but Theodore plans to open a storefront by next year.

She said her idea was catching on, as it was getting more difficult to get pallets and at least one other company was doing it.

"There is always space for everyone."

In the future, she plans for the company to build homes, desks for classrooms, staircases for Housing Development Corporation houses and for her creations to be used in Carnival events instead of plastics.

"Every avenue of Trinidad, we could just place into an eco-friendly way of functioning."

For more info: Leshana's Pallet Designs on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp at 366-0800 or e-mail leshanat7@gmail.com.