You are viewing our old website
Click here to return to the new website.

Design Vintage

Lisa Brass opened her destination lifestyle store and café in West Sussex, UK, in November 2015, having already established her first shop in Brighton in 2012. Lisa trained in interior design at KLC College in Chelsea, London, and with her background in property design, building and developing, she converted a beautiful barn into a stunning light-filled space, complete with exposed brick walls, beams and dark inky-blue painted walls to showcase her curated collection of Scandi-vibe homewares and furniture.

 

The Shop

 What genre is it? We sell a mix of furniture and decorative pieces for the home.

Why did you want to open Design Vintage? I am from a design background and I wanted to open a shop offering original vintage furniture combined with Scandinavian decorative accessories for the home.

Who designed the shop? I did.

What are you known for? We are known for our vintage Hungarian furniture – we often have a mix of original vitrine cupboards and kitchen islands.

Where is your product sourced? We work with one family in Hungary who are craftsmen and do all our restoration work and painting for us. We also work with the leading interior brands in Denmark where we source most of our home accessories.

 What makes your shop unique? Our vintage furniture is exactly that, original, rather than ‘vintage style’, but we can offer a continuous stock of similar items.

Who are your customers? We are a large destination shop with a café near to Chichester, so our customers are happy to travel to see our full range, and have often seen our collection on the website first. Our customers are home movers, renovators and anyone with an interest in creating a beautiful interior for their home.

 

The Shopkeeper

dv-21

 

Who or what inspires you? Beautifully simple Scandinavian design!

Before I was a shopkeeper, I was…The owner of a bar and restaurant business.

The hardest lesson learned in starting a business? You will never sleep! Also, my website for the first three years was home built, and with hindsight we could have progressed faster if I had help with that from the start!

What tasks do you like to delegate? At the moment I am still involved with every aspect, but I would like to delegate the marketing and social media, as it is so time consuming, but essential.

The best lesson you have learned opening a shop? You will need more stock than you think! We had a practically empty shop after our opening week in Brighton, and no time to refill it!

What would be your advice for anyone wanting to open a shop? Research your market and make sure you are able to trade with all the suppliers you need before you get started. Some bigger brands are selective, so you need to pitch yourself strongly.

If you weren’t a shopkeeper you would be…A designer.

What is your perfect day off? One with no phone or laptop! We’re lucky enough to live by the sea, so a long beach walk with our lively puppy Marley, then lunch with the whole family, preferably someone else doing the cooking!

Five favourite shops? Lavender Rooms, Brighton, for their beautiful gifts and clothing; Preloved, Brighton, for their gorgeous second-hand clothing; Liberty, London, everything in this beautiful shop! Selfridges for the building itself; Lewes Flea Market for the unusual and unexpected!

What is you favorite neighborhood coffee shop/restaurant? Umm…Ours!

I wish I could…Learn to delegate more!

 

On the Future of Retail

I think there’s a real shift from the high street to more destination shops like our Chichester store, where you can park outside, shop and lunch all in one place. Online will of course continue to grow, but there is always going to be a demand for seeing products ‘in the flesh’, and out-of-town destination shopping is on the increase.”

Design Vintage

84 Loather Road, Brighton & The Old Barn, 1a Kingley Centre, Downs Road, West Stoke, Chichester

Instagram          Facebook          Twitter

Words & Photos by Stephanie Bateman Sweet The Lifestyle Editor

 

 

[wpgmza id=”170″]

 

 

You Might Also Like