Repair Shop woodwork whizz Will Kirk is so busy that his wife Polly has threatened to call in a carpenter to do jobs in their new family home because he still hasn't been able to do them. With his success on screen Will doesn't always have time to devote to his own repairs in their Surrey house. Will, 39, said: “She says to me ‘Will, when are you going to sand the bloody floor in the front room?’.
“And then I have got to do stuff in the bathroom and then there’s the kitchen. There is always something that needs fixing. It is never ending. My wife did say ‘You know if you can’t sand the floor and you’re not happy with it, we can always get someone in?’. “And I said ‘No way! No way! Not in this house!' It is hard especially with two children as well but I absolutely love it.”. Will also revealed how he has sadly abandoned any thought of crafting wooden toys for his two children because of his workload. He said: “When we had our first child, I thought ‘Wouldn't it be lovely to make all these handmade toys for her?’ But no. I don’t have the time.
“I got halfway through one thing and then I got so busy.. that's life. And now I've got a second child. There's no way that he's getting anything anytime soon.". When he isn’t filming for the BBC One show The Repair Shop, he has his own furniture restoration business. And as if Will didn’t have enough on his plate, he has a new venture which he needs to focus on. The stars of The Repair Shop are set to go on tour around the UK for the very first time.
Joining the live shows at various points will be horologist Steve Fletcher, ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsay, art conservationist Lucia Scalisi, master saddler and leather restorer Suzie Fletcher and ‘The Teddy Bear Ladies’ Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch. Will admits he is “nervous” but looking forward to reuniting with his friends from the barn whom he hasn’t seen for a couple of months.
He said: “I am itching to get on the tour and see everyone but when I went to bed last night, it suddenly hit me that I'll be getting on stage at places like the Sheffield Arena and talking about The Repair Shop. “I mean, it's a massive change from the comfort of the barn where you know the crew and you've got a camera in front of you and you don’t really think about the millions of people that watch it.
“But actually standing in front of people who all love watching the show and talking about it is definitely new to me.”. The other thing he is keen to warns fans not to bring in things to mend as it's not that kind of show. He explains: Any time I talk about this tour I keep mentioning the fact that it's not that kind of show. It is more about us talking on stage rather than restoring anything. “Lots of people email me saying 'I feel like we really know you because we've been on the TV for a couple of years now' but this is an opportunity for them to really hear about what goes on behind the scenes because it really is a big process.
“Some people don't realise some of the items that I work on can take 60 hours to restore but you only see a fraction of that on telly so we're going to answer all those questions that people usually have and kind of reveal some secrets behind the barn doors as well.”. Will never expected to end up on TV – let alone on a show doing furniture restoration. At school, he wasn’t even interested in woodwork.
He said: “I was just more into drawing and girls. I was not really an academic person. And it's only in later life I've moved towards woodwork. “I had to do woodwork at school but for me it was not that interesting. Maybe the projects were not that interesting to catch my eye. “It wasn't really a big thing but I think we were more pushed towards English, Maths and Science rather than woodwork. “Unfortunately loads of schools have now shut down the woodwork department which is a real shame.
“But now thanks to The Repair Shop we do get a lot of young people thinking ‘I’m not really an academic person but I am good with my hands’ and it’s inspired them to pick up a chisel and pick up a hammer.”. He went on to study Graphic Design and Antique Furniture Restoration and Conservation at the University of Arts in London and London Metropolitan University. Out of the blue he got a call to appear on a Channel 4 show called The French Collection and then later popped up on the BBC’s What To Buy and Why.
