Bronwyn Tarboton

Bronwyn Tarboton, the creative behind the Instagram handle NYC Trash to Treasures, certainly never imagined she would become a DIY expert. But when the pandemic hit, Bronwyn, who had been managing a busy Broadway acting career, found herself out of work with a lot of time on her hands. Soon, she turned her attention to improving her apartment but since she had a minimal budget, she found herself searching the streets of Manhattan for free furniture that she would fix up herself. Before long, she had run out of space in her home and started selling her pieces online for profit.

Now, if you visit her instagram page you'll be able to buy lightly refurbished items and stunning pieces that have been completely transformed by Bronwyn. On both Instagram and TikTok you can follow along to see how she did it all on a shoe string budget. Tarboton has shared a range of projects on her social media; from spray-painted light fittings and upcycled dressers complete with new hardware, to reupholstered chairs and beautiful wall art created from a broken Tiffany lamp she found on the street. Bronwyn tries to keep her projects either completely free or on a minimal budget in the hopes of inspiring her audience to go out and find materials and furniture themselves and see the potential in the things that others people throw out. 

As of 2022, Tarboton has built up a social media following of more than 48K fans across Instagram and TikTok and her "highly curated trash" (as she calls it) has been featured in home decor magazines and on morning television. Now, Bronwyn is back at work performing on stage but still manages to share her upcycling projects with her adoring fans who can't wait to see what she finds and transforms next.