Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Donnelly.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started out in the way way back as a dancer. I was brought up in Margate on the far South-Eastern tip of the UK. I would dream of a more glamorous life and would look up to the picture on the wall of my after-school dance class of an old pupil called ‘TJ’ who had managed the impossibly cool feat of getting a job at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. I was obsessed with her, with Paris, and with my new imaginary life. Long story short – I got there. And it was everything I could have dreamed of.
After a few years of two shows a night and plenty of feathers, I came back to the UK to continue my dance career in London. I really didn’t get a lot of work, and through friends and need for money, I found my next love, Television. It was this career that brought me to the States and which allowed me the space to pursue my secret passion for building and renovating houses. I have done this my entire life, however it’s only relatively recently that I have taken the logical next steps in this career and come out of the closet with ‘Mercantile and Merchant’.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing worth doing is a smooth road. Luckily, I like challenges and proving people wrong. The practical challenges of home development are many and varied, and each project feels like a rollercoaster of issues, challenges, and surprises, some good and some bad. In the last project I just completed, I struggled with everything from surprise storms to appliances being stolen and everything in between.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I established Mercantile and Merchant to answer what I saw as a very real need for ‘spec’ homes that didn’t conform to the standard of ‘Modern Farmhouse’ or other (what I consider to be) soulless flipper boxes. I live in an area where my neighbors feel sad every time a home goes up for sale as they feel sure that what was a charming older home will be replaced by something oversized and without character or integrity. Mercantile and Merchant aims to build ‘new homes with old souls’. I do the exact opposite of what any developer would say is sensible. Our homes are not for everyone, and nor should they be – they are for people who want a unique home that is brought to them with a strong design ethos. I aim to bring a timeless ‘modern English’ aesthetic any Mercantile and Merchant property.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was distracted, dreamy, and lived in a world of my own. I did not do well at school, and I was terribly shy. But my inner world was rich. I loved art, reading, and anything creative. I made things and re-arranged rooms and painted and made tapes and could entertain myself for hours on end.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mercantileandmerchant.com
- Instagram: mercantileandmerchant
Image Credits
Joe Schmeltzer
