The best vintage and antique furniture places in the UK

From reclamation yards to beautiful curated shops, here’s Natalie’s favourite places to shop

Italy with Mum

I’ve just got back from a brilliant five-day sourcing trip to Italy and this time my 76 year old Mum came. We were due to fly at 7pm, but something to do with a Canadian Goose and a plane wing meant that after two false boardings and a new plane meant we finally landed in Italy at 5:30am, got to the hotel at 6:15am, dropped our bags and pulled our first all nighter in years and headed straight to the fair.  You would imagine my mum would be tired. I was, I was absolutely knackered, but the buzz of the fair and the amazing stock meant I kept going. 30,000 steps later, however, I was done in. My mum, on the other hand, wasn’t and my god did she not want to leave. “Are you sure we’ve seen everything??” she kept asking. You see, my mum LOVES to rummage. From the moment I was born, I’ve been taken round to every antiques fair, market, car boot, auction room and house clearance she’s laid her eyes on. Due to my Irish mother’s love for two main things (if we ignore potatoes); good design, and a bargain, rummaging has always been part of my life. A fate I feel will now be passed on to my son Art

Art at an Antiques fair in France

I vividly remember sitting at home with my dad as a child and him wondering ‘where the bloody hell your mum has got to?’ A common occurrence in our house, as she seemingly got very distracted on the way home from work if she spied something that ignited her rummaging fire.  That night, mum finally appeared driving down the road frantically waving frantically with a large van driving behind her. We went out to greet her, with her excitingly shouting “don’t go mad” at my Dad. Anyway, I’ll cut to the point ….she had stumbled upon a rather grand house clearance on the way back from work and bought not one, but THREE pianos. One of them being a beautiful carved antique baby grand piano. Two guys shortly followed asking “where do you want them??…” With quite a lot of muttered swearing from my dad and a lot of, “it’s PERFECT” from my mum, they plonked the far-too-big baby grand piano in our incredibly small living room. (By the way… none of us played the piano and for that matter none of us wanted to). The other went in the garage and one went in the hallway.  We spent about a month squeezing past the ridiculous baby grand piano in our front room. With bruised shins from banging past it, zero telly was watched as it blocked the view, and not a single note played, mum finally admitted defeat and we put the piano in the local paper and it finally went on its way to its third new life.

Other things she bought over my childhood was a full sized 1980s wooden sauna. Which was eventually cut up by my dad and used as decking. The full stock from a closing down dance shop… ballet tights for years anyone? You get the idea…. I was brought up shopping and my mother must have single handled prevented a million tonnes of landfill.

So without further ado…. Here’s my list of the best places in the UK for vintage. It is, of course, in my DNA