Interior Motives….and Some ideas on using vintage and antique pieces in a new building….

Have you even shopped at Vinterior? It's on of my favourite online furniture store: 

Last autumn I went to Decorex to check it out, and to meet new suppliers (unique light switches and fabrics) who are working sustainably within the UK. It was an incredible event, I met some great contacts and had an absolutely brilliant time looking at the stands - such high quality and innovative designs. The main highlight of the whole day in the end was meeting Vinterior on their stand, right at the main entrance. I have been an avid Vinterior fan for years, have a look at some of their pieces on the link below: Beautifully curated, and all pre loved, vintage or antique, and the website designers lay it out so well, working with the current interior trends and aesthetics. 

 

Here is link to their website: https://www.vinterior.co 

 

From a business perspective for designing showhomes, I feel that buying from places like Vinterior not only means you have great style, it also means your interiors will benefit from being unique, high quality, covetable and have the positive factor of the measureable carbon offset too. There are an incredible range of pieces available on Vinterior, and you can make boards / save selections for your projects - I highly recommend it! Vinterior has also shared helpful information by measuring the carbon in different pieces. This information also helps us show clients how good it is for the environment to use ‘pre loved’ furniture in your interiors. For example, using a preowned vintage sofa saves 90 KG of CO2. That is the same as charging your phone 10,406 times!! A vintage table or side board (image of sideboard from Vinterior on Pintrest) will save 25 KG of C02, the equivalent of a flight from London to Dublin (information from Vinterior via Fira International). Plus, in my opinion, it's far more affordable for a serious piece of functional art to use in your home, and that will hold its appeal and value. 

 

One of the main reasons I started Porter & Gold was to bring something different, and high quality, to the showhomes for new build developments in Bristol. I often have long walks around my city to appreciate it's beauty, get exercise and have a good nose at what's being built in my favourite areas. I would love developers to give me a call :-) and invite me down early on in the design so I can help to create amazing showhomes that their audience will fall in love with and immediatly want to live in. One development that always springs to mind is in Redland, and as it was on my daily walk throughout the lockdown years I saw it develop at various stages. Although I loved what they did with the building, the showhome images I did not love at all - and I was longing to get in there and sort it out, however it was probably a bit of big job for me to start on! Porter & Gold are suited to SME developers, and (alongside the home staging projects and designing a film company co- working space), we currently have a showhome in progress at Waterlilies and another in the pipeline.  

 

How to create a showhome sustainably, that is also bang on and sells easily? How can you create a showhome that speaks to your target audience, using pre loved, vintage and antique pieces? Well a simple answer is to hire an expert early on in the process! And, if you’re in Bristol or the South West you can hire me and my team. We can do the design of the interior, sourcing of furniture, art and accessories, and the install and styling. As we work with your target market front of mind, (just like when we are home staging for estate agents), and complimenting the buildings interior in a way that will speak to them, whether it's a renovation development of a period property or a totally new project.  

 

Using interior stylists / experts, especially to find your statement pieces, really makes sense if you want to avoid the pitfalls of your showhome looking naff, synthetic or boring. Working with service providers that only use new mass produced furniture (that never really look or feel like quality), badly produced prints of famous paintings (please no more Monet on canvas from B&M homestores!) and / or crudely made pieces that won't stand the test of time is a sure fire way to make your showhome look cheap and low quality.  

 

Using pre loved pieces, and natural materials, and working with an expert in vintage and antique styling, means your showhome will stand out from the crowd, and you'll benefit from our deep knowledge and experience of using vintage / preloved pieces in a commercial setting. Also within this service is the great value of our source book / contacts built over years of attending shows, auctions, antique fairs and buying online. I have a furniture and art to hire, or we can source pieces on your behalf to keep. All together this means your showhome will be beautiful, unique, and a home to fall in love with. The extra care in added style, high quality and atmosphere will win over your buyers at first sight as well as create stunning photos for marketing online. People instinctively know good taste, style and high quality when they see it, even on a subconscious level. They recognise it and want it in their lives. Please contact me to discuss your development and its 'interior motive'.  

 

Contact us to make an inquiry and see if we are a good fit to help you dress your showhome to sell ! With gratitude for reading this far. Samaya @ Porter & Gold