store feature: the vintage shed of tyabb

Down a quiet country road down by the Mornington peninsula sits a shed. Not just any shed though. Oh no, this shed is full to the rafters with stuff. Big stuff, small stuff, old stuff, new stuff. Stuff which may seem useless to one person and beyond value to the next. The Vintage Shed at Tyabb is like any other vintage or antique shop you've ever been fond of...only on steroids. The only thing I can liken it to is the Camberwell market, except without the 5am alarm and wrestling an MLC schoolgirl for a pair of vintage boots.

Here is what you are greeted with at The Shed's entrance...

I know. They sure know a way to a girls heart. Wine barrel + industrial chair + wicker trunk + amazing vintage lights + other bits and bobs = Emma having minor heart failure before even entering. But I did recover and ended up having the longest snoop around in history in there. Let's explore...

First up I came across these old industrial school chairs and fell in love. I could see them in a kids room or play room at a craft table. There were loads of enamelware, which I love as I am a little obsessed with vintage Australiana of the 1930's and 40's. I find there is lots of French/American/British farmhouse style but Australian farmhouse is definitely a style of it's own - enamelware like these pots and jugs fit perfectly.

The Vintage Shed is basically run as a giant co-op, with people holding different stalls (about 3 x 4 metres) and I am assuming giving a commission to sell their goods there. This enables The Shed to take on a truly eclectic feel, with each vendor decorating, arranging and showcasing their wares uniquely. Seriously, it's like stepping into a visual merchandising graduation exhibition, eye candy galore!

What really surprised me was how much things change and are constantly evolving. I was only at The Vintage Shed a few weeks ago with Mr M and already there seemed to be a huge turnover in stock. Items for sale are very 'on trend' also, like this botanical print, wooden spools and rulers = academia industrial. The little red lift-top desk would be perfect for a little person to sit and colour at, storing their pencils and crayons inside. Love the colour.

This beauty immediately caught our eye on our previous visit - a big farmhouse style table in oak. It was still sitting waiting patiently...for it's new owners. Yep, sold. Bummer. The little white paint chippy cupboard to the right there also took my fancy as a shabby bedside table...

There were loads of old rustic wooden ladders, industrial numbers and letters from old petrol stations and I spotted this wardrobe which reminded me of mine (you can see that makeover here). I'm also lusting after a big white and blue enamel bread bin. Yes please.

Everyone needs some ruby slippers right? Apparently my mum had one of those humungus Emmaljunga style prams for my brother in the 70's. Can you imagine lugging it around in your car and through shopping centres these days?!

You can pretty much find anything and everything your little vintage-obsessed heart desires at The Vintage Shed. I could seriously furnish my whole house from there, but I was very refrained and only bought wedding related items. I ended up walking away with four vintage chairs (one of these one's below we found in the shed when we moved to Brindabella). I wonder what I'll do with them - I feel a wedding project a'brewing!

The Vintage Shed is at 93 Mornington-Tyabb Road, Tyabb and is open Thursday to Sunday from 10am-5pm.


Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

store feature: morris brown of healesville

In my travels of scrounging through antique shops, op shops and markets I find so many hidden gems, and all in regional Victoria, in small country towns off the beaten track where somebody just needs to give them the PR they deserve. I am hoping to do a few shop feature posts on ye ol' blog to highlight these businesses and (more often than not) the rural women behind them. Because being a farmers wife is not all scones and cups of tea! 

When we lived at Ythanbrae we would quite often travel through the popular tourist town of Healesville in the Yarra Ranges. I would always see this shop on the beautifully quaint avenue that is the main street, but I never stopped to have a look. It wasn't until we moved away that I poked my nose in the shop on a trip back to Yea to see friends recently. Isn't that always the way - you never appreciate what's in your own backyard? What I found was a beauty of a shop, Morris Brown, chock full of all things 'Emma' as Mr M puts it.

Inside the doors of Morris Brown I found all sorts of things to 'oooh' and 'aaah' over. Things like giant zinc letters (the ampersand would make a great wedding prop), old oak buffet hutches, chicken wire cloches, vintage typewriters, crisp stationery, floral linen scarves, musky candles and fragrances and a little room out the back full of kids vintage toys.

The store offers a variety of both new and vintage pieces, and you can tell the product selection has been quite deliberate and meticulous. Only quality made, and often ethical, products are stocked and the ladies behind Morris Brown are obviously masters at styling, visual merchandising and overall branding. They seemed to have really grabbed hold of the whole rustic farmhouse trend in design right now and are running away with it. Which I love (along with that linen tape, the industrial lighting and the muted grey union jack doormat).

A whole wall of the store was devoted to my favourite activity, gardening, which seems to be a common theme in design and retail at the moment, there is a lot of earthy, organic and botanical things floating about. I particularly loved the zinc pots, barbed wire numbers and letters as well as the old wool bale stencils to have as props in a farmhouse. The nickel work lamp I was lusting after to do my embroidery at night in the lounge room by the fire...

You can visit Morris Brown's website or find them at 264 Maroondah Highway, Healesville. They also have another shop in Heathmont at 192 Cantebury Road.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

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.