INDEPENDENT SHOPPING GUIDE Addicted to browsing interior-design products online? Anna Burnside provides shopping tips if you’ve got grand designs on your home, but a small budget to work with
T here comes a time in everyone’s life when a beer-stained two-seater, originally peach, now covered with a previously-
cheerful ethnic throw, ceases to be a bold anti-materialistic statement and becomes an embarrassment. Ditto those beige tiles with the sheaves of corn.
When that moment comes, what is a person who can’t afford to zip across trawl Copenhagen’s design shops to do? to
For Caroline Key, an interior designer who specialises in upcycling and budget decorating, it’s all about the DIY. Literally. ‘Do as much as you can yourself. If you are not very practical then try and get friends and family involved. You can get expensive paint colours mixed up in cheaper paint which usually looks pretty much the same.’
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And put down that Ikea catalogue: although the jolly blue giant has its uses, and does make a peerless book and CD storage system, it is far from the only option. In fact many its products end up on freecycle.com, which anyone decorating their home should sign up to with all urgency. Cheapcycle, Gumtree.com craigslist.co.uk are also worth a sniff around. Mark Zuckerberg gave away all his surplus stuff on Gumtree when he got a place with his girlfriend. Who knows what generous billionaire might be moving this weekend? and
Failing that, and presuming the neighbours have failed to leave out a couple of mid-century bedside units for the bin man, Key recommends a bit of canny shopping. ‘You can find offers in magazines, or seasonal sales. A great website is mydeco.com, you can type in what you are looking for and it comes up with lots of different 18 THE LIST 31 Mar–28 Apr 2011
companies and prices.’
the Barras, where While the car boot sale is unlikely to yield a wardrobe or dining room table, it’s a good place to source small pieces at laughably low prices. Glaswegians should not forget there are warehouses of furniture of various vintages, from Victoriana to two- years-ago tat. A few second-hand furniture shops in the surrounding streets are also worth The investigating. grandly named Clydeside Antique Building, in Finnieston, is cross- also generational treasures, including a couple of stalls specialising in design-driven furniture.
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a East coasters will find the sprawling Sam Burns yard, in Prestongrange, cross between the two, with a salty tang in the air. They have everything from proper antiques to shelves of dishes and pots to thousands of musty old books. Auctioneers Ramsay Cornish hold regular lane sales on Thursday mornings with great random bargains.
With the basics in place, it’s time to sprinkle on the stardust with some of the gorgeous little bits and pieces that make a room
pop. The work of Scotland’s talented artists, crafters and upcyclers has never been more widely available, with Urban Igloo in Portobello, Edinburgh’s Concrete Wardrobe, and The Shop of Interest and Made in the Shade, both in Glasgow, selling original, bright textiles, ceramics and accessories. This is where you get to go wild and crazy with the cake stands, the owl tapestries and the ceramic pigeons. As Key says: ‘Finishing touches really make a room.’ See directory on page 20 for more shop listings and page 15 for item details.
PLACES FOR F URNITURE R
Words: Anna Burnside
TRASH FURNISHING carolinekey.co.uk
Caroline Key artfully restores vintage classics such as schoolroom chairs, writing desks and mirrors, adding modern motifs and the occasional splash of colour (see tables, left). Ercol dining chairs get funky black legs, Victorian library chairs are revived with yellow piping.
MOLETA MUNRO
4 Jeffrey Street, Edinburgh, 557 4800, moletamunro.com Mmmmm, drool over the latest
Scandinavian, Italian and British- designed lighting, furniture, rugs and textiles. Weep over a Carl Hansen chair. Stroke the SCP shelving units. Possibly buy an egg cup.
BRA BOHAG 150 Easter Road, Edinburgh, 07808 808033, brabohag.com
Lovingly sourced and renovated mid-century
furniture, artfully displayed with same- era artwork and ceramics. All the big names are here – Arne Jacobsen, G Plan, Denby. Sideboards, daybeds and coffee tables have never looked so desirable.
FUNKED UP JUNK myworld.ebay. co.uk/funked upjunk
Wonderwoman on a dressing table, Superman on the legs of a kitchen stool . . . Pieces such as a 1950s telephone table that were pretty cool originally get an even more bonkers makeover with extensive vintage comic decoupage, period newspaper collage work or just a coat of electric pink paint.
FUN MAKES GOOD funmakes good.co.uk
Glasgow-based textile designer and upholsterer Eleanor Young reinvigorates
old pieces of furniture with a bold colour palate and origami-inspired shapes. Her geometric patchwork pouffes would brighten up any bachelor pad, while the swallow pattern dining room chairs would make the hardest heart smile. Which is rather the point of her work.