I love exploring the different neighbourhoods or mini villages in London, discovering independent shops, seeking out good coffee and just soaking up the atmosphere. One such place is Crystal Palace, a forty minute overground ride for me from King’s Cross. I don’t often venture south of the river, but about a year ago I was tempted out of my north London cocoon with the promise of vintage and antique shops, and it didn’t disappoint: there’s four-storey antique emporiums, retro clothes shops, homeware stores, food markets on Saturdays and stunning views right down the hill to the City. So when Do South shop, a treasure trove of vintage finds, handmade goods and modern design products, asked me along for a sunny Sunday morning of styling with three other bloggers I couldn’t say no.
Do South, set up in 2011 by the lovely Freddie Oke, is situated right in the heart of Crystal Palace’s shops, on the corner of Westow Street and Central Hill. It sells a real variety of goods, from design-led, modern furniture and accessories from the likes of HAY, Established & Sons, String, Ruark and Zanotta as well as an array of restored vintage finds and handmade goods collected from travels far and wide. ‘I just love interesting designs, whether it’s the smallest detail like a fork, to something large and dramatic like a screen, you know, I love interiors, I love buildings, I love travelling,’ says founder Freddie. Often you’ll find mid-century chairs spilling onto the street, unusual treasures dotted on every surface and funky artwork adorning the walls. ‘The original concept of Do South was to create a space with interesting artefacts and I also wanted to make it a destination shop for not just the local community but also South London, hence the reason for Do South,’ he says.
I chose to style the wonderful String shelving unit – as many readers of this blog know I’m a bit of a sucker for a String shelfie! I love the Scandinavian look of them and how light and airy they can make a space feel. Designed in 1949 by Swedish architect and designer Nils Strinning, each component of the String shelf system is designed to fit together, allowing a multitude of possibilities and configurations, from the Pocket shelf for books and knick-knacks to a whole wall system and desk space seen here. The wooden shelf is perfect for displaying design books and magazines.
I styled the shelving with a similar shaded mid-century style chair, a stripy rug and some gorgeous pink glassware. The telephone’s a restored vintage one (though you wouldn’t know it, it looks so lovely, shiny and new), while I couldn’t resist adding some of the African baskets and old bells. I tried to show that you can combine modern furniture with older, more artisan accessories, I think it’s a good reflection of how most ‘real’ homes look: we pick up various bits and bobs from travels and trips, combining it all together to create an interior that is simply ‘us’.
Below are some shots from the three other lovely bloggers at the event, I love how each one reflects each person’s style and blog aesthetic. The first one is by Sarah-Louise Kimmer of LapinBlu. I love the soft, muted colours and how the urn of flowers on the right mimics the vintage-style framed painting in the middle. She really captured the shop’s ethos of mixing the old and new seamlessly together.
This one is by Tiffany Grant-Riley of Curate & Display, who had a fab space in the back half of the shop to play with. Very clean and modern, but with a hint of prettiness with the on-trend blush pink, I would love this to be my own living room.
And the last one below is by Annie of Stylejuicer. I love the perfect balance of heights of all the different objects, with the black antlers setting it off nicely. She’s also convinced me about the colour mustard!
And here we are all together with Do South founder Freddie!
Third, sixth and seventh image my own, all images: Kristy Noble
