Unique home interior finds
If you’re renovating a room or just simply giving it an updated look, it can be hard to find final touches that give the room a unique look. It feels like shopping online and on the high street, most places sell slightly different versions of the same thing, and sometimes you just don’t want to be ‘on trend’, instead you want your home décor to be unique. But where do you start to achieve this?
One of our favourite places to find new and interesting items is Etsy. The online marketplace has opened up the microbusiness market and it’s the perfect place to find something unique. In fact, recent research suggests that shoppers flock to Etsy for unique and personalised items. A study by Seareach found that 58% of people who shop on Etsy do so because they want unique or personalised items and it’s the perfect place to find things like that.
Why Etsy
Some of the reasons why people choose Etsy:
- I wanted a unique or personalised item – 58%
- Their selection of independent sellers – 40%
- Selection of items for sale – 33%
- Prefer to shop from independent sellers rather than chain stores – 10%
- Niche items available – 2%
With 1.9 million shops on Etsy, it’s the perfect place to discover one-of-a-kind items for your home. It is jam packed with micro businesses and kitchen table sellers, using their skills to create beautiful and unique items, sometimes one of a kind.
The search function can be tailored to what you’re looking for; it is a global market place so you will see products from around the world, and a lot of shops do international deliveries, but be prepared to pay, especially for large items. However you can just search the UK and still find lots of unique items. Not everything is delivered though – a lot of shops now offer digital downloads for artwork and prints, which means instead of waiting for your picture to be delivered, you can simply have it printed and it’s ready to put up, which can be a cheaper option.
We really like the favourite function, whether it’s products or shops. Etsy then tailors suggestions for you based on these, so if you’re looking for specific styles, Etsy can help you discover new products and shops you may have missed.
Tip: Do make sure to have an idea of what you’re looking for. There is so much on the site, searching simple terms such as “side table” can bring back thousands of results. We like to create mood boards (hello Pinterest!) so we have an idea of the style, design, materials or colours we are looking for.
Etsy has really flourished in recent years. After all the bad press Amazon gets, more people are looking for shops which not only offer something different but are part of an important community, not big corporations, and generally feel like they are offering a positive change to our commercialised environment.
