Retro inclinations and a most excellent Union Jack flag

Thanks to everyone for making this Mother's Day the best on record! We loved serving you all, and your appreciation of the gift wrapping. We were awash with pinks and creams, and hope your Mums all loved their presents.

It was bound to happen I suppose...the manufactory is now stocking retro homewares. We have been drip feeding well designed, mid century furniture and kitchenalia into our stock for the past year or so.  

And it is fun! 

From the Don Featherstone flamingo pairs (which recently helped a local sell her Thornbury home at auction), to the wonderful sets of colourful retro canisters (well we did have them, but they are all sold at present), Sebel stak-a-bye chairs (ditto, already sold) and awesome Angus & Celeste pastel-hued ceramic hanging baskets (green is now back in stock).

See a teeny weeny pattern emerging?

All our retro (mid century) items have been carefully selected to complement our existing vintage and new pieces. No mustard coloured 70s graphics here (yet!).

And here's a peak at our newest vintage find, an amazing Union Jack flag:

All we need now is a framed print of Queen Elizabeth II, like the ones that primary schools used to hang in their hallways...

Mother's Day shopping

Drop into the manufactory for all your Mother's Day shopping needs. Did you know we stock an interesting range of retro homewares, vintage furniture and Australian handmade items that would make great gifts:

• one-off vintage canister sets
• retro kitsch flamingos by Don Featherstone
• pastel coloured hanging baskets by Angus & Celeste from the leafy Dandenongs
• ethical and beautiful house cleaning and beauty products from Australian company Murchison-Hume
• Scented candles by True Grace
• Triple milled soaps by Melbourne Murphy & Daughters
• Awesome vintage botanical charts
• Handmade luggage by Ballarat company Trunk & Orderly
• Gardenware, trugs and slate labels by Nutscene
• Hand screen printed linen by Melbourne company printink studio
• New labware, glass cloches, candy jars and vases

And for some more good news, Business Victoria has once again featured our little shop in their Mother's Day homepage carousel:

http://www.business.vic.gov.au/

Here's the link to our case study on visual merchandising too:

http://www.business.vic.gov.au/tips-and-case-studies/create-a-visually-stunning-display

Thanks BV!

Is your Mum a vintage, new or handmade type of gal?

Top Photo: Beautiful new ceramic planters from Melbourne duo Angus&Celeste hang beside our vintage parrot, Harriet (our lovely parrot is now SOLD).

At the manufactory we are constantly on the look out for items that show the beauty of age or handmade toil, yet are useful to our modern lives too. This can often be harder to do than it may sound, especially during Mother's Day.

So what can we offer your Mum this Mother's Day? 

Maybe she loves the colour green? We have new, vintage and handmade items in colors ranging from mint to eau de nil to teal.

Or maybe pink is more her style? Mix pastel pinks, musks, fluorescent pinks and blackcurrant together for a very feminine gift.

How about gifts in gorgeous blue ranging from duck egg, to navy, baby blue and aqua.

We even have some sunny citrus coloured items with yellow, orange and creams.

And finally for a dramatic gift, we have blacks, ebony and grey stock in many textures and tones.

So drop in and choose your Mum, or someone special, a beautiful thoughtful present that will make her home that bit more special. 

Remember we also offer free gift wrapping for most items (we might struggle to wrap a vintage ladder or industrial lockers). Our current wrapping uses salvaged pianola scrolls that have been so well played they are not good enough to sell as wall hangings, but they are just perfect as giftwrap.

NOTE: the manufactory will be closed on Anzac Day, Thursday 25 April, until Tuesday 30 April when we re-open at 10am.

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.