Paint It Black - Introducing The Kinky Shed

Izzy, our postman, looked on aghast when he handed over our mail on Saturday morning and caught us slapping paint on the Kinky shed. You're painting it black! He exclaimed in horror. Trust us, I replied, It's going to look great when we're finished.

And it does (or least least we think so). A vast improvement on what looked like a dodgy 1970s sauna.

Black matches the house (and the cats!) and, as we live in a conservation area, shouldn't piss the neighbours off too much.

Jon came up with an use for the pallets some skanky fly tipper dumped over our fence last year (don't get me started on the filthy bastards) by up-cycling one of them into window boxes. A couple of coats of masonry paint, some brackets from Poundland and a few pots filled with Forget-Me-Nots rescued from between the cracks in the pavers and for £2* the shed's gone from being a basic outbuilding to a home worthy of housing the Kinky stock.

*We also spent £40 on 10 litres on masonry paint, using just over a third of it on the Kinky shed.

So what's inside?

Vintage galore. 

Seven rails crammed with menswear and womenswear, hats, bags, footwear, suitcases & vanity cases stuffed with scarves, ties, cowboy boots and costume jewellery.

We keep four sets of rails in the van so when we trade at fairs it's a simple matter of selecting the stock, bagging it up and hanging it on the rails when we get there. When we return home we hang the remaining stock back on the rails, examine each piece for damage incurred from being tried on (bust zips, make-up stains) and for missing price labels and size cubes. 

Is this all our stock? Not quite! There's still a rail of menswear over the road at the old family home, a six foot rail of coats in our dining room, an ottoman stuffed with vintage lingerie, a growing mending pile in the spare bedroom and 8 sacks of festival gear in the cupboard of doom under the stairs in the hall. Minimalists take note, vintage trading ain't the career for you, your stock will take over everything.

Black really shows off the greenery in a garden. I love how verdant the bamboo looks against the shed.

Of course our freshly painted shed doesn't half show off how scruffy the rest of the garden is. I ended up spending the entire holiday weekend pruning, weeding, shifting slabs, planting, re-potting and re-organising. I had no problem with 18 hours of manual labour but three whole days imprisoned in practical clothing, that's not good for the soul. This morning we needed to pop to the market to stock up on fruit and veg and I was beyond excited. Finally I could to discard the crazy 1980s leggings, vintage bobble hat and Jon's old jumper and wear something decent.

WEARING: Vintage Alexander Clare Crimplene psychedelic halterneck maxi (eBay, last seen HERE) with mustard lace-up body (Modern, retail sale buy), Leopard print ankle boots (Taken in part exchange for a Kinky Melon festival purchase)

Our bespoke shed was designed, built and installed by GE Collis, a business owned & run by the same local family since 1957. They're ace. (And no, we didn't get paid or asked to advertise. Great service deserves to be shared.)

See you soon.