JOANNA WOOD VANESSA MACDONALD
Founder, Joanna Wood Creative director, Melissa Wyndham
Where are your favourite shops for antiques hunting?
I love the sale room. We keep a good eye on auctions like Dreweatts in Newbury and Bonhams. Auctions and sales are great for affordable but useable pieces from a wide spectrum of periods and styles. We have just launched JW Antiques as part of the Joanna Wood shop. Everything is sourced by my daughter Hattie and I from all over the country, and lots of the pieces have been given the loving restorative touch. [Chairs shown bottom right are restored pieces from JW Antiques.]
When can antiques be repurposed for modern life?
We often alter, adjust, restore, change or paint antique pieces of furniture. We’ve adjusted chests of drawers to be vanity units in bathrooms and altered side tables to become cloakroom units. Building a chest into a wardrobe for storage; using an armoire as a bar or TV cabinet, considering these sorts of adjustments is a good way of shopping for antiques and provides you with a unique piece of furniture that you might not have been able to budget for otherwise.
Only last week, I bought two console tables. We’ve cut them down and painted them to create ‘new’ tables and they’re about to have custom marble tops fitted that will look a million dollars.
Do you have any other tips for ‘upcycling’ antiques?
I’m never scared of repairs or restoration. It’s a clever way of shopping for antiques as so many people are too nervous of restoring furniture. We are always painting, polishing, reupholstering and repairing. There are so many lovely things out there so it’s always good to restore, renew and recycle. Some of my favourite transformations are:
1. An antique bureau turned into a bookcase in a principal bedroom.
2. An antique chest chopped in half and made into a cloakroom unit with a custom marble top, with an antique mirror above.
3. A pair of matching antique washstands with new marble, and mirrors with concealed medicine cabinets above.
4. An antique chest of drawers restored and polished for hallway storage in a cottage.
Do you have particular pieces you always look out for?
The best finds are the unexpected ones, so I (try to) always have an open mind when I go shopping.
Is it ok to mix styles and periods of antiques and how do you do so successfully?
Absolutely. We mix periods of antiques all the time and very often incorporate contemporary pieces too.
Using antiques all from the same period is far too prescriptive, you have to mix periods to create interest. I love the combination of an antique table, a contemporary lamp, a modern British picture, a mixture of prints and plains and an antique carpet. It’s classic yet current. This is easily achieved in a dining room where you could use a painted, modern table, a set of 18thcentury English chairs, a contemporary cupboard and an antique French or Italian pendant light.
Where are your favourite shops for antiques hunting?
Tarquin Bilgen has great taste, and his selection of both old and new lamps is wonderful. Adam Calvert Bentley always has something unusual that still looks at home in a country house. Dean Antiques – Dean has a great eye and his chests of drawers and cupboards are particularly good. Robert Stephenson Carpets has the best selection of antique and Swedish carpets.
What is your favourite ever antique find?
A set of 12 George II painted elbow chairs of Chinese inspiration with latticework backs and infills to under the arms, made for King’s Nympton, Devon in 1754 (the original invoice still exists). We bought them for the dining room of our New York project and they came from Edward Hurst [as seen below].