Once you’ve got your place kitted out with all the furniture you need, it’s time for the next home project, buying home decor. If you don’t want to get everything from chain stores like Ikea or Habitat, there’s plenty of homeware stores in London to find beautiful and interesting home decor on a budget.
From art to adorn your walls, to ceramics, antiques, kitchenware, rugs and throws – London is full of independent, affordable, and secondhand homewares.
Flea Markets
Wood Street Indoor Market, Walthamstow
Watlthamstow’s Wood Street Indoor Market which is open Tuesdays-Saturdays all year round. It’s full of stalls by over 25 independent traders selling everything from vintage clothing to jewellery, home furnishings and vintage furniture. There is a good mix of second hand and original items from handmade blinds and shutters, to colorful, beautifully crafted Moroccan ceramics.
London Makers Market
LMM is actually a group of artisan markets which are held at various venues across London, rather than one fixed location. Venues include House of Vans, under the arches by Waterloo Station, where you pursue handmade homewares, ceramics and artwork while people learn to skateboard a safe distance away.
Old Spitalfields Market, Shoreditch
Despite being lined with chain restaurants these days, Old Spitalfields Market in Shoreditch is still a great place for perusing market stalls. The market is open seven days a week, and is filled with independent traders and original designers,including home decor or interiors. Although it gets pretty busy, the layout is good and there’s plenty of space for browsing.
Second Hand and Vintage Homeware
After Noah, Islington
This Islington shop is a family business, specialising in restoring antique and vintage furniture The Upper Street shop is also home to the restoration workshop, and it sells a good mix of homeware too, which is a mix of new and old items. Many of its newer pieces are eco-designed with recycled materials such as blankets made from plastic bottles and reused wool for around £50, which is fairly comparable with high street prices. It’s a beautiful shop to browse in too. You can spend ages exploring its offerings, from smaller items like eco-dinner candle sets for £15 to large textured vases from £15.
Vintage Heaven, Columbia Road
Columbia road isn’t just worth visiting for the weekend flower market, Vintage Heaven is a shop specialising in vintage china, glass, fabric and kitchenalia including famous brands like William Morris, Kilner, Sanderson and Woods Wares. Annoyingly, there are no prices on the website, so you’ll need to wander over and check it out, and save some change for a slice of cake at Cake Hole, while you’re there.
Boutiques and Independent Homeware Stores
Venner, Leyton
Named after the Norwegian word for friends, this east London independent shop was founded by two independent makers, jewellery maker Lucia Beeston and screenprint artist Tiff Howick. Having met while selling their work elsewhere, they now also sell sustainably sourced homewares, artworks and gifts, largely from UK suppliers. It sells everything from small, eco-home items like reusable make up pads and insulated drinking bottles to larger, home decor pieces like ceramics and large, colourful art prints. For more info, see their website here.
Labour and Wait, (Multiple London locations and Tokyo)
One for Cheapos in London and Tokyo, Labour and Wait started around Brick Lane in 2000 and has grown to include shops in Marylebone, the West End and Shibuya, Tokyo. With design principles that appear to take William Morris’ statement “Have nothing in your house that you don’t know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” and takes it one further – selling everything from stationery to clothing and homeware to gardening tools with, all designed to be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing.
Some items are on the spendier end, £95 for an enamel bread bin is a little steep, but most items aren’t much more than the chain store equivalent. There are plenty of wallet-friendly home decor items such as beeswax cables, cotton string bags, coaster, placemats, and candle holders.
Tash & Tanya, Muswell Hill
The Muswell Hill shop is run by independent makers Tanya Kriesky and Natasha Barton. Some of their original pieces including screen prints and stitched products are sold in the shop along with other interesting homewares. The shop is a short walk from Ally Pally, and they have an online store where you can place a click & collect order too. The shop is small, but filled with lovely things from printed lampshades, to speakers, prints and retro homeware. It’s a great place to get gifts too.
Committee of Taste, Hackney
The second hand furniture on display at the bricks-and-mortar store (they sell online too) is a home decor lover’s dream. Committee of Taste is big on uncluttered design, so you if crammed storage rooms are a little overwhelming, then this will be more up your street. The focus is on British mid century, with some antique and modernist pieces too. Drop by to find vintage pieces like oak book shelves for under £150. Check out their instagram page for current stock.
More Second Hand And Affordable Home Making Tips
- Second Hand Shopping in London
- Best Affordable Furniture and Home Decor Shops in London
- Best Flea Markets in London
