Share
After a restructuring claimed her job as a Bank of America vice president in February, Veronica Guns looked for another corporate position. But, she says, "there was nothing there." So she turned to a skill she learned after a previous layoff - upholstery.
Now, as the owner of a new Mooresville upholstery business, she's focused on cutting fabric and tying sofa springs - and teaching others to do the same.
Guns opened Upholstery by Veronica at the beginning of this month in an older home on North Main Street, not far from downtown, offering both upholstery and upholstery lessons. Its green-and-white sign and large banner in front have helped bring in interested customers every day, Guns said. So far she's enrolled a dozen students in four-week learn-to-upholster sessions, and more people have inquired.
Guns, 54, learned to upholster after 9-11, when she lost her job at Merrill Lynch in New Jersey as part of a mass layoff. After moving to Mooresville four years ago, she continued reviving sofas and chairs on the side, via word of mouth, as she worked for the bank.
Her experience convinced her that people would be interested in learning how to do the same. Still, after the layoff earlier this year, she was anxious about starting lessons.
Her husband, Bob, encouraged her to go for it. The couple determined the move would be financially possible, so they rented the three-bedroom house, moved Veronica's home workspace there late last month and put the signs up.
Since opening, her hunch has panned out: Many people have old furniture in their families and want to remake and reuse it. Guns also believes the recession has prompted more people to consider tackling such tasks themselves, to save money and realize the value in their existing possessions.
At Bank of America, Guns designed learning and leadership programs. So she's glad to use that experience in a new way. "I can teach people how to do this, and they are ecstatic," she said. "They come away with something of their own."
The rooms of the North Main Street home are now filled with tools, equipment, and clients' and students' chairs in various states of repair, as well as some of Guns' own projects, like a tattered but rare 1800s rosewood chair she found on the street.
"Each of them has a story," Guns said, pointing to a 1950s maple-trim sofa. "The woman who wants this grew up with it. That's why I love working with upholstery. There's stories for every chair."
Guns likes the sense of community that's come with her new endeavor, with visitors like upholstery student Nancy Omohundro of Mooresville, who stopped in Wednesday to work on her project. "I was interested in doing it because I have my own stuff reupholstered a lot," she said. Now, she said, she understands why the service can be expensive, because of the labor involved.
Guns still wonders if she'd like to return to a corporate job, or if she'll be able to get one again. She says she hasn't been away from that world long enough to know the answer. "This is a change in identity," she said. "It's being comfortable with, 'This is who I now am in the world.'"
But she doesn't believe the shop needs to be in business forever, necessarily, for it to be a success. She's just happy it's the right fit for the present. "This," she said, "is what I'm supposed to do right now."
