Drew Pritchard blog: 2019

Drew Pritchard: How to Create Country House Style

9:07 AM

Drew Pritchard Shares Cottage Style Home Ideas

Welcome to the Drew Pritchard blog. Drew Pritchard is based in Conwy, North Wales and has an antique and vintage shop specializing in found treasures. Are you a friend of rustic, country house look? Get the country house look for less with these tips from antiques and restoration expert Drew Pritchard. Let's get started!

KEY ELEMENTS OF A COUNTRY HOUSE SITTING ROOM

Upholstered furniture Choose wonderful patterned fabrics – the brighter and more floral the better. Wear, patches and repairs really don’t matter – it will only make these pieces more of a bargain. Layer with cushions and a blanket or throw over the back of a sofa.
Rugs Layer small ones over large ones, pattern on pattern. Faded Aubussons and antique carpets work and are cheaper than those in pristine condition.
Tables Dot them around the room from little antique tripod-leg gypsy tables, which can be bought cheaply, to a big sofa table. For the latter, use a console behind a comfy sofa with a couple of reading lights positioned on top.
Lighting Replace wall and ceiling lights with standard lamps, table lamps (such as brass column lights) on your side tables. Mix styles, eras and shades.
A fireplace Add a club fender, if you can find one.
A pair of club chairs Mix and match them – this is a cheaper option than buying a pair.
An ottoman Pile it high with magazines or books you’ve thumbed through and place in the middle of the room.
A desk A great addition, if you have space. Team with a nice old desk chair, a lamp, vintage pens, books, pictures or lots of little photographs. It makes a great surface for displaying a collection of curios.

Check back for more!

Drew Pritchard is one of the UK’s best known antique dealers and is the presenter of Salvage Hunters. Pursuing a lifelong talent for rescuing and restoring rare items, Drew is a real life treasure hunter. Read more about the antiques dealer & salvage hunter himself, Drew Pritchard here. Follow Drew Pritchard as he takes you to various antique dealers around the country, in hopes of finding antiques at great prices for restoration. Read Drew Pritchard‘s reviews here.

Accessories

Drew Pritchard: Tips for Buying Antique Gifts

8:52 AM

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Facts about Drew Pritchard

8:12 AM

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Drew Pritchard's Antiques Trade Story

7:04 AM

Drew Pritchard shares how he got into the antiques trade

Welcome to the Drew Pritchard blog. Drew Pritchard is the star of Quest TV's antiques show, Salavage Hunters. In today's blog, the Salvage Hunter shares how staining glass windows transformed his career in the antiques industry. Read to find out more.

I can’t remember a time when I was not completely absorbed by antiques. My father collected antiques, instruments and motorbikes and, as a result, I was immersed in the unusual and the old from a young age. What really got me excited wasn’t the pristine museum pieces that we saw on family holidays but the rusty, broken stuff I found in the fields around my childhood home of Glan Conwy, a village in north Wales.

During the summer holidays, my best friend (and, much later, Salvage Hunter cohort) Tee and I scoured the beaches, local tips and countryside looking for pushbikes, car badges, oars and boat paraphernalia – anything that people had thrown away. We would sell what we’d salvaged at the side of the road to buy sweets and magazines.

I loved the thrill of the hunt and decided that I wanted to be an antiques dealer by the time I was 11, but I couldn’t figure out how to raise the amount of money you needed to launch an antiques business. The way in for me was to become a restorer who found broken objects and added value to them.

I left school as soon as I could and took an apprenticeship working for a stained-glass restorer. I’ll never forget my first day on the job. My bosses Gordon and Stuart took me to a church in Holyhead. They showed me how to remove the stained-glass windows from the stonework and we carefully put them in the back of the van before the church was demolished. Years later, I set up on my own, working in a room by the side of my dad’s garage, dealing in stained-glass windows.

One day, a dealer pulled up in his van. When he threw open the doors and started to peel back the layers of stained-glass windows that lay unwrapped, I instantly recognised them. Not only were they the same windows that I had removed from the church in Holyhead, they were also, as I now knew, by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. I bought the windows on the spot. The dealer wanted £2,600 and it took every last penny I had. But when I got them back to the house to do some research, I found that they were even more special than I’d thought.

Drew Pritchard is an antiques expert, with an outstanding eye for spotting a diamond amongst the rough. Drew is also skilled in restoration and often being dubbed, 'The Real Lovejoy' View the Drew Pritchard's antiques pieces he has for sale on his website here. See reviews and photos of Drew Pritchard antique store in Wales here. Are you currently on a quest for antique hunting? Like the Drew Pritchard Facebook page here to help you make the most of the time you spent browsing and buying antiques.

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Antiques Fair Behind the Scenes

7:26 AM

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Tips for buying antiques

7:18 AM

Drew Pritchard's tips for buying antiques

Welcome to the Drew Pritchard blog. Salvage Hunters‘ presenter and antiques dealer Drew Pritchard tells the fantastic and fascinating stories of life antiques hunting. To help you on your own hunt for an amazing find, here Drew passes on his top five tips here for unearthing exciting antiques and creating a fruitful relationship with your local dealer.

Everyone should be a winner. Make sure the antique dealer can walk away with a profit too and don’t try to haggle them into the ground. Ideally you should try to build a longer-term relationship so you can come back again and again.

Avoid fakes. When you buy, ensure that the dealer writes the full description including the provenance of the item with any known dates. That way you know exactly what you’re buying and if it’s authentic. Plus, you can walk away with a strong degree of confidence about what you’ve bought.

Buy complete sets. Make sure you buy complete items – avoid buying part of a set thinking you can buy another part or piece at another time, elsewhere. There’s no guarantee you’ll complete the set. Antique parts are very hard to find.

Know your salvage dealer. If your budget is limited, you’ll often be able to buy unrestored stock cheaply if you’re on the ball and can act fast. Many dealers have quick stock turnover. Give them a call every now and then to see what they have. Be prepared to buy it there and then and take it as it is. You can undertake the restoration under your own steam.

Take a big car or 4×4. Whenever you go to a salvage yard or antique shop, make sure you arrive with suitable transport to take away any prospective bargains. It’s also a good idea to take a friend along with you – just in case you find a bulky item that you want to buy straightaway. If you can avoid a delivery cost, you will get the best price.

There you go. Check back for more tips.

Drew Pritchard has been dealing in architectural salvage and antiques for 33 years working initially as a stained glass restorer and designer. Drew has previously featured at Liberty of London but is now concentrating on his Showroom in the medieval walled town of Conwy, where his space features exquisite collections for house and home lovingly selected by Drew himself and managed by his team.See pieces Drew Pritchard currently has for sale here. Watch and get recaps of Drew Pritchard's Salvage Hunters episodes here and more. Show your support online by following the official Drew Pritchard Twitter page here. Read more about Drew Pritchard news here.

You can also watch the Drew Pritchard video here:

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Drew Pritchard: Why patina is king

7:51 AM

Drew Pritchard Shares Why patina is king!

Welcome to the Drew Pritchard blog. Drew Pritchard is a salvage hunter and owns one of the largest decorative salvage yards in the United Kingdom. In today's blog, Drew Pritchard shares why antiques with wear and history have added value, and how to judge whether an item actually needs to be restored. Read on to find out more.

Patina, for me, is everything. It reveals the wear, the history and the story of an antique. It tells you where it has been and how it has been looked after. Has it had a loving hand passed across it each morning by its owner as they’ve walked down the stairs? Has it been lavished with care and attention its whole life, like an old leather chair that its owner has carefully buffed with wax once a year, always cautious not to sit on it with keys in their back pocket?

All of these things can add a layer of patina to an antique. Mostly this is apparent in pieces loved during a period when people had the time to care for their furniture and objects. We don’t seem as able to find the time to make the little things important today. However, one of my favourite sayings: ‘Fashion fades, only style remains the same’ is by Coco Chanel and she was dead right. When I buy things for myself, it’s with the idea that I don’t need another one – ever. If you do that, you can build up your own patina on something you love, while contributing to its history.

The antique market is recognising the beauty of items with wear more and more. Today, a piece with fabulous patina has added value at auction. I will pay much more for an item with just the right level of patination, such as a 19th-century leather desk chair with beautiful wear that you then team with a 1970s Italian desk and a mid-century lamp. The contrast is wonderful and the chair adds to the stories of everything in the room. Not only that, but its sense of history makes that piece truly unique.

My favourite object that I’ve ever bought is a toolbox that once belonged to Malcolm Campbell of Bluebird, the British racing driver who broke the land speed record nine times between 1924 and 1935. It’s painted the same blue that the Bluebird cars were all painted and, when he was knighted, ‘Sir’ was roughly added onto the box. Its story, coupled with its provenance and scale of wear, makes it special – it is history wrapped up in a box and is completely unique. There is only one in existence and it’s worth a six-figure sum. I look at this treasure and, because of its condition and wear, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. If it were restored, it might be worth considerably less.

There are still some antique dealers who insist on highly polishing all of the pieces that pass through their hands. I go into these shops and all I see is a symphony of shiny mahogany. I visited one recently – they had a fabulous campaign chest that had never been touched. It was so worn it was like a lovely beaten up pair of comfortable old brogues. I asked if they’d sell it to me, but they declined. So I went back a month later and there it still was. They’d replaced the original brass handles, relined the drawers and polished it so much I could see my face in it. In other words, they’d sucked the heart and soul out of it. To me, it was ruined. Every time you repolish a piece, you remove a layer of history that you can never get back. Restoration isn’t always the answer. If you’re unsure whether to restore, my advice is below.

TO RESTORE OR NOT?

Don’t do anything straight away. Let a piece sit and rest, ideally in the place you’ll eventually give it a home. Really think about what actually needs repair and what will make it usable. Then do the bare minimum. Just think, every time you remove a layer from an antique’s surface, it devalues the item and removes a layer of its history. Minimal conservation is the aim. If, for example, there is a large rip in an old leather chair, consider if a visibly new panel will be an honest repair and part of its journey. It could be. Get a professional to work on it. Don’t be tempted to have a go yourself – this is a task for the experts.

Check back for more tips.

Drew Pritchard has been dealing in architectural salvage and antiques for 33 years working initially as a stained glass restorer and designer. Drew has previously featured at Liberty of London but is now concentrating on his Showroom in the medieval walled town of Conwy, where his space features exquisite collections for house and home lovingly selected by Drew himself and managed by his team.See pieces Drew Pritchard currently has for sale here. Read more about Drew Pritchard success story on Wikipedia page here. Read the Drew Pritchard news here.

You can also watch Drew Pritchard video here:

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Drew Pritchard: Considering Colour

7:24 AM

Drew Pritchard's Passion for Colour

Welcome to the Drew Pritchard blog. Drew Pritchard has been dealing in architectural salvage and antiques for 33 years. He also combines his many business commitments with sourcing new stock from across the UK and exhibits at major London antique fairs where his show-stopping stands continue to be a great success. Today, antique dealer and restoration expert Drew, shares his love of industrial pieces, cool signature style and his passion for colors. Read on to find out more.

Colour feels good right now and it’s come at a time when I’m decorating my new home. I’ve found myself buying faded kilims, beautiful old tapestries and colourful cushions for my living room. We’ve also accumulated about 50 Welsh blankets in a wide spectrum of colours for the business too. I’m excited by colour and I seem to have gone off anything that’s bland and stark.

Colour can bring a relaxed, comfortable and uncontrived feel to a home, depending on how you use it. People have walked into my house and said, ‘Oh, nothing matches,’ but I don’t even think about that. I put things together that work in harmony so that the look is eclectic and personal, like decorating in the country house style on a small scale. I actually think that creating this colourful look – making it seem like it’s evolved over time – can be one of the hardest to pull off. It has to feel effortless, glamorous and very English. It’s something that antique dealers like me have been doing well for decades, as we’ve had a lot of practice putting pieces together, but it is something that anyone can learn.

For me, the key to creating a successful room is colour. I always start with the wall and floor coverings; I look at colours and artwork for the walls, and rugs for the floors. I’ve chosen a pale green for my living room and an ornate rug in reds and blues. Then I build up from there, adding in other elements as I go.

Using antiques is a great way to achieve a colourful effect. Age and patina bring texture, creating a softness of layering, and show colour aged by time. I tend not to worry about wear – it can be beautiful and can be the best thing about a piece, like a pair of comfortable old shoes with character, or an old car that you particularly love.

If it’s a grand room, you need to work that bit harder to make people feel at ease. Think about adding lovely old worn surfaces and battered chairs that people aren’t afraid to sit in. Otherwise guests wonder, ‘Should I take my shoes off?’ and are afraid to put their glass down. We’re all different, but that’s not the sort of place I want to call home.

When you start to decorate a room, you may become aware that you tend to lean towards a certain colour. For me, it’s warm reds – ones that are almost pink. I have two antique mercury plate horseshoe mirrors where the red velvet has impregnated the glass, which I love. Also a pair of very worn red Moroccan leather chairs and a Thomas Jeckyll fire surround with pink tiles. These antique pieces work particularly well in these tones. The background colours they rest against – by contrast – are deliberately very muted. It’s all about balance. The main thing is not to be afraid of colour. Go for what you love in the pieces you buy. For those who want more guidance, here’s my advice.

DREW’S TIPS FOR INCORPORATING COLOUR

Use bold colours if you love them, just be careful how you do it. A splash of something brash can be great – like a crazy neon light in the corner, or a flashy piece of Pop Art on the wall – but if you put another one on the other side of the room to make a pair, you’ll lose impact and create a room that’s too contrived. The thing is to keep things relaxed!
When you’re buying painted antique furniture, try to choose stuff that has its ‘first paint’ (its original paint). Antique pieces that have been recently repainted have – in the majority of cases – been devalued in the process.
The wear that you get on leather, carpets, wall hangings, and paintings is all fine and adds to the story of those items. Don’t be afraid of wear, or of faded colours. But to steer clear of anything with visible or heavy restoration. Unrestored is always better, even if it has more damage.
I like to mix in colourful ceramics to pull together a room and create a relaxed feel. They don’t have to be expensive antiques – I picked up a great old pot for £60 last week in Wales that just looks great in my new home!

Drew Pritchard is the owner of one of the largest decorative salvage yards in the United Kingdom - Fabulously British Salvage - Drew Pritchard is always looking for new pieces to replenish his shop, and he has no problem scouring the countryside to find them. Learn more about Drew Pritchard collections on Lapada. Read more about Drew Pritchard here. Follow the official Drew Pritchard Twitter page here.

You can also watch Drew Pritchard video here:

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Biography

4:00 PM

Drew Pritchard Biography

Welcome to the Drew Pritchard antiques blog. Drew Pritchard is an antiques dealer with his own shop in Conway. He is also a presenter on Salvage Hunters, a TV show that takes you to various antique dealers around the country, in hopes of finding antiques at great prices for restoration. Each Salvage Hunters episode films Drew Pritchard visiting two or more locations to find new and valuable stock to resell. In this blog we will showcase his most exciting finds from around the country. Each one with a unique and interesting story to tell.

Drew has been dealing in architectural salvage and antiques for 29 years and is a member of LAPADA. The synopsis includes some travelling by van, the arrival at the location and meeting with seller, a hunt for interesting and quirky objects, some haggling on prices and items style explanation, the drive back to Conwy, showing the purchase to his team, the restoration process and items photography once ready, and a final summary of the deal and price achieved after the sell.

He has spent 23 years as an independent dealer working from his base in North Wales. His business is driven by passion, an innate knowledge of antiques and a fascination with mixing items from different periods which has earned him a loyal client base of private individuals as well as partnering the best in his field on global and UK based projects.

This modern-day treasure hunter travels the length and breadth of the country in search of weird and wonderful time capsules that capture his interest. He looks for authenticity and has interior designers reaching out to him for help with their projects. With his wealth of knowledge, he is the person to help when the are trying to furnish houses to the most amazing standards. He combines his many business commitments with sourcing new stock from across the UK and regularly exhibits at major London antique fairs where his show-stopping stands continue to be a great success. With a focus on the aesthetic, Pritchard effortlessly mixes styles and eras creating his on-going collection which is showcased on his website. Learn about him on the Drew Pritchard Lapada page and read more about him on this Drew Pritchard TripAdvisory page here.

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Welcome

9:07 AM

Drew Pritchard: How to Create Country House Style

Drew Pritchard Shares Cottage Style Home Ideas

Drew Pritchard: Tips for Buying Antique Gifts

Drew Pritchard Shares Tips That Will Guarantee You Find the Perfect Gift

Facts about Drew Pritchard

Drew Pritchard Biography

Drew Pritchard's Antiques Trade Story

Drew Pritchard shares how he got into the antiques trade

Antiques Fair Behind the Scenes

Drew Pritchard: Behind the Scenes at an Antiques Fair

Tips for buying antiques

Drew Pritchard's tips for buying antiques

Drew Pritchard: Why patina is king

Drew Pritchard Shares Why patina is king!

Drew Pritchard: Considering Colour

Drew Pritchard's Passion for Colour

Biography

Drew Pritchard Biography

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Welcome to the Drew Pritchard blog

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