New Grand Illusions Vintage Paint.

Posted on July 12, 2014 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

Well it’s been a while but after much ado going on behind the scenes we’re back blogging, with many posts lined up, so keep your eye out. If you can’t keep an eye out, watch this space…..Grand Illusions Vintage Paint.

For those local to us, you will be familiar with the Grand Illusions shop that was in St Margarets for nearly 20 years, a few miles down the road from us. For those who don’t know, Grand Illusions Founders, Nick and David were early pioneers of the French Painted Furniture style we are all so familiar with now. They introduced their own paint range back in the mid 90s, to compliment their increasing range of French Style Furniture. They also ran very successful furniture painting courses from their little shop in SW London. Excitingly for us – and hopefully you – they have now relaunched their paint…Grand Illusions ‘VINTAGE PAINT’ is a unique, flat and chalky matt paint, and is designed to recreate the buttermilk paints of the 18th and 19th Century. Nick and David originally worked with an antique restorer to get the right blend and finish. Inspired by an authentic Nordic-French colour palette, these wonderful paint colours are ideal for painting furniture (or mirrors, picture frames, or walls) And we should know – we have tried a lot of different brands over the years! To give you more of an idea of the finish and differences in the colours, we have painted all the colours on to picture frames in the furniture shop, so you can get an exact idea of the finish….. and mix and match if you need to.Having been restoring, refinishing and repainting certain vintage furniture pieces as a business since 1999, it somehow seemed fitting that Grand Illusions have asked us to be the stockists for this part of SW London (their “old hunting ground”) Somewhat serendipitously as it turns out. They approached us, just as we were about to start stocking paint (by another brand) and the various consumables that go with it – i.e. brushes, wire wool, waxes etc. We will now be using Vintage Paint for all our painting projects in the shop from now on. We will be posting pictures of the finished results as and when we have finished them.

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!

Vintage Industrial.

Posted on October 21, 2012 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

Here’s a few things we’ve been working on recently in the attic workshop – and now for sale in the shop……here.We’ve been sourcing, restoring and refinishing utilitarian, vintage furniture since we started in 1999. We do it all in-house from start to finish – hand-stripping, hand-finishing and occasionally repainting.

1950’s Steel Double pedestal desk with new glass…..

Sometimes, all a piece needs is a bit of TLC, or just a clean and polish!

!930’s oak roll top desk….

There’s an immense feeling of satisfaction, when we change something that is ready for the scrap yard (in some people’s eyes) having spent many hours working on it, and turning it into something, that generally results in comments in the shop, such as “Where do you get all this stuff”. Well, that would be telling wouldn’t it…..

!940’s steel filing cabinets with brass fittings….

1950s Plan Chest coffee table….

Collection of early 1900s deed boxes….

!930s Oak tambour front cabinet & Anglepoise lamp….

Reclaimed timber pigeon holes…..

All these pieces are on our website. Check them out here….www.discoverattic.com

New In…..

Posted on January 18, 2012 by attic. Furniture & Fine Things

Hopefully everyone is fully refreshed after Christmas! It’s already the middle of January and we’re pretty much back in the swing of it now and getting ready for the buying season ahead. Over the next few weeks we have trips/trade shows in New York, Paris & London (only up the road i know, but still, it is London!) Birmingham for a couple of days too….. So, loads of goodies to tempt you with over the next few months. Keep checking in here, we’ll keep you posted about new collections as we get them in! In the meantime, here’s a few new vintage pieces we’ve just finished & ready for sale!