the great retail moral dilemma

On my recent trip to the big smoke I visited all my favourite big chain stores: Ikea, Freedom, Provincial Home Living, Kikki K and The Works (Bed Bath n Table's superstore headquarters on Burwood Road, Hawthorn). Because I don't get to Melbourne very often, I really tend to go on a 'binge' and have a total overdose experience.

There were the usual things I swoon over at Provincial: long library bookcases with sliding ladders, chalkboard tags, little zinc birdhouses, white ceramic jugs, wicker trunks and glass storage jars topped with nickel roosters. All the products are always impeccably styled and laid out, they are the masters of visual merchandising at Provincial Home Living. Everything always looks perfectly cohesive, yet attainable. I often want to live in one of their stores forever.

We are currently on the hunt for a bench to go on our back porch by our kitchen door. I love the idea of an old church pew if we can find one (there are plenty around on ebay etc. but some cost an arm and a leg!) but I would also like the bench to have a lift lid for storing all of our boots that seem to kick around the back door.

Then, standing in my favourite store, I saw the perfect bench. It was exactly what we wanted (I didn't snap a photo of it, but you can see it on their facebook page and in their catalogue). At first I was ecstatic, then I took a step back and was almost repulsed by it. Here it was, perfect in every way, yet I didn't want it. I knew that there were hundreds, if not thousands, exactly like it. No doubt all pumped out of a factory in China. As much as I wanted the bench, I didn't want the bench. I was torn. I left my favourite store feeling...strange. On I trundled to The Works, a staple on my retail adventuring list and sure to bolster my mood. Surely?

I loved the styling of these rustic, botanical inspired products. Great selection of terraniums, slate herb markers, hydrangeas, mini pots, garden ceramics and wire baskets.  

As usual The Works did not disappoint - beautiful window displays (love the roll top bath window display below), usual favourites like TG Green Cornishware, a wall full of cushions and pretty seasonal displays like the cheerful Easter inspired one above.

I wandered the aisles admiring the beautiful homewares and looked up to see a wall (a wall!) full of glass milk bottles in all shapes and sizes. I stood back and just stared at them. The weekend before I had spent hours sifting through antique and vintage stores in Healesville and Yarra Glen searching for the perfect milk bottles for our wedding centrepieces. Both Mr M's and my grandparents were dairy farmers, we wanted milk bottles with soul. And now here they were. A whole wall of them. None with soul though. Again, all pumped out of a factory in China all because people like me determined that they were 'on trend'. I left feeling oh so confused and conflicted. Was I, as the diligent robotic consumer, the cause of the problem? Yes.

  

Don't get me wrong, I love to shop as much as the next girl, I love pretty things, but after a whirlwind of stores and seeing so much stuff it all gets a bit overwhelming doesn't it? I started feeling quite sick about it all. Retail 'therapy' is sometimes not so therapautic after all.

Have you ever had a moral retail dilemma like me? How do you mix vintage and new items well in your home without it looking like a) an Ikea catalogue and b) a treasure trove of junk?

P.S. All images taken on my iPhone - not bad hey?!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella.