Twenty-eight years ago, Mark and Sally Bailey moved to the sleepy British market town of Ross-on-Wye in the Herefordshire countryside. They set up their utility-chic mail-order shop, Baileys Home and Garden, in the stables of their old vicarage home. Over the years, as the business has grown, they've upgraded to bigger and bigger premises, including an old railway engine shed and a series of renovated farm buildings, where they now live and work.
The Baileys were recycling long before it was fashionable - from their recycled glass carafes to their vintage wooden shoelast door stops, their stock reflects their philosophy that old is just as beautiful as new.
I'm a huge fan of the Baileys' inimitable look. They somehow manage to make simple, mundane household objects such as pegs, wooden scrubbing brushes and bars of soap look beautiful. I've fallen for the vintage wooden fruit crates they sell. Perfect on their own as bedside tables or for stacking together to create quirky shelving units, they're industrial and simple, but oh-so-chic.
Their glass milk bottle ceiling lights are special, too. I'd like to group a few together and hang them low over a dining table for a retro look. But it might be a wooden printers' block toothbrush holder I order first - bathroom accessories are usually modern, so this one's just the ticket for bringing a bit of vintage style to my basin.
Don't miss the new loft corner sofas. There are lots of different options depending on the size of your corner - and the size of your family. Admittedly, they're not cheap, but they're timelessly stylish in natural, brushed linen, with the most elegant legs. It's the sort of piece that could work in any scheme - modern, country, urban - and always look good.
The Baileys have written several coffee table tomes to share their chic, green approach to decorating with the world - I have them all. Don't miss their latest, Handmade Home, due out this September. If it's anything like the others, it'll persuade you to start turning wooden bobbins into spoon holders and jam jars into lamp shades in no time.
For shipping rates to the UAE, visit www.baileyshomeandgarden.com or call 0044 198 956 1931
