April Edition
Exclusive interview with Butter Wakefield, Spring news & vintage updates
April is here and what better way to celebrate the new month than an exclusive interview with garden designer and vintage collector Butter Wakefield.
One of the UK’s best-loved garden designers, Butter Wakefield, has created a home filled with colour and joy at every turn. Her love of antiques and timeless pieces stems from her time at Christies in New York and later at Colefax and Fowler in London, before she set up as a garden designer when her children were small.
MM Hello Butter, welcome to Love Vintage Etc. Can you please tell us where your passion for antiques originates and how you began collecting items for your home?
BW I grew up surrounded by beautiful antiques because my grandparents loved collecting everything from fruitwood tea caddies and early 18th-century silver to porcelain and furniture. But it was when I started working at Colefax and Fowler in Brook Street in the early 1990s, surrounded by their gorgeous fabrics, furniture, homeware, and an amazing antique department, that I truly caught the collecting bug. Since then, I’ve kept collecting, and I believe these treasures give a home real character, interest, and charm.
MM Where are your favourite places to source or do you leave it to chance and pick pieces as and when you come across them?
BW I love the Decorative Arts Fair in Battersea Park, it has some of the finest dealers in the country. I almost always find something exquisite, that I just can’t live without. Sue Norman has beautiful 18th-century porcelain which I find irresistible. I’m also a huge fan of the Lacquer Chest on Kensington Church Street, they have a myriad of wonderful very good decorative objects and art.
MM You have so many beautiful ceramics, from lustreware, to transferware and the green Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage and vine leaf plates, as well as Victorian cake plates. Do you have a favourite piece and is there anything that you’d love to add to your collection?
BW I am very keen to start collecting 18th-century Chelsea porcelain – the vine leaf motif, red anchor period (1755-1758). It’s dreamy, but hugely expensive! I also adore the Chelsea strawberry moulded porcelain, again red anchor period. I might have to build another room on my house though!
MM As a gardener designer and gardener can you tell us a little bit about how your love of colour and plants is reflected in the home.
BW As a gardener, I think connecting the outside to the in through detail, colour and aesthetic is terribly important. I try to weave the two together seamlessly, and as such I personally grow a lot of flowers that reflect the colours I have throughout the house. For instance, I love growing a range of orange centred Narcissus and Tulips in the Spring and Geum Totally Tangerine and Princes Juliana in the borders for picking and bringing inside. They sit beautifully well in my living room which has hints of orange on the furniture, and bookshelves. It is also lovely to create views illustrating complimentary colours looking from the inside to the out.
MM Finally, do you have any exciting plans, for this year, that you can share with us?
BW This is a big year for me as I am in the process of writing my first book, it is absolutely terrifying and terrific all at the same time and in equal measure, but one that I am enjoying hugely.
Home Style
This month’s style inspiration comes from Butter Wakefield’s home – adorned with antique prints, lamps, and ceramics. Here are some ideas to incorporate Butter's style into your own space. Marbled lampshades, like the one above, can be found at Rosi de Ruig, green vintage pharmacy bottles for seasonal flowers, from a selection at Etsy. Rows of patterned plates – this antique Strawberry moulded Chelsea plate is from Ebay. The apple and blossom, high quality print (above) is based on a Victorian watercolour by William Hooker at King & Mcgaw.
My new book, Independent Shops London, is published! And one of the pockets of interest highlighted in the book is my old stomping ground Columbia Road. This month sees three of the street’s shops hosting special events. First up is a daffodil extravaganza hosted by Straw London. Join them over two weekends when their shop will be filled with different daffodil varieties sourced from British growers. 4-5 April and 11-12 April, 126 Columbia Rd. London E2.
Nelly Duff Gallery, at 156 Columbia Rd., is to host artist Emily Powell with her paintings of flowers – she’ll also be painting live over the weekend of 25-26 April. All artworks will be for sale, as well as new work by Emily, completed this spring.
Norfolk Natural Living has just launched their Columbia Road candle inspired by the Sunday flower market. All their naturally made products are available online as well as in store, including their new shop at 31 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1N.
I have some London book signing events over the next couple of months. I’ll be at Know & Love, Stoke Newington, on Friday 3rd April, at 12.30 pm. Signed books are also available at Townhouse Spitalfields, Sir John Soane Museum Shop and French & Wilder in Hexham.
Independent Shops London features over fifty of the best small shops and independent markets around the capital. From bookshops to bakeries, vintage fashion, toyshops, hand-designed jewellery, stationers, haberdashers, paint shops, florists, cheesemongers and delis – each shop tells its own story.
Fresh Vintage Finds
A vibrant vintage oil painting of Newlyn with the harbour, boats and a setting sun. This Cornish School painting has lovely abstract details, in warm, vivid colours. The painting is framed in a stylish double mount and measures 35cm x 28.5cm. The word Newlyn is painted bottom, right.
“Sunflowers” a cheerful vintage French oil on canvas, dating to around 1940. The painting measures 41cm x 30cm and is now available online at Mason & painter.
A selection of vintage items including a 1930’s diamanté belt buckle, vintage measures and old French postcards available online.
Thank you for reading – it’s great to have to here and your support really means the world to me. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, I’d love you to click the little ♡ symbol to help spread the word, or share your thoughts in a comment. Until next time, lots of love,
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