Q & A / Manuel from AnnaLouVintage

I figured it would be a great idea to kick off the autumn season with a great little interview with Manuel that’s been in the making for quite some time now. As some of you might remember, I already featured his store before on the blog, when I fell in love with this ship model and I thought “hey, he might be willing to answer a couple of questions!” and what do you know – he was! Enjoy!

Who? The name is Manuel. I live in Italy, have a degree with honors in economics and work for a research and consultancy company in Venice.

What? I love keeping busy in my spare time and I have a lot of interests. Like going to vintage markets: “Il mercatino dell’antiquariato” in Piazzola sul Brenta for example is one of the biggest and most famous in our country. But I like also smaller and more intimate vintage markets, and there are quite a few here in the North of Italy.

  I have collected many things for me and finally in September 2011 I got an inspiration: in a second hand shop I was looking at all these beautiful dusty items. I didn’t need them but I thought that they’d look great in somebody else’s home so I decided to buy them to display them into a vintage shop. And then the “AnnaLouVintage adventure” started. I am very happy I got that inspiration! I shipped my items all over the world (Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, America) and I am always proud cause I know I can make somebody’s house look a little more special.

The name AnnaLouVintageis a tribute to Anna, my grandmother, the only one of my grandparent that I met still alive: from her and her old farm house in the country derives my passion for everything old.

Inspiration?  Home for me has always been a special place to decorate and make as comfortable as possible, adding a quirky touch when possible.

I like finding unique and eclectic treasures. In my house I create several little corners with the finds I keep for me and enjoy watching them, imaging the stories behind those objects and I getting inspiration from them. I especially love rustic items or industrial ones. My favorite materials for vintage are paper, wood and metal, the colors brown, cream and black.

But as I said, I always try to add that eclectic object to make the composition more interesting and funny. 

I absolutely adore antique books (I have a big collection at home, some dating back to the 1840) binoculars, fans, suitcases and vintage deers. Also vintage alligators, there have been quite a few in my shop!

Favorite?  This is a very hard question. Excluding those I have sold (sigh), I think my favorite item in my shop at the moment is this vintage brass alligator ashtray. As I mentioned, I love quirky items and I think this one is one of the most quirky ashtrays I have found so far!
And then I have a partiality for alligators, so…

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