mrs roomtobreathe: Discovering Homestuff With History

mrs roomtobreathe: Discovering Homestuff With History: I needn't have worried myself about shopping opportunities when I left London. Cambridge is not only complete with the normal high stree...

No Open Weekend in September!

Sadly, we haven’t got enough stock for our Open Weekend this month, so it won’t be happening (but you already knew that, because you’re on our mailing list!). But never fear…expect another announcement soon telling you exactly when you can next come along and have a proper look at our amazing finds…

In the meantime we’ve added some industrial pieces, children’s goodies, tins, furniture and plenty more unique items that you know will look just perfect in your house!

SWEETS MADE SIMPLE!

Guess who supplied the wooden print blocks for the new BBC 2 series 'Sweets made Simple'? The photographer (http://www.crisbarnett.com/) Cris had a great time routing round in our workshop looking round for props, so see if you can spot any other www.homestuffwiththistory.com stuff in later episodes!

DRIFTWOOD...

An elderly couple came into the shop. The man walked around looking, and prodding, before stopping in front of one of the driftwood boats. I was about to say how I made them from Suffolk driftwood when he suddenly exclaimed "Well it's not the worst model I've ever seen"

Slightly taken aback I replied "But possibly in your top five?"

"Well, definitely in the top ten" he countered.

He then proceeded to tell me all about the worst model boat he had ever seen. As he left the shop his wife sidled over and said "So sorry, he's a naval architect"

Ho hum….another day with the public!

ICONOGRAPHY

We've just uploaded some new stock to the shop including this very religious oil painting. We have to say, this type of iconography is very in at the moment. Matt actually has a large chalkware Mary and baby Jesus in his house…although this isn't that weird compared to some of his other stuff

PERFECTLY PINK!

We don't often talk about chairs but we couldn't resist a photo of these very distressed pink hoop backs. They have it all going on..!

DAINTY DISPLAYS!

We're busy building more display space for the June Open Weekend (have we mentioned that?!  http://www.homestuffwithhistory.co.uk/pages/open-weekends). It should allow us to do some interesting themed displays such as this muted collection we were dabbling with, in between resto jobs.

GRANDPA DRAWERS!

This chap is a classic little naive 'grandpa' piece. It’s made out of wooden packing crates and some old cardboard sweet boxes. The matchbox toy is there for scale!

CORNER CUPBOARD!

Anyone who has visited the workshop is probably aware that standing still for too long can be dangerous....you might get painted! We promise, however, not to paint this stunning pine corner cupboard…even if remains motionless. 

NEWS!

We picked up these religious newspaper compilations the other day. They’re of very timely interest as they date from the Great War (we also have ones from 1889 and 1897). Of particular note is the fantastic adverts…don’t think the Advertising Standards Agency existed, then!

 

                                                         

INDUSTRIAL CHIC!

In the spirit of industrial chic, we give you a very used fold-up saw table which we think would make an interesting little table. Of course, if this appeared in an interiors mag it would be described as repurposed which my phones dictionary still, quite rightly, refuses to acknowledge as a real word! Anyway….stick it in the hall with a jug of flowers on and make your parents tut when they visit!

DOUGH BOWLS!

We're very busy at the mo buying and renovating (lots of lovely new stuff going on the website AND we’re preparing for the next Open Weekend!). We would like to get some collections of similar beautiful objects going so with this in mind how about some lovely old dough bowls to start with!

WORKSHOP WEATHER!

We love being at our workshop, especially when the sun is shining. And clearly our neighbours at www.touchofginger.com do too….top place for a very important meeting with the suits!

FABULOUS LITTLE FAMILY!

We’re not that big on gnomes but, as the little beardy chaps go, these are proper old ones and a really good weathered colour. We would sell them separately but what a shame to break up the family. Go on...give the cat a fright this spring!

MORE VICTORIAN STUFF!

A cute little Victorian swing top table. Good for very small meals or displays of flowers.

GREETINGS!

Say ‘Hello’ to a freshly finished Victorian painted pine chest. Done up in 1829 hemp beige, with a little distressing and a light wax. Ideal for absorbing huge amounts of clothing!

WONKY DONKEY!

Just bought this rather sad little vintage toy with a wobbly wheel. We have, of course, named it wonky donkey! 

LOOKING FOR THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE!

You were in the workshop on Sunday…she was there, serving customers. You savoured a chocolate brownie…she promised to email you the recipe.

She then put your email address somewhere safe….possibly never to be seen again… If you are the partner of the grandson of Woodbine Willie, then please get in touch, we’ve got that recipe for you!

CHESTS TO CHERISH!

More bread and butter (chests of drawers) arriving at the workshop - four slices in total this last fortnight. Does this make any sense to anyone?!

GORGEOUS GLASS!

More glass storage jars…and if you don't have anything to store or display… well… sod it, they look beautiful empty!

MAKING CHANGES

We spent all of Thursday preparing the workshop and getting displays up (ready for our Open Weekend!!). We have to say, the old place is beginning to look special…

PRECARIOUS PILE

Anyone know what the collective term for a pile of little distressed cupboards is? A wobble? A conspiracy?  Find these, and more, at our Open Weekend!

FOLKSY DRESSER

Dear Readers

We are set to bore you this week with constant reminders of the Homestuff Open Event this weekend. We are going through one last buying spree to get as much interesting gear for your viewing (and hopefully buying) pleasure! To kick off here's a little folksy dresser we’ve found…

THE LIFE OF HOMESTUFF

Mack and Me were taking photos of new things for the website last week. We observed Dan holding this board up for about 10 minutes trying to get a reflection in a mirror to work, while Julia took the shot. Rather reminded me of a scene from 'The Life of Brian'!

DOG AT THE DOOR

The Open Weekend sign has gone up outside the workshop (painted by my own fair hand – don’t look too closely..) and Olive has been practicing her welcome pose which we feel needs a little more refining – we were hoping for a small curtsey at the very least...

One stocktake, lots of biscuits and a conversation about Game of Thrones that left Kathryn none the wiser… So now it’s done, we can concentrate on far more important, pressing details….like which cakes we’re going to be serving you at our Open Weekend.

Fortunately we’ve got several people willing to help us make the choice!

STOCKTAKE TRIALS...

Today is the dreaded day in the workshop…stocktake or die. Think we’d rather die…

Still, at least we’ve palmed off the worst (actually, we’re still arguing about whether it really is the worst…at least it’s near a heater) job on Scott…counting and checking every single printers block…and there are thousands…!

SPRING HAS (SORT OF) SPRUNG!

Well...we decided to give our website a bit of a spring

makeover…gone is our little ice-skater, replaced by a very chirpy little birdie. Plus Mack&Me have done a lovely load of new photography and we’ve got tons of new pieces on there. But you already knew that, because you’ve received our newsletter… What? You’re not on our mailing list?  Best do it quick (either via facebook or our website) – then you’ll be one of the first to know, next time!

BOATS ON A BOOKCASE?

Handy little bookcase which also works well as a plinth for some sort of lovely piece of art. Maybe one of my driftwood boats?!

GORGEOUS GIRLS!

We picked up these two lovely concrete beauties the other day.

As you can see they've been tarting around outside a while and are beginning to age rather nicely. Anyhoo… we're pimping them out at £75 each which makes them a cheap date!

LOOKING LOVELY!

Vintage American mason jars. For no other reason than they looked so beautiful against our old map wall, with the sun (albeit briefly!) coming in the window…

DRIFTWOOD DESIGNS!

Some of the first driftwood boats of the year – it’s taken a few months for the driftwood to dry out but I should have a nice little armada ready for the Open Weekend!

HOUSEMAIDS CUPBOARD

Very, very, useful tall cupboard.

We’ve just finished painting it, so now it’s in need of new family to fill it with clutter!

Look… it’s teasing you with an open door…(filling up with your stuff make cupboard happy!)…

CARRY ON COLLECTING!

We watched 'Collectaholics' on BBC 2, last night, specifically for the guy who had over 500 stuffed animals. Well, as they correctly pointed out, the better examples are actually mounted (hide stretched over a form) rather than 'stuffed' crudely with sawdust. 

Fascinating watching Mel’s reaction and incredulity at taxidermy being in vogue - but it is, and has been, for a number of years.

So there they were at Spittalfields selling excess animals to raise money for a giraffe (you probably needed to watch it!) and what was one of the pieces they sold? A little bambi. Hey presto! We have on our website a lovely Victorian example at a very competitive price! Imagine how I shouted at the television…..

SHELVES & SODA CRATES!

We love this old pine set of shelves! I loved it so much that I waxed these soda crates that we just got in to show it off (books are too obvious….and still upstairs…and still heavy!).

DISTRESSED DARLINGS!

Two very distressed wooden filing cabinets. 

Strong statement pieces. 

You could be really brave and have them as bedside cabinets!...

BREAD & BUTTER

In every business you have a bread and butter item, some even have a bit of jam if they're lucky! For us, it’s chests of drawers!

This particular one is a tasty Victorian number painted in a lovely blue grey…

WORKING ON THE WORKSHOP!

Inspired by the lovely weather and the thought of our imminent Open Weekend, we have finally, after many, many years, made a start on painting the outside of the workshop.

What was that? Oh, OK, well….after many, many years procrastinating we got Scott to do it - but Matt did give all the windows and doors a distress and varnish!

COLLECTAHOLICS

Watched the first in a new series on BBC2 called 'Collectaholics'. Obviously we enjoyed it - especially the guy who had a huge collection of railway signage. But Matt most enjoyed the trailer for next week when a huge collection of taxidermy gets shown. This means we get to show a picture of a stuffed owl (£30) now living upstairs at the workshop and next week he gets to shoehorn in some other taxidermy link as well!

BEEN OUT BUYING!

Err… here is a picture of a plaster Jesus and a leaning tower of toy blocks just to demonstrate that we never know what we may buy on any given day (we’ve been out buying again)

......and that's what makes our business so interesting!

MANY MIRRORS

Crickey! We are building up a large collection of mirrors. This is a somewhat fancy example that would look brilliant at the end of a hallway…

LETTERPRESS LOVE...

Our very beautiful letter press storage/layout thing is now resplendent in the workshop entrance hall. All bow who enter!

SUMMER!

Summer is coming – no, really!

Just in, some very lovely vintage fold up bandstand/cafe chairs. Two of them have at least three different paint schemes showing through and are beautifully distressed - we haven't done anything to them! 

We also have a metal fold up cafe table plus a fold-up wooden slatted top table with two matching chairs. 

Because let’s face it…it has to stop raining at some point!

BEAUTIFUL BOOKCASE!

This post is just an excuse to show a lovely picture of a bookcase that came in the other day. Sometimes less is more with these pics and all the vintage books for dressing furniture were upstairs so…err… less is more when you just can't be bothered to walk that far!

SUNSHINE!!

Upstairs at the workshop when, bless my soul, the room was suddenly illuminated, as if by magic!

After recovering my senses I realised it was the sun making a rare appearance…  Anyhoo it did show off some of the new display space and the rapidly accumulating treasure ready for the open weekend.

STRIP, PAINT OR LEAVE?

The everyday conundrum at the workshop! This cupboard has us a bit stumped. We quite like the paint it has already and we always like to keep old paint on if possible.

However it is green and green can be a hard sell. Grey however always sells! Then again it’s made from good quality pine so maybe we should strip it! It would look awesome but it’s a hell of a lot of work. Back to square one!

THE BELLS

The lovely old shop bell has been installed at the workshop. So now Olive will have no excuse about not greeting people when they come into the main space.

We say ‘greeting’, we mean, of course, barrelling out, barking and then going back into her basket and getting the visitor a present (an old bone, but only if she likes them) before charging back out and barking some more…..and then going back to sleep.

BEACH BONANZA!

I took last Monday off to go on a driftwood safari to the Suffolk coast with Olive. I have to say that it was an interesting experience given the recent weather. Among our finds were two rowing boats (one halfway up a cliff), a dead porpoise, a concrete gun emplacement and a large chunk of fat (whale blubber?). Olive wanted to bring back the blubber but it was about the size of her and she’s a 30kg Labrador so, instead, we ended up dragging a lovely old zinc tub along and filling it with ‘beach’ metal…..I feel another sculpture project coming on!

STRANGE SELLING WEEK!

Well, we do like to claim we stock an eclectic mix....a very mixed bag of sales this week....from letterpress to milk churns, suitcases to recycled book illustrations. That's the joy of it, we never know what we're going to sell which is just as well....as we never know what we're going to come across to buy!

LETTERPRESS LOVE!

We've long been known for our letter press...we've got so many different fonts and sizes, it's difficult to know what to put on the website, but we give it a try!

We've had people buy personal messages including pertinent lines from poems, very rude words, birthdates and even 'Will You Marry Me'...we did ask that he come back and tell us how it went...he never did, so we can only hope he was too happy to remember to return!