Period features were conspicuously absent from Becky Nolan and Barny Read’s flat-hunting wishlist. The couple, who run the Peanut Vendor, a 20th-century design store in east London, were living in a Victorian flat but decided a more modern space would better showcase their collections of abstract art and esoteric furniture.
“We were ready for a change from bay windows and wonky walls; we wanted to try an art gallery-style white box,” Read says. They found a two-bedroom flat built in the 1990s to rent and were hooked by its two small terraces, front and back. The flat itself was uninspiring. “It was nondescript and a bit tired, with lots of magnolia,” Nolan recalls. But a quick peep under the beige carpets revealed a concrete screed floor: “We thought that had potential,” Read says.
With their landlady’s approval, they painted the walls brilliant white, resin-coated the concrete floor and removed and stored the existing fittings, “so we can reinstate them when we leave”. They swapped faux Victorian metal door handles for vintage Bakelite ones, fussy curtains for crisp white linen, and replaced pendant lights with mid-century glass designs. These “sit flush against the ceiling to maximise the sense of height and give continuity to each room,” Read says.
The couple’s landlady had been planning to replace the kitchen and bathroom floors, so the couple were able to steer her towards terracotta quarry tiles, which match the tiles on the canal-side terrace. But there have been compromises. “There were limits to what we could do,” Nolan says. “We just have to live with kitchen and bathroom fittinngs that wouldn’t be our choice.”
When they moved in, the plan was to create an uncluttered look. “We had big ideas about being minimalist, having a lot of empty white space,” Nolan recalls with a laugh. “But we are natural collectors: we love art and are always finding new pieces.”
Much of it is surprisingly large for a small flat, such as a big abstract painting that sits alongside a low-slung 1970s sofa by Vico Magistretti, or an amorphic ceramic sculpture in the small hallway.
“Whether it’s sculpture or a painting, we like to have some huge things that mess with the sense of scale,” Nolan says. “It actually makes the room feel bigger.”
With its white walls and focus on art and sculpture, the flat does have a contemplative, gallery-like atmosphere, but tactile rugs and warm woods prevent it from feeling sterile.
The couple’s choice of pieces to sell at the Peanut Vendor is just as carefully thought out. “When we’re looking for stock, we ask ourselves if we would have this in our home,” Read says. In a crowded market of mid-century design dealers, the couple are constantly striving to find unexpected and challenging pieces, from a post-modern Italian armchair with a red leather sunburst motif to chunky wooden chairs. “These one-off pieces always seem to sell quickly,” Nolan says.
They source many of their pieces at trade-only fairs in France, where dealers gather from across Europe. “We go to flea markets too, if there’s time. We used to go for a lot of Scandinavian design; now we’re into Italian modern and post-modern pieces.” Their thoughtful edit has attracted an appreciative following among influential interior designers such as Kelly Wearstler and Faye Toogood, who snap up vintage pieces to bring depth to their projects.
The Peanut Vendor name comes from an old Cuban jazz song. “We just liked it and didn’t want anything that tied us down to a particular genre or era,” says Read. Starting the business, in 2008, was a leap of faith for the couple, who were then just a year into their relationship. “We began with a small shop and spent time looking at what other dealers were doing,” Read says. “We saw that many just had a basic holding page website. I think our big strength was to have a proper online shop from the start.”
In the early days, they had to bolster their finances by working in pubs. “It took us about four years to really learn the business side,” Nolan says. In 2015 they upgraded to a large showroom. It’s open by appointment, which frees them up for buying trips in France and Italy. “We’ve had no problem selling over the past two years, but it’s been harder to buy stock and, with Brexit, it’s also more of a challenge,” Read says. “Now we need to arrange shipping, permits and paperwork, which many of our dealers just aren’t set up for. It’s will make everything more complicated, and expensive.”
On a more positive note, Nolan has used the lockdowns to become an accomplished ceramicist. “A friend bought me a course at Turning Earth studio a few years ago. I loved it, but I didn’t get a chance to touch clay again until the first lockdown. It’s very soothing.”
She began at the dining table, taking her pieces to a local potter for firing, but quickly outgrew this way of working, so the couple transformed their guest bedroom into a small studio, complete with an old portable kiln that they wheel outside to use. Inspired by traditional pots from ancient Greece and Africa, as well as the work of artist Cy Twombly and potter Magdalene Odundo, Nolan documents her efforts on Instagram and has started to sell pieces online. Within 12 months her pots had appeared in Elle Decoration.
The ceramics sit happily within the mix in the flat: “I love creating new vignettes of pieces: it keeps things fresh and inspiring. I could go for a Victorian flat again, but for now we really like the contemporary feel. It suits the art and furniture we love, and we’re just enjoying this pleasing white cube of a space.”
