Affordable or? What value do your homewares hold for you?
So, if you are following my socials, you will know that I recently returned to Australia after living in Jakarta, Indonesia for 5 years.
We are currently living in an Airbnb on a man-made island in Perth - sensational! Check out our view below!
Me, post swim! Using my own jetty and ladder into the water. This is the life. Shame it is only temporary.
Once our containers arrive, we will be moving into ‘old’ home - a home that we completely renovated in 2019 and have never lived in! Expect some posts about the process of moving in and decorating that in upcoming months.
However, today’s post is about Australian homewares. Even though we are bringing a crazy amount of furniture back with us (hopefully it all fits!), there is always room for a little more ;-) So, I was recently out shopping with a friend, and she suggested we visit Kmart. I know that I have written about Kmart before, and I promise I don’t hate it.
Walking through Kmart last week, I was really surprised by how much it had expanded it’s homewares range. Is it just me, or is it really making a push into what used to be Target’s area?
Some of the items I looked at were lovely. Really pretty. And very well priced as well. My girlfriend (who was visiting from overseas) couldn’t contain herself. I think that if she had not been restricted by the airline’s 30kg maximum, she might just have bought everything she could find.
I wanted to share her excitement. But I just couldn’t.
Yes, the vases, wall art, seats, tableware etc look great. Yes, they are well priced.
BUT…
They are NOT unique. Every second person has the same items in their own home. They have no story to tell. In fact, their stories are likely very sad when you think of the wages being paid to the people who produce these items.
When did homewares become a race to the cheapest option?
To be honest, this is why I first created Interiorology Homewares. In part it seemed like a perfect blend of my professional background as an economist and my passion and qualifications in interior decorating. My idea was to source unique and well priced items in Indonesia that represented a good news story - items created by female led micro businesses.
Overtime this morphed into a desire to create my own range of homewares. What I crave to do is create something that is colourful, unique and well-priced. I can do this because I have ‘done my homework’ - flying to different locations to meet with prospective partners in order to find a company that best gets me and what I am wanting to do, and can deliver at a reasonable wage (without treating workers dreadfully).
I found this in Bali, at a small start-up owned by a young Indonesian woman who had studied architecture in North America and then returned home with the idea of helping to find a way to positively impact on Bali’s environment. If you have ever been to Bali, you know that the seas are full of plastic. She has taken on a young female engineer from Europe and together they have designed a small manufactuing business in Ubud. There they produce small quantities of unique items made from locally-sourced recycled plastic. Even better, they help build similar manufacturing equipment for small villages throughout Indonesia, and then train the locals on how to use them, creating an opportunity for jobs and income in some of the most impoverished parts of Indonesia.
Why am I telling you all this? Well partly to spuik my current range of serving platters made from recycled plastic - link here :-). Also, to let you know that I have a new shipment arriving soon of placemats and drink coasters made from recycled plastic.
But really, because I want to let you know that there are other options out there. Sometimes it means spending a bit of time googling or time, but you can find items that are different, that are unique. And they don’t have to be super expensive. I try to walk the line between taking advantage of lower costs in Indonesia and making sure that those involved in making my products do good work and are paid appropriately. I am not the only one out there who cares about these things. I genuinely love creating new homewares and I genuinely believe that you can buy something unique without having to pay a fortune. You might just have to look a little further than your local shopping mall ;-)
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