Vintage Matters Journey Archives

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Paul Cody

Christmas Shopping at Vintage Matters

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING AT VINTAGE MATTERS

December 1st has now passed, so it is officially time to start your Christmas shopping!

We would like to share with you our latest unique, one-off vintage pieces that we have found at the various antique markets, along with some new homeware, which would make ideal Christmas gifts.

Here is a view of part of our new homepage, featuring a wide selection of our vintage gifts, to whet your appetite…

We recently changed the layout of our website, making it easier to browse and shop.

All our latest finds are now featured on our homepage, or you can view through four categories:

We have hundreds of gift ideas online and hope that you can find that unique, personal gift for your family and friends.

For those of you who may be in London later in December, we will be back at West Elm on Tottenham Court Road for another pop up event, from Friday 16th through Sunday 18th.

Happy Christmas shopping!

www.vintagematters.co.uk

Posted on October 8, 2016 by Paul Cody

Vintage Matters – One Year On!

VINTAGE MATTERS – ONE YEAR ON!

Here we are – October 2016 – one year on from our online launch and first pop up at West Elm, London!

What an amazing year it has been and we thought we would share some of the many highlights.

We have travelled far and wide searching for unique pieces to bring to your home or workplace and met many amazing people along the way, who are all as passionate about vintage, as we are.

West Elm have kindly hosted 5 pop up events for us, which have been extremely successful, giving us great brand exposure on Tottenham Court Road in London and we now have customers returning to see what new finds we have.

Among the many pieces we have sold there, one was a scientific instrument that a gentleman bought to train his performing fleas on…

And just last week, someone bought a lovely cast iron window mirror for the garden, solely for the use by William – the pet peacock!

We are back at West Elm for a Christmas pop up event, 16th -18th December.

Our vintage letters and letter lights continue to be hugely popular, as people really connect with them. We have over 100 letters in stock and more on the way.

If you are after a specific letter, drop us an email at [email protected] and we can send images, costs and dimensions of those that are currently being reconditioned, that are not yet online.

www.vintagematters/co.uk/letters

Vintage Matters has been featured in The Metro, Warehouse Home, Reclaim Magazine and in various blogs.

In April 2016, we were delighted to have our home featured in “25 Beautiful Homes”, which has become an ever evolving showcase of product for Vintage Matters.

You can read the article via the following link: www.vintagematters.co.uk/blog

We have been active in the commercial sector too, including a brief to supply vintage pieces of furniture and accessories to a new office in Old Street, London, which resulted in a great feature in INEX Magazine.

Furniture and accessories have been supplied to prestigious brands like Le Labo Fragrances , Shinola through Michael Veal Design and Hawksmoor Restaurant, as well as a number of props for the current TV show,”Taskmaster“.

We have been busy posting and tweeting on various social media channels and now have over 700 followers on Instagram and over 500 on Twitter, along with a growing presence on Facebook, Pinterest and G+

Our mailing list is growing rapidly too and you can sign up quickly and easily on our home page.

Currently, we are searching for a retail space in South East London, to open our first store which we are very excited about and we are out in the markets sourcing some special pieces for Christmas.

We would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all our customers and followers for your support and we look forward to an exciting year ahead!

[email protected]

www.vintagematters.co.uk

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Paul Cody

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.

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.

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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

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Paul Cody

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/

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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.

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Paul Cody

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

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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/

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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/

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/

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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!

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Paul Cody

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!

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.

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.

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!

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Paul Cody

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!

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.

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

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!

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Paul Cody

Our first photoshoot

Vintage Matters Journey – Our First Photoshoot!

Lots still to be done before the shoot could start though, so the team spent a couple of days sanding, cleaning, washing, oiling and waxing and generally bringing our vintage finds back to life with some much needed TLC. Lots of builders tea was consumed to keep us going!

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It’s really rewarding, putting all the effort into making a dull, often dirty item, look as good as new and discovering a manufacturers name or mark and researching into the provenance or authenticity of a piece.

Pepper the dog wanted to get involved, wherever she could!

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We cleared the barn, set up the photo studio and got to work….

…certain people just aren’t camera shy

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We are really into the detail on a product and will be making this a feature on our site, whether it be a classic mortice & tenon joint made by a craftsman years ago, or a piece of great hardware, or an amazing piece of typography or backstamp. Take a look at these!

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Here’s a little taster of what’s to come on our website….we hope you like our clean, uncluttered look!

We are excited to be getting there, slowly but surely, with lots more still to do. Watch this space for our online launch date, which will be announced soon!

Bye for now.

Paul

[email protected]

vintagemattersuk