I wanted everything in the store. Literally. I’m sure there are other places where I might have liked most things in the store, but there is no other place where if someone asked to buy me a gift, for example, I could say in faith, “Go and buy me anything from this store and I will be happy with it.” Anything. Everything. It was all beautiful. And the best thing is, it was all useful.
This store reminded me of one my favorite gift boutiques back in Seattle. It has a similar feeling, a thoughtful curation of many beautiful objects, but many them are only to be admired and for decoration, things we don’t really touch. Occasionally, I’ll buy a handmade card, beeswax candle, or the special toothpaste.
There are few things that can be enjoyed as much as a well made object, especially when it is something one uses frequently. I’ve enforced this standard where I can, like doing the dishes. We tend to live in buildings without dishwashers, so it’s worth it to buy a brush with a wooden handle, and some quality dish soap I enjoy the smell of.
I can’t tell you how much time over the years my husband and I have spent seeking out things like the perfect shaving kit, a broom made out of natural materials, or little wooden baby toys. This year, we finally acquired a cast-iron enamel covered dutch oven, something my husband has wanted for years, for just £12 at a thrift store.
We happened upon this store on a day trip to Oxford, and it was full of things like this, appropriately named “Objects of Use.” The corners and walls were filled with things to make more pleasant the jobs of cleaning, cooking, dining, gardening…a tiny room in the back was solely dedicated to that last one, full of rakes and spades and garden boots.
Some things that particularly sparked my interest were vintage-looking umbrellas (things I had hunted all over Seattle for years ago to give as bridesmaid’s gifts), the wooden toys ranging from baby rattles, puzzles, cute boxes of crayons. They also had our favorite toothpaste, an Italian brand called Marvis, and other personal care products such as after shave and hand made soap.
Object’s of Use mission states quite beautifully, “ We believe that having the right tool for the job vastly improves the experience of completing our daily tasks. We are ‘against throwawayism’, aiming to minimise the environmental impact of our products by offering objects that are built to last (and improve with age), using low-impact production methods and natural materials. We aim to source our products as locally as possible, with the majority of our products being manufactured in the UK or Europe.”
How nice it would be to move to Oxford and be able to buy all my household tools in one place! But for now, we walked away with one little thing that we had been thinking about for a while. A wooden hairbrush for our daughter, specially made with soft bristles for her baby fine hair. The store clerk told me it was made in Germany, which is funny because my own hairbrush was acquired in Germany a few years ago, also wooden, and something I have enjoyed holding since.
