The best outdoor vintage furniture to buy now
Merchant & Found, the UK’s leading vintage online furniture store founded by ex Conran Shop and Habitat buying director, Paul Middlemiss has experienced demand increasing for vintage outdoor furniture by more than 70%.
Demand has been driven by an increased number of knowledgeable buyers with a growing desire for the aesthetic combined with access to increasingly sophisticated and trusted online platforms for sourcing and buying vintage furniture such as 1st Dibs, Pamono, The Bruno Effect and Vinterior.
The added sustainable and environmental appeal of buying furniture already in existence has added to this momentum.
With clients that range from Sessions Art Club, Rose Uniacke, The Royal Opera House to James Bond Film sets, Merchant & Found has a client base that include interior designers, stylists and well known players in the hospitality industry.
Vintage outdoor furniture is one of the most searched for terms on the Merchant & Found site. With this in mind, Paul gives his tips on what and how to buy vintage outdoor furniture well this summer:
What to buy:
- Tolix: never goes out of fashion and is still in existence today. Looks brilliant whether new or vintage and can be left outside all year. Tolix is the creator of the most iconic French café chair of all time the Tolix model A made in 1934 and now copied cheaply worldwide
- Folding sets of vintage: Space saving and flexible, beautifu vintage folding pieces work well outside in the Summer months and are easily stored during the winter. 1950s German Beech folding dining chairs never go out of fashion and can be stacked. Original folding tables come in various styles and guises – often from Germany – solid, stable and strong they will last for years having been restored at the Merchant & Found warehouse first
- Multipl’s chairs: iconic part of industrial French design history - a competitor to Tolix that did not survive making it even more collectible and rare, vintage pieces come in a variety of great colours
- Mullca chair: originally one of the most widely produced chairs in France but with little history or pieces remaining. A classic that is increasinly sought after
- 1950s Toledo – Produced in the 1950s by workshops in France, the Toledo is often stamped with brewers names as it was used as a marketing tool back in the day. These pieces are the most in demand
- Anything original – this is key and the resale market is strong making it a great investment
How to buy well:
The barriers to entry in the market are small and most platforms have anonymous dealers that are not always checked, so make sure you trust the platform, check its age, material, where it was made, who the designer is and where it was sourced from.
Nothing beats experience so make sure you’re buying from an established dealer – we have the knowledge at Merchant & Found because we handle volume and specialise. Check who the designer is; what has it survived (what’s its history); where did you source it.
“Customers no longer just want to buy a just piece of furniture. They want a piece with a history, provenance, and a story. Merchant & Found is passionate about championing forgotten makers, researching pieces, scouring old production catalogues and piecing together the fascinating design history of desirable vintage pieces.
“Why buy a mass-produced item, with all the environmental costs involved in manufacturing and transport, when it is possible to save a beautiful thing that already exists?” Paul Middlemiss, Founder, Merchant & Found.