Saturday 7 November 2009

A Dutch of Dutch

I've had quite a stressful week so wasn't able to post anything over the last seven days. I couldn't wait for the weekend to come so I could get started with all the things I had planned for the next two days. Painting my chest of drawers, checking out this second hand furniture shop I had heard about, creating a kitchen floorplan for my interior design course, going for an autumn walk and some boring things such as cleaning the house and doing the laundry. With all these things on my mind I woke up at 7.30am this morning unable to go back to sleep.
After a quick breakfast we decided to go hunting for the furniture shop. I always get really excited when somebody recommends shops like this to me. The prospect of maybe finding a little hidden treasure that you can refurbish and make your own is just exciting. After looking around for a while we finally found the place but it was closed. Apparently the owner only opens up when it suits him so you need a bit of luck when you go there on a Saturday. Nevertheless, driving through the mad traffic of surburban London, I suddenly spotted a small but very promising looking shop. After hysterically flapping my arms around we quickly stopped and checked it out. It was a treasure chest!! A tiny little shop full of the most beautiful original pieces. Old Dutch china, lavender filled hearts, vintage birds, old postcards etc. The stuff was just stacked on top of each other and I had to go around the shop several times to take it all in. It was fascinating and the best thing was that it wasn't expensive at all. I fell in love with this really nice big, distressed looking, white mirror that would look gorgeous on top of a mantelpiece. She wanted 80 Euros for it but I got the feeling that she would have reduced the price if I had really been interested in buying it. Unfortunately, I don't have the space for it at the moment so I had to pass.
The shop is called A Touch of Dutch and belongs to a Dutch lady who has been living in the UK for the last 20 years. She's finally opened the shop she's been dreaming of all her life and in order to keep costs down as much as possible, she does the calculation by hand instead of investing in a till, giving you change straight from her purse and using supermarket plastic bags from big well-known brands. Most items didn't even have a price label and asking her for the price she always seemed well up for a haggle.
It's one of these hidden gems that you will only find by accident and I'm so glad I did. I will definitely go back and spend some more money, especially with Christmas coming up.

N xx












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