Vintage Furniture Finds

VINTAGE FURNITURE FINDS

Here are our latest vintage furniture finds, sourced from the UK, France, Holland and the Ukraine, which are now available online!

We think these are pretty special, unique pieces that would work equally well at home or in the work place.

Here are 3 vintage club leather armchairs from France. Full of character, these would work well in either a contemporary or traditional setting at home or in an office environment.

Vintage Moustache Leather Club Armchair
Vintage Leather Club Armchair Moustache
Vintage French Leather Club Armchair

Below is a really unique piece! Once used by the Ukranian Army, this industrial rack, is a great looking storage solution for hats and luggage on the top; for hanging coats and jackets and then a lower rack for shoes and bags.

This versatile piece could be used in a restaurant, bar or cafe, or in a retail store to merchandise fashion. It would work equally well in a large hallway.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-industrial-metal-coat-rack/

Vintage Industrial Metal Coat Rack

Our vintage gym stool, originally used as a climbing or vaulting frame, is sure to bring back old school day memories – good or bad!

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-gymnasium-stool/

Vintage Gymnasium Stool Bench

These vintage stacking chairs were once used by community centres, hospitals and schools for their space saving versatility and ease of stacking.

These chairs were sourced from a Dutch school and feature a grey metal frame, with plywood seats and backs.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-stacking-dutch-school-chairs-3/

Vintage stacking school chairs plywood
Vintage Stacking School Chairs Plywood

The above vintage stacking chairs were salvaged from a school in England and feature a brown tubular metal frame and plywood seats and backs.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-stacking-school-chairs/

This solid oak writing desk is from the 1930’s and is in great condition for its age. Well constructed with dovetail joints, it has a large writing surface, a centre drawer and two pedestals, each with 2 drawers and a pull out work surface.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-oak-office-desk/

Vintage Oak Office Desk

Finally, is this stunning vintage drawing table, in great condition, made by Unic Studio in Paris in the 1940’s.

It has a simple counterweight mechanism, that allows the table to move quickly and smoothly, from a  flat surface, to a working drawing table.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-adjustable-drawing-table/

Vintage adjustable drawing table French
Vintage adjustable drawing table French

We hope you like our latest vintage furniture pieces and would love to hear your feedback and comments. Please let us know which is your favourite piece!

We are always out in the markets, looking for special and unusual pieces, so if you are looking for something particular, please send an email and we will be  happy to help source.

Thank you!

[email protected]

www.vintagematters.co.uk

Our Top Ten Gifts For Father’s Day

OUR TOP TEN FATHER’S DAY GIFTS

Finding the right gift for Father’s Day is not always easy, so we thought we would share our top ten favourite pieces from our collections, that would be a unique, personal gift for Dad!

For the practical Dad, is this fantastic screwdriver gift set, hand made in a small workshop in London.

The handles are made from solid beech and the set comes complete with 9 interchangeable bits.

Cost: £38.00

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/elementary-screwdriver-gift-set/

Elementary Screwdriver Gift Set

For the Dad who loves to cook, we have this high quality, 100% cotton bib apron, hand made in Manchester.

It features an adjustable neck for comfort, which fastens with stud buttons, to fit any size.

Cost: £18.00 – also available in brown.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/grey-classic-utility-bib-apron-2/

Grey Classic Utility Bib Apron

What Dad doesn’t love to have a beer and barbeque?!

At 47 cms diameter, our large galvanised steel barbeque can easily cook delicious char-grilled food for 6 people or more.

Great value at only £45.00

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/large-round-barbeque/

Large Round Barbeque

For the Dad that is more than happy working in the garden, we have this hugely popular set of 3 galvanised steel planters, with aged brass rims and handles.

Cost: £120.00

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/set-of-3-garden-planters/

Set of 3 Garden Planters Galvanised

For the Dad that likes nothing better than entertaining with family and friends, is this 3 piece authentic vintage German beer table & bench set.

Cost: £320.00 including free delivery to mainland UK.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-beer-table-and-bench-set-2/

Circa 1880, this handsome, Victorian writing slope with brass detail is the perfect gift for the Dad who is into antiques and anything vintage, who would appreciate the fine workmanship in this piece.

Cost: £180.00

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/antique-large-victorian-writing-box/

Antique Large Victorian Writing Box Slope

Let Dad just relax and sink into this extremely comfy, vintage Mid Century leather armchair from Germany!

Cost: £550.00 including free delivery to UK mainland.

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-leather-mid-century-armchair/

vintage mid century leather armchair

For the tea drinking Dad who is into tyopgraphy, these English made ceramic mugs, make the ideal gift.

There are 6 classic fonts to choose from – shown here is the Bauhaus font mug.

Cost: £11.95

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/bauhaus_font_mug_typography/

Bauhaus font mug typography
mug_china_typography_Bauhaus_

For the Dad that likes to travel, what better gift than a vintage giant wall map. This would really make a statement in a room!

We have maps available of the UK, Africa, India, North America and South America.

Cost: £240.00

www.vintagematters.co.uk/product/vintage-wall-map-of-africa-giant-geographical_/

vintage wall map of africa

For a really personal gift, get your Dad a vintage letter, salvaged from a shop front or pub. We have over 150 letters available, including many which illuminate.

Costs start from as little as £20.00 to £220.00

www.vintagematters.co.uk/letters

Vintage Letter Light D Illuminated

Don’t leave it too late to order, to be sure you receive by Saturday 18th June.

Last orders can be received up to 6 pm Wednesday 15th June.

Thank you!

www.vintagematters.co.uk

25 Beautiful Homes Feature

Our home in 25 Beautiful Homes

Early in the new year we were contacted by a freelance journalist and photographer partnership who were potentially interested in doing a photo shoot of our home, if it was “nice”, of course!  So we sent a few amateur photos, which excited them sufficiently to want come and do a shoot, which they then offered to various interiors magazines.

When they told us 25 Beautiful Homes had picked up the feature for their May edition, we were both relieved (“thank God it’s not just us and family & friends that like our taste!”) as well as excited/proud.

Unfortunately we didn’t make the front cover….

Our home is an evolving showcase of what we have coming into the business and going through the business. It’s a constantly changing home, which is a blessing and a bit of a curse, at times! We’ll go out sourcing with a new collection in mind, then end up having a new medicine cabinet for our bathroom that we want to keep, one week, or a travel themed take over the next!

At the time of the photo shoot, we had Collection G (fireside) about to launch, as well as all our utilitarian and bar collections around, hence why you see a lot of the stock that we are selling in the photos!

Unfortunately the magazine decided the whole article seemed like a story about Vintage Matters rather than our home and they edited out the fact that a large majority of the pieces in the photos were,  in fact , available for sale from Vintage Matters,  such as the antlers, bar cart, soda syphons, green bottles, mirrors, suitcases, and bakers rack etc., etc.

We were more than happy to see our home published in 25 Beautiful Homes!

If you are interested in our home or products, please get in touch and we will also keep you up to date with any events we are doing.

Our next pop up event is at Spitalfields Market, London on Thursday 28th April.

www.vintagematters.co.uk

E: [email protected]

T: 07738 042 573

Vintage Matters Commercial Projects

Vintage Matters Commercial Projects

Vintage Matters has been busy these past few months working on some commercial projects that we would like to share with you.

Firstly, we were given a brief to supply vintage furniture and accessories to a “an extremely awesome PR, social media and experiential agency”, based in Old Street, London, for their new office space.

Citizen, Vintage Matters, vintage, letters, illuminated, reception,

The giant vintage wall map and clock gave the company board room some warmth and character and became the focal point in the room.

Citizen, Boardroom, Vintage Matters,

The bar was a fantastic use of space that was brought to life with our gorgeous vintage soda syphons, corkscrews and silver plated ice bucket and cocktail shaker.

Vintage Matters, Bar, Barware, Soda, Syphon, Cocktail, Shaker,

In addition to the statement and unique furniture items, we sourced and supplied the company name in illuminated letters for their reception area, to create a playful and impactful welcome to their space. These are mostly vintage letters that with a bit of love and some LED lighting we gave a new lease of life to.

Citizen, Vintage Matters, vintage, letters, illuminated,

Finally, the reception and meeting areas were propped with vintage antlers, old cameras, cine cameras and enamel wall plaques that add those familiar,  quirky and individual moments throughout.

You can read a feature about Vintage Matters, sourcing and supplying vintage furniture and accessories to Citizen, through INEXonline:

http://www.inex-online.com/archive/in-spire/item/2006-a-new-lease-of-life-for-vintage-furniture-and-accessories

 

Citizen, Vintage Matters, vintage, accessories, reception, meeting room,
Citizen, Vintage Matters, vintage, letters, illuminated,vintage, furniture, accessories,

In a retail project, we supplied a new store called Shinola that recently opened in Soho, London, which was featured in Wallpaper Magazine and described by the New York Times “as the coolest American brand!”. www.shinola.co.uk

We sourced a beautiful Mid Century Danish leather sofa, for customers to relax in the store and take 5, as well as a Scandi table and chairs.

shinola, london, store, vintage, matters, leather, sofa,
shinola, london,

We were excited to work with the set designer for the second series of Taskmaster, made by Avalon Television, which will be launching on Dave TV, on 21st June at 10 pm. http://dave.uktv.co.uk/shows/taskmaster/

We supplied a number of props for the contestants to use to perform tasks, set by the Taskmaster, Greg Davies, in this offbeat challenge show that tests the wiles, wit, wisdom and skills of five hyper-competitive comedians!

We are happy to work on any commercial projects, including hotels, bars, cafes, restaurants, office spaces and retail, as well as prop hire, including photo shoots, weddings etc.

Please contact: [email protected]   07738 042 573

Collections in Retail

And not in London!

Collections have always been present in design, fashion and architecture, but in todays quality focused society, expertly curated collections are a thing for now.

At Vintage Matters, this is something we do online with our unique collections of vintage and new product, bringing our customers a selected range of products for their home and business. Collections are a way in which we can stay relevant and flexible, listening to what our customers want and it’s something we take great joy in putting together. We will soon be releasing further collections to our online store so keep checking in. Our collections are released and titled as letters in the alphabet – we launched with A,B & C and our next collection will be D, and so on.

In this post we are highlighting a few other retailers/stores outside of London, (yes there is a world outside London!), that are offering collection focused retail.

Starting on the coast in Brighton, the Utility store is an inspiration for us! The owners and their team have been crafting a utilitarian product assortment for years now and the store looks great for it. Their strength comes from clarity and execution of the brand – from the name, product assortment and layout of the store – the whole package screams Utility. Organisation, function and simplicity of design is a thing of beauty and is hard to achieve. Utility stocks lots of the tools you will need to bring some order to your home or business. Like us at Vintage Matters, they can clearly see the beauty of design in these products, displaying them wonderfully throughout the store. The entire store is a crafted collection of utilitarian products and we take a bow to them. We love this place and we hope you do too!

http://www.utilitygreatbritain.co.uk/

 

Next, along the coast a bit, is Alastair Hendy, who is a food writer and photographer turned shop owner and restaurateur, that opened a homewares retail store in Hastings. The store is very unassuming and strikes us as one of those stores that the unobservant amongst us would just wonder straight past and we love that! The design of the store and restaurant interior totally embrace the building in which it is housed. We’re sure they had to work hard to deliver the dilapidation look so beautifully, or maybe the building was partly like that, but either way it’s executed brilliantly. At Vintage Matters, we are big fans of utilitarian pieces and Alastair and his team always merchandise their collections in such an effortlessly cool manner. If we had time, we could get absorbed in this store for hours, browsing every nook and cranny of beautifully housed collections.

http://www.aghendy.com/

The final store/brand we have learnt to love again is John Lewis, especially with their new investment in store design in which to house their quality assortment of products. We’re particular fans of the Loved & Found department at the new Birmingham store! Loved & Found is a curated collection of designers, lifestyle brands and standout pieces and it seems the buyers of John Lewis have been thinking along the same lines as us, that too much choice is daunting for their customers and they want to give them an area of the store that is more curated. It’s great seeing such leading retailers as John Lewis being bold and providing a new and different shopping experience. Well worth a visit!

http://www.johnlewis.com/our-shops/birmingham

 

 

Please get in contact with us and let us know if you have any great other recommendations where we can go check out some collections in retail, and we’ll be sure to keep you all in the loop.

London retail that inspires us


London Retail Inspiration


We feel so lucky to live and work in such an inspiring city as London, so we thought we would share a number of our retail favourites that inspire us for different reasons.

Retail is so diverse and rich in London, where there are still pockets of independents that offer specialist treasures and the bigger boys have to work so much harder to get your attention, so they are constantly pushing themselves to gain an edge, whether it be through collaborations (such as our pop up store at West Elm http://www.westelm.co.uk/), or hosting events in store or just creating beautiful merchandising, like they do at Anthropolgie www.anthropologie.com/uk/

Club Monaco on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, ticks a lot of boxes for us at Vintage Matters.

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/club-monaco-mens-shop-redchurch-street-shoreditch-london



Club_Monaco_Redchurch_Street_Shoreditch_London_Mens_Shop
Club_Monaco_Redchurch_Street_Shoreditch_London


They have a perfectly formed little store on the ever gentrified Redchurch Street. The level of detail delivered in this store is exemplary, you can tell it’s all about the extra little touches with this brand and we love that. The clothes are classic, but with an understated coolness to them – nothing is over the top about them, it is almost work/utilitarian in design. The quality in finishing and material just speaks for itself. We’re big fans and just wish we had pockets deep enough to deck ourselves out! Apart from their product that they sell, they have gorgeous vintage display touches throughout, which is just right up our street. To finish off, the packaging and wrapping is simple yet beautiful.

The next spot is The French House on Lambs Conduit Street or as we are reliably informed, “LCS” for those in the know.

http://www.thefrenchhouse.net/



The_French_House_Lambs_Conduit_Street_London
The_French_Shop_Lambs_Conduit_Street_London


The French House is a little homewares store that draws inspiration from all things French. They have their own line of French House products mostly comprising of  lighting, kitchen and tabletop. We can totally understand how the French House team has taken so much from France as antique, vintage and homeware wise it’s pretty hard to beat.

The first part of the store usually has beautiful displayed and French inspired tabletop and kitchen pieces with the occasional brocante piece thrown into the mix. The back room is usually used to display their own range of lighting, where we always see another fixture that we’d love for our home. The store also always uses such great and unique vintage pieces to display their product, like a really big but beautiful timber grape or grain trough. How amazing would it be to get a piece like that for your kitchen?

Talking of display pieces, Binders on Holloway Road, in North London, is one of our favourite old stores and always has a bounty of pieces to get excited by. The store doesn’t look much from the outside but they usually have some cracking product out in the street to draw you in.

http://dandabinder.co.uk/



Binders_Holloway_Road_London
d_and_a_binder_Holloway_ Road_London


Inside they stock primarily ex retail units, haberdashery pieces and general vintage storage counters, mixed with an ever changing range of eclectic objects – it’s just a damn interesting place to be! There are some items that have been restored and remade, as well as original pieces lining all the walls.

Finally a bit of love for South West London and Petersham Nurseries near Richmond.

http://petershamnurseries.com/



Petersham_Nurseroes_Richmond_Vintage_Tables_Chairs
Petersham_Nurseries_Richmond_London


Petersham Nurseries is a tranquil location just a stones throw from the Thames, on the outskirts of Richmond, which is totally walkable from the town center. A self titled refuge from the city, it’s perfect if you want to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.

Petersham has a series of glass houses that feature plants, homewares/antiques and an award winning restaurant too. Don’t be fooled by the glass houses ram-shackled appearance as it’s very cleverly dilapidated so you accidentally explore the wonderful little corners.

We always seem to lose hours in Petersham and that’s even before we’ve had a drink! Their product assortment is always enticing, evolving and well merchandised, encouraging you browse that little bit longer.



Please let us know what retail and product inspires you, so we can check it out next time we’re out exploring, or let us know if there is anything you want us to specifically source for you!


Vintage Matters First Pop Up!

Vintage Matters Launch



Holiday over, it was full speed ahead for the online launch of Vintage Matters on 1st October, coinciding with our first pop up event at West Elm London! With all the various components now available for our branding, we were finally able to share it. We’re pretty proud of how it looks!



cool_Branding_packaging_


Next job was preparing the A-board! We love playing with our logo on different materials and getting it applied with different methods. We think this bit of laser cutting into ply experiment worked really well.

 

 





For extra visibility we had our logo made into a large adhesive decal, in copper foil. Much patience and skill were needed to get this in place – well done, Tom! We love our logo but whilst putting this up, all the little lines around the edge tested that love, that’s for sure.



vintage_matters_window_at_west_elm_pop_up_


Finally, we were able to vm (visual merchandise) our products on our authentic vintage German beer table and benches, utilising some of our vintage suitcases and toolboxes to help with the display.



west_elm_pop-Up_


We had some great feedback from passers by in the street, who loved our windows and ventured into West Elm, where they do not normally shop, to see what was going on. www.westelm.co.uk

Our giant wall maps were especially popular!

The windows looked pretty special at night too, with our illuminated letters.

vintage_matters_window_at_west_elm_pop_up_
vintage_matters_window_at_west_elm_pop_up_


Thanks to everyone for your support and thanks West Elm for hosting us! Due to the fantastic response we’ll be back at West Elm 10th – 13th December with some new collections. In the meantime check out our products online and we’ll keep you informed of when we release our new collections.

Happy shopping!

 


An update on our journey….

An update on our journey…

We have been busy finding more product for our collections, cleaning and restoring, photographing, editing and building our website and working on the back end of the business – the storage, packaging and distribution.

However, we wanted to tell you more about what we will be offering.

A unique feature of Vintage Matters, will be the launch of COLLECTIONS, throughout the year.

Today’s consumer has so much choice, it often limits people’s creativity, which is why we have chosen to compose collections of vintage and new product that compliment each other well and we will only be offering a limited number of COLLECTIONS online at any time, though you will be able to shop from past COLLECTIONS once a new one is launched.

Here’s a sneak preview of Collection A!

collection_A_vintage_matters_

We enjoy the excitement and anticipation of finding characterful pieces on our travels, then taking those pieces and curating them with new product to bring an environment to life. We want to create an engaging platform that is constantly evolving, to keep people and businesses inspired!

In addition, we will also be offering a bespoke sourcing service to individuals, as well as hotels, restaurateurs, bars, cafes, retailers and businesses, as well as prop hire.

We will always be offering FURNITURE as a collection and of course, LETTERS, mostly being vintage letters from shop fronts and pubs, which can make a real statement anywhere in your home, or business.

vintage_letters_

We are busy cleaning and refurbishing some letters with LED lights, so they illuminate and we think they look amazing!

vintage_letters_illuminated_

Do you recognise any of the letters from some pretty well known high street names?! Let us know if you do!

We will be taking a much needed holiday in September 🙂 , so the new launch date will be 1st October online, which will coincide with a pop up event at the West Elm store, on Tottenham Court Road in London, which will run from 1st – 3rd.

We would love to see you there – come and say hello!

Vintage Matters Bespoke Service

Vintage Matters Bespoke Service

At Vintage Matters, we offer a bespoke service globally, to businesses, hoteliers, retailers and individuals seeking that special find, collection, or entire fit-out.

Recently, we were commissioned to source a collection of vintage jeweller’s tools for an in store visual display in a new jewellery shop opening in Shanghai.

Here’s a look at some of the tools that we found!

vintage_jewellers_tools_
vintage_jewellers_tools_

We sourced and curated over 50 pieces, including a miniature anvil, metal cutting pliers and files, small hammers, calipers and a number of small tools formerly used in the jewellery trade.

vintage_jewellers_tools_
vintage_jewellers_tools_

It always gets the mind going, imagining who and where these kind of tools where once used!

vintage_jewellers_tools_

These pieces are now on their way to China and we are looking forward to seeing images of the visual feature in store soon.

vintage_jewellers_tools_

For more information on this service, please email: [email protected]

 

Collections

It’s all about COLLECTIONS!

At Vintage Matters we love to create collections, so thought we would share some of our collections with you! Fingers crossed we get your creative juices flowing to start curating yourselves.

Here are some ideas we pulled together, with Father’s Day in mind next month, as great gifts and something a little bit original and unusual.

Remember the golden rule, when collecting or VM’ing (Visual Merchandising) –odd numbers of items work the best– 3 is most definitely the magic number, however 5 pieces work really well too.

We can’t resist an industrial collection of vintage pulleys – cool to just have “casually” lying around the place, on a landing or stairway.

vintage_pulleys_

These beautiful vintage toothpaste pot lids, look great in a bathroom.

vintage_toothpaste_lids_

This collection of vintage wooden levels with brass would work really well displayed in an office. We love the detail in the brass, with the manufacturers name and “Made in England” stamp.

 

This is a lovely collection of old enamel watch faces, found at a flea market in Paris – perfect for the bedroom!

vintage_clock_faces_enamel_

This is a colourful collection of vintage bagatelle boards, from the 1950’s and 1960’s when playing games in pubs was the thing to do. These would look fantastic mounted on a wall in a living room, or office. They even have the ball bearings still, if you fancy a game?!

vintage_bagatelle_game_

And of course, the most personal of collections – letters! Collect your initials in all sorts of shapes, colors and materials to build a larger collection, which will become a real talking point in your home or give as a gift to someone, so they can start their own collection.

We would love to see what you collect! Tweet us at Vintage Matters so we can see what collections are going on all around us.

Happy collecting!

Paul

[email protected]

www.vintagematters.co.uk