A Most Marvellous Place To Shop - grand opening!

After weeks of hard work and broken fingernails, A Most Marvellous Place To Shop was opened by the Lady Mayoress of Northampton last Saturday!

I know I'm biased as I'm part of it, but it really is a wonderful place to shop, as well as my mid-century retro items there's plenty of vintage and homemade items, furniture, an art gallery and the cafe sells cakes to die for!

It's the brainchild of Joe (formerly of the Northampton Antique Centre) and his business partner Gilliy, and I can't thank them enough for having the balls to take the business to this next stage - the amount of hard work and effort that everyone's put in has been amazing.

Pictured: Joe making a welcome speech at the dealer preview evening (told you I'd make you famous!)

A bit on the side...board?

Forgive the terrible title, it's difficult to come up with a witty and interesting sentence including the word 'sideboard'...

The sideboard in question is my new favourite thing, and is destined for the new shop at Abington Square in Northampton. I spotted it a week ago but didn't buy it - by a stroke of luck it was still for sale yesterday and now it's mine!

There's no makers information on it (although I haven't seen the back or underneath of it yet so who knows?), but it's been beautifully made - none of that nasty chipboard stuff or mdf in sight! Inside the flap-down section is another shelf and I think it'd make a perfect cocktail cabinet, although the flap could be used to put a laptop on so it'd also be good for a home office - plenty of storage for paperwork and files!

I'm hoping to get over to the new shop this week and get a head start on things - I've got a very retro green paint to go on the back wall of my space and I've got to figure out a way to get my enormo mirrorball hung up from a ceiling I don't think I can screw hooks in to - eek!

Northampton Vintage & Home Made Fair

Ooh, I nearly forgot all about this!

From 12 til 4 tomorrow (Saturday 23 October) there's a Vintage & Home Made Fair in Northampton - I picked up a flyer ages ago and have only just unearthed it, just in time!

As far as I'm aware this is a new event so I can't comment on how good it's likely to be, but if you're anywhere near Northampton tomorrow, it's at St Matthews Parish Church Rooms, The Drive, Kingsley NN1 4RY. Admission 50p, children free.

Northampton's going more and more retro / vintage by the day - at last! As well as a Most Marvellous Place to Shop which will shortly take over from the Northampton Antiques Centre, there's an enormous vintage clothing shop (run by some friends of mine), a dinky little retro shop above a coffee bar in the town centre, and I've heard it through the twitter-vine that a retro hairdressing shop will be opening here soon. Beehive, anyone?

Something Most Marvellous is happening...

Oh, I know I was sworn to secrecy but blogging doesn't count as telling. Does it?!

At the end of this month the Northampton Antiques Centre (where The Retro Co. has selling space) is moving to lovely big premises in the town! I've secured my new space and am busy planning layout, design etc... I can't wait!

A few of my fellow traders and I were invited to see the new premises last week - they're amazing, and such a change from the current set-up. The guy that is the brains behind it all - Joe - is rebranding it to 'A Most Marvellous Place To Shop' and it's going to be 9000 sq ft of lovely retro and vintage items, with a cafe / coffee shop and space for events, classes, etc... marvellous indeed!

So here's a sneaky 'before' pic - ok, it doesn't look very marvellous yet but wait til we're able to get in and get going! I'll post 'during' and 'after' pics to follow in due course!

Furniture from your childhood

Well, from mine, anyway. Am I giving my age away here?!?

There's a place I go to buy stock from which has a huge warehouse space full of fabulous old furniture like this.

Well, it's not all good - there's some fairly manky stuff that nobody in their right mind would ever want, but amongst it all is some real treasure. I've always said I'd love to buy it all and sell it on.

So that's what I'm going to do!

The Northampton Antiques Centre is about to open a large furniture area, and as a trader there, I can sell items of furniture for a small commission. I just need to get it delivered, dusted and polished and it'll be good to go.

Retro cocktail cabinet, anyone?

Adventures in retail

Isn't it funny how sometimes you're in the right place at exactly the right time?

Sometime back in May, I detoured on my way home from somewhere into the Northampton Antiques Centre, just for a nosey round. The centre has always been a bit like Steptoes Yard, full of architectural salvage and dusty old things, but worth a walk round.

I was stunned by the change in the place. In the few months since I'd last been there, it had been completely transformed, with new management, new sellers, new stock and a totally new style and feel. It was exactly the kind of place I'd been hoping to find to take shop space in, and within minutes of arriving I'd tracked down the new manager - Joe - and secured the last space in The Attic, which had been cleared of all the dusty old stock and cleaned up with fresh white walls and 3m x 3m shop spaces!

I started to move in on 27th May, and added shelves storage units, lighting, a huge mirrorball (of course!) over the middle of my space, then moved the stock in over the weekend. I was ready to go by the time the centre opened on 2nd June and it's going really well, so far (phew!).

Popping my blogging cherry!

So I've finally popped my blogging cherry!

Having rebuilt and revamped The Retro Co.'s website earlier this year, having a blog has always been the next part of the plan, but as I've never blogged before, somehow The Fear always stopped me!

It can't be that hard though, can it? Surely I just waffle for a bit, add photos, and hit submit?

Let's see how it goes.....