Interior design
Best homeware brands: Abisola Omole shares her favourite under-the-radar stores
By Megan Murray
5 years ago
Abisola Omole shares her “top secret” under-the-radar decor brands with us to up your homeware game.
“Where did she get that?” is a common phrase we find ourselves muttering when scrolling through our most-loved interior influencers Instagram accounts. Interior design trends right now revolve around bagging something unique, whether that be vintage, handcrafted or from a new brand.
Although stores like Ikea have their place, we’re lusting after home accessories and furniture that no one else has, looking to interior stylists and influencers online to give a heads up on the cult brands to check out.
Abisola Omole interiors CV includes CEO and creative director of her own interior styling service Studio Arva and lifestyle brand Arva Stories, as well as freelance writer and Instagram influencer, whose painfully chic posts are adored by tens of thousands of followers.
As one of the most talented people in the interior design space, we asked Omole to share with us some of the secrets of her trade. Namely, where she gets those instantly covetable homeware pieces.
Read on to discover Omole’s “genuinely top secret” favourite haunts for homeware buys. Your pad is about to get a whole lot slicker.
Mirror Outlet
“The best place to get affordable HUGE mirrors, which we all want,” says Omole.
As we know, big mirrors can mean big money, which is a tad annoying as nothing looks cooler than a statement mirror leaning up against a wall.
Mirror Outlet has a huge range of mirrors for prices lower than you’ll find in mainstream shops. Have a little bit of vision, and you could find exactly what you’ve been looking for.
HUH Store
If you have a penchant for Scandi brands (as we all do), then you’ll like HUH Store.
It’s a stylishly curated selection of effortlessly chic, pared back homeware accessories from cult brands particularly in places like Denmark and Sweden.
Omole says: “Here you’ll find a pretty incredible selection of items from all of everyone’s Scandi favourites like Hay and Ferm Living.”
Vinterior
From a handpainted German hospital desk for your home office to an Italian 1950s cupboard decorated with illustrated shells, this site is full of magical one-offs.
“This is a great place to shop vintage,” says Omole. “I recently found a Cassina Maralunga sofa for £400 – when they’re usually £3k upwards. It takes some digging and it helps to know what you’re looking for but it’s a great site for interiors.”
OKA
“OKA’s pieces are so chic and I feel like they have a soft, romantic edge to them. When you feel like your house is missing something I feel like Oka will likely have that something special,” says Omole.
We have to agree. This selection of luxurious furniture and home accessories will have you lusting over sculptural shapes, on-point colours and interesting styling points.
Wayfair
Like the Amazon of the furniture world, Wayfair brings together thousands of vendors to create an interior design marketplace. It’s great because no matter what you’ve been imagining for your home, someone somewhere is probably doing it on Wayfair.
Omole says: “Literally home to everything. I want to find busts, they’ve got them. I want to recreate an expensive coffee table, they’ll have the materials or smaller tables I can combine for my vision. Also, their lamp department is very cool.”
Secondhand Hotel Furniture
We bet you didn’t see this coming. Omole’s final top tip is Secondhand Hotel Furniture, which is a website featuring posts from hotels all over the UK with either free or discounted items that they don’t need anymore.
“It’s a site filled with the coolest pieces from a range of hotels that are either redesigning or that decided to close all across England,” says Omole.
“They have some truly magical and bizarre pieces.”
Images: Abisola Omole / courtesy of websites
Sign up for the latest news and must-read features from Stylist, so you don’t miss out on the conversation.
By signing up you agree to occasionally receive offers and promotions from Stylist. Newsletters may contain online ads and content funded by carefully selected partners. Don’t worry, we’ll never share or sell your data. You can opt-out at any time. For more information read Stylist’s Privacy Policy
Thank you!
You’re now subscribed to all our newsletters. You can manage your subscriptions at any time from an email or from a MyStylist account.