Hidden History & Beauty in Shop Renovation

This Year has Been a Time of Exciting Changes

Well, actually it's been rather more than a year. Renovating our shop has taken much longer than we anticipated. I think we were somewhat unrealistic on how long everything would take when we were doing virtually all of it ourselves. And we kept uncovering more things that we had to deal with, repair or replace. A leak in the roof and sky light were investigated and led to the complete removal of all the lath and plaster and replacing it with insulation, a new ceiling and a Velux window. In the past people have dealt with issues of cracks, rotten bits, leaks etc by covering them up with for example, some plywood and then if you can't see it, then the problem no longer exists and you can forget about it. And so it goes on until somebody in the future (ie, us) decides to deal with it properly.

We've taken layers off the walls (4-6 of them, wallpaper, battens, plywood, modern wooden panelling, render) and layers off the floor (3, carpet and vinyl). Before we got married I was an archaeologist and I felt like I was revisiting my past as we removed layer upon layer and uncovered some of the history of the shop. We found a chimney breast and fireplace (removing 2 black bags full of old birds nests from the chimney space), a window and door that had been boarded over, original wooden panelling on the walls and some rather nice wooden floorboards. And by removing all those layers off the walls, we must have gained about 4-5 inches more space too.

Fresh Decor and a Traditional Look

One of the most satisfying aspects of our renovation process has been the decoration. We’ve chosen the same calm, natural colours that we chose here on our website, so the walls in the front of the shop have been painted in a light green and a warm cream. The old wooden wall panelling at the back of the shop gives hints of its history in the variety and shapes of the colours left on the panels from many repaints over the years. We've kept this and stabilised the flaking paintwork with a couple of coats of clear varnish. This, coupled with the exposed brickwork gives a very different feel in the back half of the shop compared to the front.

We built shelves high up along the top of the walls, with a picture rail built in below it. As we'd filled in hundreds of nail holes in the walls, we wanted to avoid making more holes in them in future if we can so will use the picture rail as much as possible. The shelves are in keeping with the traditional feel of the shop and several people have asked if they are original. Which is good to know that we've got that period feel right.

Sourcing Furniture: The Finishing Touches

Another significant part of our renovation has been finding furniture for the shop. We knew the look and feel that we wanted and that it would be found with using second hand wooden furniture. So it's been a case of keeping a look out for a dresser and shelving and the right sorts of tables and chairs online and in charity shops. We even got some free furniture out of a skip and found some old wooden school chairs complete with chewing gum under the seats!

Overall, with uncovering original features and using lovely old furniture, the shop now echoes its past. It has a kind of Edwardian feel, but bright and modern too.

This journey has been about more than just aesthetics; it's been about creating a space that feels like us and what we want to convey through our brand and our nature exploration tools, as well as being our workshop space. It's a place where children and adults can come to spend unhurried, calm time being creative and making things. Or they can come and choose from our range of nature inspired gifts and then go out and explore the wonders of the natural world.

We can't wait to welcome you into our shop.

*The last photo below shows the original shop decor.