Vintage Furniture stories

For those customers who have made it into our new shop at 881 High Street, you may have noticed a renewed focus on small furniture pieces at the manufactory.

We aim to stock vintage and select retro items that can double as useful, as well as beautiful, furniture in your home. Think bedside tables, hallway tables, side tables, benches, stools, chairs, tv cabinets, etc.

At present, we have two furniture 'stories' in the centre of our store. The first grouping has a green retro-theme with accents of bronze(both chairs are now sold). The maidenhair ferns team wonderfully with these pieces:

Then there's gorgeous mint and red timber painted grouping. We have stools, benches, little tables (including set of 3 red nesting Kartell tables) and assorted homewares:

Plus, our newest handmade supplier 'keep me cute' has grown some really cute items. We have in stock toadstool terrariums and baubles with white rabbits, or deer. Priced from $25, they simply make beautiful presents.

 

 

We have also set up an email account just for our store. To contact us, simply email themanufactory@hotmail.com.

Gorgeous vintage finds

Do we have some great vintage items in store for you at the moment...

We went vintage scrounging last week and here's a taste of what we found:

• A gorgeous patined c1950 pressed metal toy horse by Mobo, known as the Bronco. Made by Sebel & Co. in England (yes, the furniture company). POA

• Arguably the first portable gramophone, known as the Crescendo Junior by Decca, in a fibrocite brown case. Fully functional, great big sound from the sound box. Equipped with countless needles, record cleaner by Brunswick and an album full of old records. Lovely and rare in such good nick. POA

• Great assorted industrial and trades items, from cabinets to drawers, hand-held lights and stacks of trays and boxes.

• Really cool fans are back in store now too (pink step ladder and small fan now SOLD):

• And finally, another peek at our lovely candle, cloche, greenery (herbs, cyclamens), cleaning items holding bench with the Heather botanical chart in the background:

Vintage industrial finds

  

We are so fortunate to have fresh salvaged vintage industrial pieces in our shop. This now includes a cream metal medicine cabinet that would make a great bedside table, to little colourful spare parts drawers and a 9 pigeon hole unit on wheels.

And against our pianola wallpaper wall we now have a lovely vintage story going on with a rustic timber ladder, a wrought iron bed head (bedhead is SOLD) and our rusty door:

Loving this cooler weather too!

New look manufactory

We had a great evening last Thursday when local traders, suppliers, locals and customers gathered to celebrate the re-opening of the manufactory.

Ambience of a musical nature was provided by Robert Le Mal on his beautiful piano accordian. With the warm evening and background music, we could have been just about anywhere in Europe on a summer's evening.

But you know what? I was content to be in Thornbury, Australia.

So if you haven't dropped in to see the new-look manufactory yet, here's some pictures to get you racing over ...

Pretty neat, huh?

I must also make special mention of a few new items we are now stocking. It is really wonderful to have the shop space to increase our giftware range to include:

• a fragrant range of True Grace walled garden candles
• beautifully crafted Redecker dusters, vege brushes, cleaning cloths
• Smith's Rosebud lip balms (5 flavours) and salve
• Omega shave cream and shaving brushes

All sitting alongside the beautiful Murchison-Hume cleaning range.

Vintage window dressing in February

This year at the manufactory we are presenting our window displays differently. We plan to offer a wider range of items on a month by month thematic basis. 

For example, we could display a garden party in March, a winter wonderland in July, a Fathers Day workshop for September and of course, Christmas lights in December.

During each month, we will offer several special core pieces for lay-by purchase. Other accompanying items will be available for immediate purchase. The lay-by pieces will be available on a first in, best dressed basis. These items will then be available for pick up at the end of each month.

For example, our February Retro-Botanical window display has the following core pieces available as lay-by items:

• pair of retro footstools (one is sold)
• fun, pair of retro stencilled chest of drawers (POA)
• Mignon type-sleeve typewriter, made in Berlin, c1924 (POA)

Window display items available for immediate sale are:

• stunning botanical charts, 10 different designs available (10 sold, more available in store now)
• bakelite intercom phone, retro camera, kitchen canister tins
• classical new teacups, available in 6 colours
• beautiful bell jars, 35x20cm

Here's a close-up photo of the LHS window bay. One of the core pieces available for lay-by is this funky stencilled chest of drawers. Please note: this is not a piece for the serious retro collector, it is just for fun:

And a close-up of the RHS window bay. This details the second stencilled chest of drawers available for lay-by. Also in this window bay is one of a pair of retro footstools and the Mignon type-sleeve typewriter:

Stay tuned, as we will blog the window displays for you every month. If you are quick, you can snap up a great range of items.

Re-Opening @ 881 High Street Thornbury

Tomorrow, Tuesday 29 January, the manufactory re-opens its beautiful double glass doors at 881 High Street Thornbury @ 10am.

We are now located across the road from our first shop, just half a block back towards the city (south). We're so close, you can even see the lovely double fronted window displays of our new shop from outside the old.

We've taken a few snaps to give you a feel for the new space. Moody evening lighting of the two generous window bays:

We are so excited to offer you more space to browse, to visualise, to plan and to select. We have increased our floor space, and will offer more homewares and gifts for sale. Keep an eye out for new product lines due in the next few weeks. Just about the only thing that hasn't increased is our prices.

A sneak peak inside the new manufactory:

We have been so fortunate to have many generous offers to assist with our shop move. A very special thanks goes to Caleb (for his brute strength) and both our parents for their support. Thanks also to all the locals, customers and traders who have popped by in the past 4 days, encouraging us and giving us the big thumbs up (we assume that means you like it!).

And finally, onto a more serious note. Our beloved old rusty door. We did not bring the door across with us. So what have we done? You might just have to drop in and see what we have made of it @ 881 High.

What's new at the manufactory...

We're so excited to be nearly moving into our larger premises, scheduled for the Australia Day weekend.

But in the meantime, after a great Christmas and New Year spent with family and loved ones, we are looking forward to greeting our next nephew or niece, who is due in a manner of days. Keep it cool, Sharon. (Welcome Miles Oscar Paul Young!)

the manufactory opens again next Tuesday 8 January at 10am. We will be trading in our current location for a few weeks, so make sure you drop by and say adios to our wonderful space that started it all.

To keep you interested, we have refreshed the shop after an amazing Christmas trading period. To all our customers who chose to shop we us again this year, thanks so much.

So, here's a sneak peek at what great items we have found for you that will be stocked in our new shop. 

• Don featherstone signed flamingo pairs, accept no imitations! Made using the original moulds from the 1950s, these lawn sweeties would be right at home nestled in your flower pots or lawn...

• Vintage botanic charts containing botanical and scientific images. Used as a teaching method and printed in Germany from the 1950s, these tough canvas prints are real beauties...

So that's just a taste of two newly stocked items, and of course there's more to come. Some of the charts have even found their way into our shop now, because I couldn't wait even a few weeks to display them!