CHANGING ROOMS

I see ‘Changing Rooms’ is back on TV. I thought the horrific spectre of watching people trying to look happy while an interior designer explains why they chose to do up their lounge in an Amazonian themed MDF way had long gone.

But, no, Kirsty Allsopp’s new show ‘free something or other’ has shown that people can still clearly retain a stiff upper lip when Kirsty reveals the new catastrophe that was their home.

I nearly saw a grown man cry when he saw the pink pastel kingdom his bedroom had become. Just because it’s free, don’t make it right….

HEAVY METAL

For no reason in particular, we ended up last week buying a
whole load of heavy metal. Buckets, milk churns, big boxy

metal things, bins and planters. Amongst them was a very rude looking concrete lighthouse so, of course, we had to buy that as well. Also we bought 3 large industrial chicken feeder although they wouldn’t all fit in the van (sorry Dan & Debs!) so we will get them to the shop at a later date.

Perhaps the star buy was a Dutch mechanics tool chest on wheels (currently in shop). It would make a very industrial chic occasional table (literally – you could just wheel it out!).

Nest is currently crammed full of interesting vintage gear so get over quick before it all goes!

BOOK BARGAINS

A few weeks ago we bought in a load of vintage books to the shop. That same day, a guy came up to the counter with one of the books (an old Enid Blyton) and said “I would like to give you the full price on this but there’s a slight problem”. He opened the book.

The pages had been cored out so as to hide some sort of rectangular box. My immediate reaction was….how exciting…and actually, the customer really liked it as well – but I had to give him a discount!

In retrospect, had we known about this, I would probably have kept it to myself and hidden chocolate inside!