Meet me at Sing Sing
I don’t know what it is, but I think every girl wants a little bit of Audrey Hepburn in her. Breakfast at Tiffany is one of Audrey’s most well known movies and of course one of my favorites.
One of my favorite parts of the movie is Holly getting ready to go visit mob boss Sally at Sing Sing prison. I never thought I would want to step foot in a prison, but doesn’t Holly make it look so chic?
Another reason why I’m now vying for a visit to a prison is all the buzz around the blog world over prisons that have upholstery shops!
Michelle mentioned that Arizona has a facility with this service.
You can read about the Arizona facility here.
Then last week the lovely Stephanie let us all know that they offer the same service in Boston as well.
I was frantic to try and find something in my state. I searched and searched, but was coming up empty handed. I even called Jon at work and asked him if jails have websites…they don’t! 🙂
Finally I figured out how to find out if the services are available in your state.
You need to find your state’s website dedicated to The Department of Correctional Services.
Once you are there you can click on their program services link. Did you know that they offer upholstery, furniture manufacturing and garment manufacturing among other things.
On each page they tell you the prisons that offer the services and if you click on find faculty you can find the prisons address and telephone number.
All of my links above are just for NY state, but if you do a quick search on Google with my key words and your state I’m assuming you’ll find the same information.
I’m now itching to try this out and turn my thrift store finds to beauties like this:
All of the stylish chairs are available from The Divine Chair Company !
So, have you ever tried upholstery services from a prison? Would you?
I’m still toying with the idea, because all of the ones in NY a couple hours drive away from me.
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My living room is one of the rooms that evolved drastically from when we first moved one. Originally I painted the walls chocolate brown and did accents of white, blue and orange. That lasted maybe 2 years.
Our dining room sat empty for months. Okay maybe it was empty for just a handful of weeks and then we couldn’t take it anymore and put in a folding table and plastic outdoor chairs, but in my mind that was still empty.
On the main floor of our house we have a Florida room. Being that it’s a Florida room it is a considered a 3 season room, because there is no heat in the room. The previous owners used it as an indoor patio with outdoor furniture and it looked like this when we moved in.
this scares/intrigues me. me and sara are obsessed with watching locked up , so going to get my sofa would make me have nervous stomach.
Can you believe I've never seen this film???? Kori xoxo
I would have never thought of that !
We had furniture refinished at the Leavenworth prison when we lived in Kansas. They did a pretty good job and it was reasonable.
I had no idea about this but I Google and thank heavens Maryland has one!
I'm so happy because I think tears came out my eyes when I saw those two pieces of furniture. They are sooooo beautiful.
Thank you!!!
i would just make my husband go with me… i picked up 2 thrift store pieces that i am going to try to redo myself. and breakfast at tiffany's is one of my all time fav's
The timing of this post is perfect! I just scored a free red chair on Craigslist that I was going to do. The Boston one also does silk screening and business printing.
Ditto Danielle (sweet nothings)! I would have never even thought of this, but would likely be too intimidated to try it out anyways! LOL
It's intriguing, but it may be hard if there's a problem – do they do returns at the prison? The price may be right though to take a chance.
What a timely post for me! I have two caned barrel chairs that I'm dying to have upholstered. The local upholstery shop quoted me an obscene price. Maybe I'll try the local prison ha! xx
Something I never thought of… great suggestion! 😉
By the way – That last piece you posted is gorgeous!
Have you read the book? It's quite different from the movie (at least the ending is).
I had no idea that service existed in the Boston area. Thanks for sharing the link – I'm very intrigued! In high school I took a law class and we visited a local prison and met with inmates. I remember that I sat next to a guy who was in for maiming. Eek!
I always love Audrey Hepburn's accessories – don't you? Marvelous. Those chairs made my head spin – Good Luck 🙂
i'd do it, but apparently georgia's are only available to state agencies. i'm also pretty sure there isn't a prison nearby, although depending on the piece i may not mind! what a great resource, and great way to give people a "second chance!"
My mom had some furniture refinished at a prison in Texas. The work was great and now my grandmother's bedroom set lives on in my nephew's room. She did work in the administrative part of the department of corrections at the time, so I'm not sure if it's limited to employees or open to the public…but worth it a look.
I researched it in Boston about 6 months ago. I hear the rates are really good, but when you call the prison they tell you it takes 4-6 weeks just to get a quote and then there's a waiting list of about a year. If you have the time to wait you can save big money. I was worried about going to prison so I asked – in Boston you drop the piece off at an administrative building across the street, not hte actual prison. Made me feel a little better!
I have never heard about this, but I would definitely try it (on my own furniture first prior to a clients.) I think it's great to teach prisoners a skill/craft while they are doing time. I know the female prisoners in Bedford train dogs to be service dogs…I think it's remarkable. I even watched a documentary on tv about it once. Fascinating.
I just checked and it looks like the State of Michigan does not have a program like this – what a shame. I would definitely be interested!
I am LOL! When I first started reading this post I was convinced you planned to go to prison to LEARN how to do upholstery. I have taken upholstery classes and have recently been looking for similar classes in my new state, so I assumed you wanted to learn too. Glad you're not planning to commit a crime to get free upholstery lessons. 🙂
this is so intriguing. i'm going to check into this….just curious.
Florida has the same thing! Wow! And on their furniture fixing section, their "success" picture was a beat up old coffin treadle refurnished into a beauty! They offer new manufacture of business furniture, too…cubicle furniture. Wow!
Wow never thought of shopping for upholsterer in the prison yard!! I love your creative thinking!
Thats really f-ed up. Very cool though. I like that.