Rockett St George: public winner of the Independent Home Shop Awards

We have a very exciting announcement to make today… the mydeco.com Independent Home Shops Awards 2012 has now closed, the votes have been counted and verified and we have a worthy winner of the public vote, Rockett St George.

Known for specialising in British-based design and their adventurous curation of products (vintage or reclaimed pieces mix with unusual modern items), Jane Rockett and Lucy St George just pipped the equally wonderful BODIE and FOU to the post and winning the public vote that sees them crowned in a vintage crown, naturally, as the Best Independent Home Shop in Europe. We caught up with Lucy on how they do what they do and why people love it so much…

"we shoot products in Jane's living room"

Lucy St George tells us how they found out about their nomination through an email from one of their customers – ‘we promoted our entry via our social media and our audience really got behind us.’ This seems to have proven valuable as their followers are big fans so spread the word online – doing the promotional work for them!

There are a lot of great independent shops in Europe, so we wanted to know what they felt made them stand out from the crowd. Lucy feels that both she and Jane are great at sourcing unique products – ‘we always strive to have a really unique range of products, which you won’t find anywhere else’ Lucy explains, ‘the biggest difference between high-street shops and independents is the length of the supply chain. When a high-street store decides to stock a new trend it takes an extremely long time to reach the shelves that people have already moved on to the next big thing. If we find something we love, we can feature it straight away.’

"brimming with gorgeous one-offs"

When asked about where they get their inspiration from, Jane told us that they travel all over the world to source products. ‘we take a lot of inspiration from the beautiful interiors you find in restaurants and hotels. One of our favourite places to visit is New York. We keep a close eye on the high street too!’

‘We find suppliers all over the world during our travels and visit a lot of antique fairs, vintage stores and trade shows – but we try to keep a balance and not rely too heavily on them. Once we find a supplier we love, we tend to be quite faithful to them and keep sourcing through them.’

"if we find something we love, we feature it straight away"

Their homes are the subject of desire for their customers and followers, they even shoot their products in Jane’s living room so it’s fair to say that they have a lot of their own items in their homes. Lucy tells us ‘we get a lot of questions about which exact colour grey Jane’s paint is!’

But despite stocking a wide range of products from furniture, lighting and art, both Lucy and Jane naturally need to look outside their four walls for products in their homes. ‘Other than our own shop, we find things we love at antique fairs and vintage stores. IKEA is great for basics such as photo frames and we enjoy shopping at department stores also – Liberty and Selfridges are particular favourites.’

"we promoted our entry via social media"

Both Lucy and Jane are often asked for styling tips, including paint colours, but they always have one clear tip when it comes to decorating and furnishing a home. ‘Be brave!’ Lucy exclaims, ‘We’re finally moving away from large, blank all-white rooms back to bright splashes of colour. I love displaying all of my knick-knacks on shelves – it makes a really interesting focal point for a room.’

So, if you were feeling the need to inject some personality in to your home, then maybe a few choice pieces from Rockett St George or some of the other great independent shops is a good starting point, but don’t be afraid to really go for it. If you love it… do it!

Rockett St George are now available to buy through mydeco.com, so fill your boots or basket with some fantastically unique pieces.