This is our favourite item of the week.
We don’t think we’ve nominated an enamel sign previously.
It’s a vintage French sign advertising Valentine paints. We like the colours and absolutely love the graphic design.
We put it in a vintage industrial corner of the lounge to photograph it – oh no, it looks quite good!
We’ve collected and sold a few sets of vintage metal letters and a wonderful brass stencil set on eBay this year. Architectural salvage signs rescued from shop fronts and factories are really popular and collectable. They can act as real decorative art & design historical records – curly-whirly 60s fonts, brightly coloured 70s plastic & neon signs, refined Art Deco letters in silver and brass coloured metals.
We love the shape of ampersands, question and exclamation marks. Use vintage letters as paperweights or book ends to pep up a desk or shelf, spell out your initials, a special word or phrase, display a giant letter on the floor like a work of art.
Love Letters
Curated by H is for Home
We went to one of our ‘bygones’ auctions last weekend – so this Forthcoming Attractions post has a lovely, vintage, outdoors-y feel. The lots up for sale were gathered from farms, barns, yards, outbuildings & allotments.
We often come back with some galvanised metal containers – baths, dolly tubs and buckets. They’re ideal candidates for a bit of upcycling – functioning as planters, water butts or general storage containers.
The price of dolly tubs in particular has increased quite markedly in recent years, although we can understand why. Not only do they look great with their ribbed, patterned sides – they’re multi-functional and there’s no chance of frost shattering. We’ve just put one in our Picture House Antiques pitch where we try to keep a corner that has a vintage cottage garden or wash house look.
We bought a good quantity of terracotta pots. We’ll keep half as we’re running a bit short ourselves – the others will go into the shop. They have this lovely, aged colour – much paler than new terracotta – and are ideal for use inside or out.
All our future twine needs have been satisfied with these huge rolls – probably used for bailing hay or straw in days gone by. It’s perfect for kitchen or garden use too. We’ve put a couple of large rolls in our shop – and have also broken one of them down into much smaller balls of twine which have been selling well already.
Next we have this excellent set of folding beech & striped canvas chairs. They’re perfect for picnics or camping – or they could be just the thing to keep in the summer house or shed – providing a welcome seat to rest those weary legs after a long day’s gardening – glass of something chilled in hand to admire your efforts!
We’re happy with all the day’s purchases, but these vintage fish & chip shop signs might just be our favourite. We think they’re charming. We see them working really well as a quirky wall decoration in the kitchen, seaside chalet or even beach hut.
Fish & chips with tea, bread & butter for 2 shillings (or 10 new pence) – those were the days!
Copyright © 2007-2025 · All rights reserved · H is for Home