Just spent a delightful half day doing gorgeous things browsing and a bit of coffee sipping & lovely lunching at the Design Centre in Chelsea. It was a mission of sorts as a friend had spied some wallpaper she really wanted & a web search had shown it was American but available in Chelsea. Web search had also shown it was US$41 a yard - about UK£30 a metre (give or take). Fine & dandy thought friend. If with shipping & VAT etc the price was around £50 a metre (a v generous mark up indeed) she'd go for it. So off we went - amazingly easy to get there by public transport (despite cancelled train on the way out) and we soon found ourselves in taste heaven. Gorgeous. Sumptuous. Restrained. Delicious. Amazing. I wanted everything & my excitement at my utilitatrian utility faded. I discovered an unnatural desire for copper baths & marble floors & naked men floor lamps & walnut hall tables and for all the cracks in the FauxSurreyDesRes to disappear .... and when I looked at the prices I realised I would have to pretty much sell the des res to afford any of it!
Anyhow, after coffee we wandered into the wallpaper shop - sorry fabric & wallcoverings shop - and cooed over book after book of amazing wallpapers - made out of cork, jute, mica (yes tiny bits of glass on wallpaper) and found friends' hearts desire. After mistaking me for an interior designer (HOW flattered was I??) the lovely assistant ordered some samples for us & then worked out the price. £85 (inc VAT) a meter. Minimum of 25 metres to be ordered. WHAT? How? How can they virtually triple the price?? And then insist you buy a heap of it? That's simply insane.
Picking my jaw off the floor for me, friend ushered me out of the shop as I was spluttering about the disparity. Luckily for friend she has family coming over from the US soon - they can pay the sane price & bring the wallper in their suitcases ..... as a gift of course..!
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