Well my weekend wasn’t too shabby, went to this wonderful little flea market for the first time and walked out with a brand new dining table and chairs, well I didn’t actually walk out with it obviously but I bought it and had it delivered later on that day.
Judy Berger set up these markets in 2005 with the hope of creating an affordable way to shop all things vintage in London which, let’s admit, isn’t an easy task these days as prices have absolutely soared in the last few years.
The idea is to get together a bunch of awesome traders from all over the UK who sell affordable, original and beautiful vintage pieces, throw them all together in different locations across the city for a day or a weekend. This weekend the fair was in Clapham and as a first timer I conclude that Judy’s recipe for amazing, affordable and one-off vintage finds works. It really does!
I made the mistake of taking my 3 year old and 5 month old puppy along with me which meant that my idea of ‘a casual browse and a couple of laps around’ didn’t quite happen. I ended up carrying the dog who was too hyper to walk around, so out of fear of him jumping up and scratching some beautiful vintage chair, I cradled him like a baby while he licked my ear and got so much attention from everyone that he nearly burst from excitement. I think my daughter was a little disappointed when we got there as it wasn’t quite what she was expecting, I suppose the sentence “we’re going to the fair today” would confuse any toddler. I wondered why she was so up for going earlier that day, then when I saw her face drop when we arrived I suddenly realised. Oops!
All was not lost though, about 30 seconds in I spotted the most wonderful dining table and chairs, exactly the style I was looking for! A retro set made in the 50’s as a 18th century replica. The perfectly round mahogany style table isn’t a drop leaf like I’m used to, but tips with the flick of a handy little catch underneath the table top allowing it to fold into a streamlined piece of furniture so that it can be pushed against the wall completely out of the way. How amazing? The four beautiful chairs are complete with gold and green patterned seatpads, which works well with the light blue accents in my kitchen.
As you can probably tell, I’m really pleased with it (although it was tough getting rid of my Ercol table to make room), and I can’t wait to get the rest of my kitchen up to retro-scratch, which is the look I already had in mind before I even found the table. I will keep you posted!
And here I am blogging at my new table with my new mugs from Hema. They were £4 for 2 so I got some navy blue ones as well to add to my green/blue accents.
Keep an eye on Judy’s Vintage Fair to find out when they’ll be coming to a town near you!
Lois Interiors 