We had been looking for a new studio/shop for a long time and when a space just minutes from my home came up for rent I got very excited. The road is fairly quiet but only a minute from the train station, it's easy to park at the front of the shop, which is a huge bonus in suburbia! and it has a massive space at the back. We can have all our stock here, our office and also extra room/space for workshops which we would love to run in the near future.

We moved from our previous studio at the beginning of April. It took us a couple of months to settle down, organise our stock room, office and shop front. The space was previously an office for IT company. There are still things to do but the main part is finished. We painted throughout, laid new floor, decorated. Most of the furniture comes from ebay. It took long hours to find the right pieces for the shop, we painted some, changed their purpose. While doing all this we had to run our online shop, which is the main income at the moment. 

Having a physical shop is dream for many. It's that old fashioned way of selling, meeting customers and being part of the community. After eight years of being behind the screen, selling our items all over the world and messaging thousands of customers without ever meeting them, it's been a real pleasure to see real faces, meet locals, talk to them about our company and goods we sell.

I'm from a generation of people which buys, or is used to buying most things online. For the last couple of years I hardly ventured to shops and spent hours online looking for the perfect piece of clothing, furniture and gifts. Although I fully admit online shopping is very convenient and certain things are just easier to buy from your home, I believe we all love to go to our local shop, if there is something to offer. We don't all have time to scroll for hours for the perfect gift and if someone else prepares a nice selection of items for you, a short walk or drive to the shop doesn't seem that bad. We will be updating our stock very often so the shop experience won't be boring for our regular customers. 

One of the main reasons while I decided for this space is due to the size of the back rooms. We created a room at the back of the shop where we would love to start workshops for kids and adults. Space for meeting other creatives in the area, share knowledge, get advise and feedback. But all about that in next post....

The shop is based in 6 Upper Mugrave Road, Cheam Village, Surrey, United Kingdom. If you are in the area or live close by do come to say hi! We would love to meet you!

Veronika x