Online shopping can often make things cheaper, with retailers not having to fork out for rent and overheads. As a result, you can often pick up a cheap bargain on Instagram, Etsy or via an independent online retailer! Before you get spending, check out our guides on how to buy and collect art and how to buy antiques online.
Here are some of our favourite places to buy covetable antiques, enviable vintageand beautiful handmade home accessories from the comfort of your own living room...
Where to buy affordable antiques and art
Tat London
Charlie Porter started Tat four years ago as a side project to her job as an interiors stylist. She loves junk shops and car booting so, to indulge her passion, she decided to open an online shop selling what she describes as ‘low brow’ pieces. ‘I never think I specialise in anything, I buy what I like,’ she says. ‘But it would seem I like a lot of 20th-century European art and any sort of sconce – it can range from 17th-century to the 1990s. As long as you can put a candle in it, I will buy it.’
Perfect English Stuff
Scroll through the squares of Instagram seller Elizabeth Kemp’s account and you’ll find all manner of antique and vintagedecorative items, from fabrics to pictures and china. Pretty vintage tins feature heavily and so too do charming antique prints. After working for several years in the art world in London, Elizabeth moved to a cottage near Frome in Somerset with her husband and decided to set up a business from home.
Her grandmother is an antiques dealer and her mother (Ros Byam Shaw) writes about interiors so antiques and decorating run deep. ‘I am selling things found by my mother and my grandmother as well as by me.The only criteria are that they are things I love and would want in my own home,’ she says.
Interested in exploring the world of antiques on Instagram? Check out our guide on how to buy antiques on Instagram.
Have a look at which other collectors and dealers we included in our round-up of the best antique and vintage accounts to follow on Instagram.
Mood and Hue
Mood and Hue is an Etsy shop based in the Cotswolds and run from a converted stables which serves as Fay Frampton’s stockroom, photo studio and packing room. She has a focus on vintage artwork, pottery and home accessories chosen for their decorative appeal. Find Art Deco jugs, Victorian opaline vases, French confit pots and European pottery. Follow her Instagram account for updates about new stock.
Tarn London
Shop for still life paintings, chairs and other interesting bits and bobs via Tanya Zendra’s well-balanced grid on her Instagram account. She left her role at a communications agency in Shoreditch this year so she could seek out and sell old pieces after running out of space in her own home. ‘It’s amazing what lockdown has done for people. It allowed me to focus on two life-long passions: making things pretty and treasure hunting,’ she says. Expect many different styles, genres and combinations of furniture and decorative items on her feed – interspersed with inspiring images
of beautiful interiors.
If you're on the lookout for antique lighting, check out our guide to how to buy antique lights and lamps and what to look out for.
HUTT
Mollie Riach has been dealing antiquesfor almost 10 years. This year, she switched from a physical shop to an online store called Hutt, offering original art, 20th-century furniture, decorative antiques, refurbished lights and rugs. She sources stock across Europe and will also feature emerging artists.
Once you've bought your affordable pieces, check out our guide on how to properly light your art at home.