Christmas at attic. | A look around the shop!

Posted on November 23, 2018 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

Boxes have been unpacked, stock has been displayed and shelves have been re-merchandised. Hard to believe, it’s that time of year again…

Christmas is such an important time of year to a small business like ours; more than ever in these unpredictable times! Therefore it’s vitally important to give ourselves the best chance for a good season.

We ordered a lot of our Christmas stock months ago (some of it in January and February) so we always get a little anxious when it arrives, and we start to unpack it. Is it as nice as we thought? Have the collections worked together as well as we planned? And, has what we ordered, actually turned up. Being a small retailer, sometimes what we order isn’t always what we get. The bulk of a wholesaler/makers stock can be swallowed up by much larger retailers, with what’s left, served out to the small independents. Leaving us with a diluted collection!

Anyway – all our fears were forgotten this year. In fact most of the stock we ordered was nicer than we remembered. And the things we thought wouldn’t arrive – did. Result!

So, with just over a month to go, we thought we’d take some photos of Phase 1 – and show you what we’ve been up to. We’re pretty chuffed with how the shop is looking, so we thought we’d share it with you. Hope you like it too!

We’ve photographed most of the Christmas stock, and consequently the website has been very busy this year, with nearly everything being online. So if it’s still available – it’ll be on there. Click through for links to website and product pages…

We’ve also just had in a new delivery of toiletries and skincare products from Priddy Essentials. All handmade in Rutland, England. Beautiful scents with gorgeous packaging.

These metal Christmas trees are probably our favourite product this season.

Every year we sell more and more of the beautiful decorations from Walther & Co in Denmark (probably best known for their little house lanterns) They are becoming quite the collector’s items. People come back year after year to see what’s been added to the collection…We’re open everyday now until Christmas (open Sundays 12-4pm) so do pop in and say hello if you’re near!

Christmas at attic.

Posted on November 30, 2013 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

We thought you might like to see our new Christmas window display. We’re really rather pleased with it…..Some of the regular visits to our site (and this blog!) and various social media, may have noticed that we haven’t been very active in this last few months, Here’s a quick update on our year…We’ve actually been incredibly busy behind the scenes, setting ourselves up for the future with a new integrated till/ epos system and a better functioning website, that will be updated regularly!! There will also be some new things happening with the website over the next few months so we’ll keep you updated…. It’s actually been a year of ups and downs. The loss of a close family member to cancer in the first half of the year was difficult to say the least. That tends to put things into perspective. We’ve also had challenges with our website, stemming from unforeseen incompatibility issues, that have caused a lot of work – but we’ve also been shown the most incredible generosity of spirit (and time!) by certain people. One step back – two steps forward and all that…. Encouragingly though, our business in general, has had some incredible recognition from across the globe – so we must be doing something right!Anyway, we’re getting back on track and we’ve been busy getting the shops ready for Christmas. They are now jam packed with seasonal stock, gifts, decorations and inspiration. We’re taking new product shots as we speak, so new stock will also be added to the website this week.

attic by night……And by the way, in case you are wondering – the mystical figures in the window are called Santos dolls. We bought them in New York last year. They are replicas of figurines found in churches and holy places in South America (and parts of Europe) in the 17th and 18th century. Not for sale i’m afraid, display only – sorry!

Paris in the Snow

Posted on February 10, 2013 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

January always lulls us into a false sense of security. We always think that it will be a month of catching up and getting back on track, after the madness of the Christmas season! For us, most of January is taken up with buying trips, as this is the time of year when most of the trade shows are on. So, as well as shows in London, there are trips to Paris, New York……and Birmingham. Guess which one we look forward to least! Anyway, at the end of January we had the first of our bi-annual trips to Paris…

To be honest we were lucky to get there, as there had been heavy snow fall in Paris – and heavy snow was forecast for when we flew. Luckily we flew from Heathrow just before the snow hit London, and we landed in Paris just after the snow had fallen (heavily).

The view from our hotel (Concorde La Fayette)…Well, due to the weather, our usual day for trawling round flea markets was derailed slightly, so we headed to the Musee d’Orsay for a day of culture and sophistication!

Serendipity has always been a favourite word of ours, and this day was, well, serendipitous. Jardin Des Tuileries, towards the Ferris Wheel….

The walk from the ‘Tuileries’ metro station – from the Rue de Rivoli, across the Jardin Des Tuileries, over the river to the Musee d’Orsay, was breathtaking to say the least. Due to the heavy snow fall that had covered Paris that night, the whole area including all of the buildings of the Louvre was just so beautiful.

Looking towards The Louvre……

Looking towards the Musee d’Orsay, across the Seine….

They say that Paris is the City of light – well the light that day was truly something. It gave the whole city a magical and ethereal feel. A dream for photographers, amateur or professional!

One of the two famous clocks on the facade of the Musee d’Orsay…..

And this is the view from the inside. After waiting ages for the area in front of the clock to clear of people, when i finally got a picture of it without anybody in front of it, i realised you get a much better sense of proportion when there are people in view…..

Looking from the inside of the museum back over the river to the north side…..

Thanks Paris, for the snow and some wonderful photo opportunities.

Bowerbird by Sibella Court

Posted on October 8, 2012 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

We’ve been fans of Sibella Court for a few years now, and have stocked, sold and read, all of her books since ‘ETCETERA’ was published a few years ago. They are always inspiring. Bowerbird is her latest and is quite wonderful…A Bowerbird is a bird native to Australia & New Guinea. The beautiful male birds, build the most extraordinary nests to attract their mates. They then spend hours collecting & placing a variety of brightly coloured objects they have found at the entrance to the nest. These objects, may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic items, coins, nails, rifle shells, or pieces of glass. Collectors and decorators of the bird world! And the inspiration for this book….Here’s some sample pages…..

Put it on your wish list and be inspired. Happy Reading!

Cotswolds, Pt.1

Posted on August 27, 2012 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

As a reward to ourselves for all the work we put into launching our new website, we took a few days off last week, and headed off for a few days, in and around the Cotswolds. We stayed two nights at the wonderful Cowley Manor, a contemporary country house, boutique hotel & spa in….well, Cowley!Just outside Cheltenham in the Cotswolds, Cowley Manor has been a Hotel & Spa since 2002 and has been recognised as pioneering a new wave of country house hotels.On arrival, the first thing that struck us about Cowley Manor (apart from the obvious beauty of the building itself) is the view from inside the hotel, looking out onto the lakes and lawns. Breath-taking…The interior is cool & contemporary with an abundance of modern artwork and sculpture throughout the beautiful old building and its grounds.Old & New has always been at the core of everything we do, so we weren’t disappointed.The staff are friendly and the service is what you would expect of a hotel of this calibre – top notch! They even had a selection of multicoloured Hunter Wellies to borrow….. For us though, the jewel in Cowley’s crown, is the 55 acres of grounds. Its famous gardens include, parklands, woods & meadows, as well as a series of lakes and Victorian cascades…Rain or shine (and we had both) the grounds are truly beautiful. As we explored the gardens and land surrounding Cowley Manor, it was great fun discovering the many pieces of sculpture by post-graduate students from the Royal College of Art….…made all the more striking, seeing modern art & sculpture set in the traditional setting of an English landscaped garden.By the way, local history states that Lewis Carroll regularly visited Cowley village. During his stays, it is said, he drew inspiration for his best known book ‘Alice in Wonderland’, from Cowley Manor and it’s grounds. Croquet anyone?

Four days in Florence (Pt.2)

Posted on June 20, 2012 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

Thought it was about time we posted some more photos from our recent trip to Florence. Seems a shame not to share them really……..

Paris – New York (Pt2)

Posted on February 6, 2012 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

It’s gotta be said, normally when we visit Nyc, one of the down sides is, it’s usually freezing. I mean really freezing. However for this trip, the weather couldn’t have been better. Blue skies, bright sunshine and really mild temperatures. Like spring time in England. Perfect really. Little did we know however, what was waiting for us when we got back….. Anyway, we kind of thought after Paris it would be hard to beat, but no, it was as good. Better in many ways. The reasons being in no particular order: (1) The hotel was fantastic; a new hotel that borders Soho, West Village & Tribeca. It made getting around to the parts of the city that we love, easy. (2) The weather, the light was amazing for taking photos. (3) The flea market finds we bought and filled our suitcases with. (4) The food/new restaurants. If you’re ever anywhere near The Ace Hotel, stop by The Breslin and have lamb burgers. Awesome. Very cool place indeed.(5) Lastly, the trade show was fantastic too. We weren’t expecting to buy much, but we found such great stuff this time we couldn’t help ourselves! We’ll let you know more about that over the next few months. Meanwhile here’s some snaps we took…….

The hotel…