BALTIMORE — Erika Miguel carefully cuts holes in a piece of foam, what she calls "the guts" of a tufted leather stool she's refurbishing.
It's the beginning of her latest project at the Cavanagh House, where is she is learning the upholstery trade.
"I wanted to work with my hands, I wanted to be more creative. But I also wanted to support myself in a way that I didn’t know was possible before," she said.
Miguel said she was struggling in the tech industry and was living with her parents when she came across the free upholstery training offered by the Cavanagh House.
"When I was working in tech I felt like I was just a cog in the wheel. Here, its not just like 'oh I’m working on a piece for a client'. My family wants to work with me, my friends want to work with me."
The Cavanagh House has a workroom set up inside the Baltimore Innovation Center in Pigtown. Stacy McAleer, the founder, said the students are either on government assistance or are not able to make ends meet.
They spend two to three years training in sewing and upholstery, learning the trade on actual client work and getting paid for their time.
"This is an industry that is in desperate need of skilled workers," she said. "The average age of an upholsterer is 60. The average age of a sewer is late 40’s, early 50’s."
McAleer said they are one of just a few schools in the country to offer training in upholstery. She said demand for their work is up, as more people are looking to repurpose their old furniture to be more eco-friendly.
Another reason to refurbish what you already have: a 25 percent tariff on imported upholstered furniture went into effect in October. President Trump said it will go up to 30 percent in January.
"They are looking at their grandmother’s furniture and saying oh that doesn’t really look that bad," said McAleer. "We show the before and after [photos] and people will call us and say wait a minute, that couch has curves and now it doesn’t have curves and I’m like yeah we can do that!"
Sohn Lewis is the head upholstery instructor at the Cavanagh House. He said as long as the students are willing to learn, he is willing to share his nearly 50 years of experience with them.
"If we can get just one person a job, we’re succeeding in our mission," he said. "And we have done that a few times and I get great satisfaction out of that."
As for Miguel, she said in just the six months she's been with the Cavanagh House, she's already seeing the rewards in the skills she's learning, and the independence she's gained.
"I was originally living with family when I moved down here but now I’m living on my own and I can say that I’m independent. Really good things coming out for me from this program."
To learn more about how to support the work of the Cavanagh House, click here.
