In a world driven by disposable culture, Poonam Shah, a mother and artist from Mumbai, is doing something delightfully different—she’s giving old toys a new life by turning them into stunning resin furniture. What began as a small personal project has now evolved into a heartwarming blend of nostalgia, sustainability, and design innovation.

The Toy Box That Sparked a Business

It all started with a dilemma familiar to many parents: what to do with the pile of outgrown toys that once brought joy but now lay unused. For Poonam, those weren’t just plastic trinkets—they were tiny memory capsules of her son’s childhood. Rather than discard them, she envisioned something creative, enduring, and beautiful.

Her very first experiment was a tabletop embedded with toy cars, action figures, and puzzle pieces, all preserved in clear resin. The response was overwhelming. “Everyone who saw it had a memory triggered. That’s when I realised I wasn’t just making furniture—I was preserving emotion,” she recalls.

From Nostalgia to New-Age Decor

Using epoxy resin, wood, and a variety of recycled materials, Poonam now custom-builds center tables, wall panels, stools, coasters, and even headboards, each piece embedded with toys, trinkets, or memorabilia supplied by the clients themselves.

Every product is crafted by hand in her Mumbai workshop, taking weeks of patient layering and sealing to create pieces that are durable, functional, and visually mesmerizing.

Her designs are as varied as the memories they represent—from a pink Barbie-themed coffee table to a jungle-animal-inspired stool, and even a Lego-themed study desk.

Sustainable Art with a Soul

More than just decor, Poonam’s work stands at the intersection of art and environmental responsibility. With millions of plastic toys ending up in landfills, her initiative is a powerful reminder that even the smallest objects can be repurposed with care and imagination.

“I wanted to show that you don’t need to throw away a part of your child’s past. You can carry it forward into your home in a way that’s artistic, meaningful, and zero-waste,” she says.

One-of-a-Kind, One-for-the-Heart

Each creation is deeply personal. Clients often reach out with boxes of old toys, sometimes passed down for generations, hoping to turn them into legacy furniture. Poonam offers consultations where she understands the emotional connection, the desired function of the piece, and the design vibe of the home before beginning her artwork.

“It’s like building a time capsule you can sit on or eat at,” one customer remarked after receiving a bespoke resin table containing toy trains, birthday candles, and baby booties.

A Growing Tribe of Toy-Lovers

Word-of-mouth and social media have grown Poonam’s brand rapidly. Her Instagram is a colorful gallery of completed projects, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and transformation stories. Her clientele ranges from young parents in Mumbai to NRIs in the U.S. looking to immortalize their children's early years in something tangible.

She now also collaborates with eco-conscious interior designers and sustainable art exhibitions, advocating for creative reuse in home décor.

The Power of Emotional Design

Poonam Shah’s journey is not just about toys and tables—it’s about memory, motherhood, sustainability, and storytelling. She has managed to carve a niche where design isn’t just seen, but felt. In her hands, forgotten toys find purpose, and furniture becomes family history.

As she puts it, “Every scratch on a toy has a story. I just seal it into art that lasts forever.”