From Dreary to Dreamy...A Bedroom Transformation

So many of you have asked to see photos of our new home so I thought I would share these with you. Our house is full of feature and needed lots of work to bring out the best of those features.
Here is the master bedroom, once very different as you can see by the 'before' pictures, but now it is light and airy with its timbers stripped of black paint, the fresh, white walls and a soft painted floor. I have mixed in some of the before photos so you can see just what a challenge we had!





We have carried out more detective work and now understand the house to be almost 400 years old. Such wonderful history lies within it - but also a great deal of work! There's still plenty to do so between the house and the website, we are never short of something to do! We have some surprises planned for you regarding the Vintage Home Website and will be announcing these soon, in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the photos.

If you go down to the woods today...

Although we are keeping busy with the website and the major task of renovating the house, we are also enjoying our amazing garden.

We are lucky enough to have a huge garden which has a secluded woodland area and as you can see, our cat Dennis loves exploring it.

The garden is full of woodland plants including masses of aquilega in every shade of pink...

...and purple.



It's a very relaxing place, nice and shady on a hot day.

If you enlarge the photo above you can see the cow parsley which is as high as my shoulder in places!

Oh, hang on, who's this? Why it's Dennis again, our very own intrepid explorer!

Oh dear, I think we've blown his cover!

I wonder what he has heard, maybe the chirp of a bird - or perhaps the shaking of the crunchies!

We won't be doing much to the garden this year but we will be taking time to appreciate it, especially when the days are sunny and warm. I am currently uncovering old grapevines which we thought were long dead but they are starting to flourish. Who knows, maybe we'll be making some 'Vintage Home' wine in the future! I also discovered a gooseberry bush which is doing really well and we have several damson trees; it's been suggested we make some damson gin later in the year!

See you all soon with more photos and news of the website..

Apple Blossom Time!

A Very Happy Easter to you all! As well as adding lots of lovely vintage items to the website, we thought we would share some photos of the apple orchards which surround the hamlet. The orchards belong to Bulmers the cider makers. The sight and smell is wonderful and it's a delight to stroll down the avenues of trees.

The photo above reminds me of the pretty china by Royal Albert called 'Blossom Time'.

The photo below is looking towards the upper part of the hamlet. Our house is probably hidden somewhere amongst the trees!

The weather is wonderful this Easter so have a lovely time - we'll be back with more photos soon...

New Stock Arrived at Vintage Home!

Just a quick post to let you all know that we have added some wonderful stock to the website, there's the patchwork throw above and the prettiest prints of roses, including this beauty...

...this superb 1950s portrait...

...an exquisite antique tapestry and painted stool...

...and a gaily coloured handstitched bag.

New stock will continue to arrive in the coming days, including beautiful eiderdowns and sublimely pretty quilts. Please pop along when you have time and thank you to everyone who has made a purchase since our last update. Now that we are back to normal with the business we will be adding stock on a regular basis so there will be something for everyone! The work is continuing on the house and we promise to share some photos with you all soon. In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!

A Room With A View... and more Vintage Stock

Well, things have certainly moved on with the house and we thought it was time we shared some photos with you. These are definitely the 'before' photos in case you were wondering!

There has been an awful lot of work going on and despite these scary pictures, we are hoping to move in within a few weeks (honestly!)

Although the open and airy aspect is all the rage these days, we thought we would stick with tradition and re-lay the floor in the bedroom!

We have discovered the house dates to the mid 1600s and we have been busy uncovering its amazing wealth of features. The photos above show just a small amount of the work being carried out in the house; there has also been a flurry of activity in the barn too!

Along with completely re-wiring the house and replacing the plumbing, we also decided to have the many timbers in the house sandblasted. Boy, is that messy! Basically, if you remove the roof of your house and pour in a third of Weymouth beach, that is what the aftermath is like. But the result was worth it and now the many, beautiful oak timbers are soft and mellow, having been stripped of their black paint. We also made an interesting discovery; tucked inside one of the large peg holes in a wall timber was a handwritten 'article of agreement' from 1769 detailing the renting of land between two people, one of whom presumably lived in the house at that time, so we will do some research on the names when we are settled. I love the last line which refers to the signing and reads: 'Here unto we have set our hands this 2nd day of February 1769.' So exciting to have a link to someone who lived there so long ago.


Well, it hasn't all been dust and debris, we have been out and about finding some vintage treasure for the website. Here is a selection of some recent Spring arrivals for the shop, such as the delightful daffodil tray above. There are some gorgeous rosy paintings, Springtime paintings and rosy blankets; plus a rare set of nursery scales; perfect for a very special Springtime arrival! These and more vintage items have been added in recent days and there will be more arriving in the shop in the next day or so. So if you have time, do pop along!






I am off to dream about a clean house filled with beautiful vintage treasures; see you soon, hopefully with less scary house photos next time!

Snowbells and Stone Staircases...

Well, we thought it was time we shared a few photos of our new home with you. This sea of snowdrops (or snowbells, as they are called here in Herefordshire) was just one of the wonderful suprises which welcomed us on the day we completed on our new home. They cover the top part of the garden which is a small and secluded woodland area. We are hopeful that Spring may bring bluebells - we can hardly wait to find out!

We have a lot of work to do at the house and with the builders due to start work in a day or so, Mike has made his own inroad into the renovation work; and made some interesting discoveries. We believe the house dates to the mid 1700s, it is rich with original features including a flagstone floor, a winding stone staircase, wooden floors and doors, heavily timbered walls and wattle and daub (apparently made from chestnut wood, something which was particular to Herefordshire.)


Mike has removed the 50s tiled fireplace in the dining room and revealed large old timbers in the wall which we will make a feature of. Fortunately, the previous owners who had lived there since the 1950s didn't do much in the way of modernising the house so thankfully it has retained a great deal of character - including a stone plinth set into the hall which we understand is a pig salting block! There is a tumbledown stone pigsty in the garden too.

Although it hasn't been modernised, it does lack certain comforts and requires a good deal of TLC to bring out the wonderful old features. One of the first tasks is to install a Rayburn and radiators so we can be nice and cosy! It will take us some time to fully restore the house and outbuildings, indeed it will be a labour of love. But we are looking forward to it and will keep you informed of our trials and tribulations! The hamlet in which we now live is beautiful and very friendly, we are sure we will be perfectly happy here. For the time being, we are dividing our time between Oxfordshire and Herefordshire but as soon as the necessary work is done in the next few weeks, we will move in permanently, along with Dennis our cat! It is business as usual at Vintage Home and in the coming weeks, we shall turn our attentions to updating the website on a regular basis again.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day and we'll be back soon with more photos!

New Year, New Home for Vintage Home!

After many years we've outgrown our lovely little cottage here in Oxfordshire and we're on the move to a wonderful old house in rural Herefordshire complete with barn, outbuildings and a big, rambling garden from which to take Vintage Home onto bigger and even better things!

There's so much to do - and we're nearly packed...but...we have so many beautiful things that Big Ron the Removal Man says there simply isn't enough room for them all in the removal van...

...so we're having a ONE-OFF SALE! at the Vintage Home online store. As you know, we don't do sales - except this one - and it's absolute madness with UP TO 40% OFF selected items across the entire store. The more you buy the more you save (and the less we'll have to pack!) But DO HURRY - Ron, bless him, is not a patient man!

Ron's very passionate about removals - best not to trifle with his emotions!

Lovely as our new home will be - our arrival there coincides with that of the builders who'll be spending at least a couple of months making it into a cosy Vintage Home! This is bound to have an impact on everyday life and business - and could mean that orders may not be sent out as quickly as usual whilst we endeavour to juggle everything! We hope you will be patient and we'll aim to have orders packed and posted as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, look for Ron in store to see what's on offer...happy shopping!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

A special thank you to everyone for your custom and lovely messages throughout the year. We hope you have a truly wonderful time this Christmas!

See you all soon! Clare & Mike.

A Vintage Winter Wonderland!

With the weather turning much colder this week, and the promise of snow, there was never a better time to cosy up indoors and gaze out upon a wintry landscape; just like the charming pussy cat above. There are plenty of good reasons to stay indoors too, because we have just updated the Vintage Home online shop with a veritable array of vintage treasures. Here is a selection of some of those lovelies which are gracing the shelves of the shop right now - there is something for everyone!

A pretty 1940s watercolour...

A stunning Victorian table adorned with handpainted flower baskets...

Eye-catching fabrics...

Exquisite roses handpainted onto satin...

A 1940s chandelier...

Step into this very special garden...

The prettiest fabric covered storage...

A beautiful lady - star of the silver screen perhaps?

There are many, many more delights in the shop and plenty more to come leading up to Christmas!

To get us all nicely into the festive spirit we our launching Christmas Prize Draw today. Three lucky people will each win a luxurious, seasonal box of scrumptious chocolates from 'Hotel Chocolat' the prestigious purveyor of very fine chocolate.

The chocolates are filled with mouthwatering tastes such as cinnamon praline and mulled wine; yum, simply divine! Visit the website to find out how to enter.

We'll be back soon with the prize draw results - in the meantime, stay warm and cosy!