Welcome to our first ever blog and welcome to our new website - your digital window into our brand new venture.
You will find us at 63 High West Street, Dorchester once we officially open the doors on 12 February 2020. It’s been a long term dream of mine to open an interiors shop. I am not going to claim that we are offering something new...in fact, what we are offering is for the most part very old.
What we are doing is not groundbreaking and we don’t necessarily think we are better than anyone else. Rather we are taking what we love; showcasing it, sharing it and introducing it to new homes. Welcome, to Martin Green Interiors.
So what do we offer?
Well, most of all I guess, what we offer are what we believe to be beautiful, well designed and well made pieces for your home. If we love something we believe others will too.
We will stock some exceptional and unique pieces. There won’t be another one the same, waiting in the back room, to be brought out as soon as yours leaves the shop. We don’t buy wholesale: we buy individually - sourcing quality furniture and other items for your home or business.
Much of what we offer will be, by definition, antique. Some will be more contemporary or modern. Some won’t fit into any such categories. All will speak to us of quality, good design, craftsmanship and desirability.
We hope you find joy in what we find and present, whether you end up owning it or not.
In talking to people about what we are doing a number of people have said ‘you’re opening on the high street? Why?’.
Three words: look, feel, understand.
Most of us spend the majority of our time, work aside, in our homes. Therefore we understandably want to make these spaces comfortable, desirable, practical and pleasing to the eye.
Now - bear with me on this; it’s a widely held view (thanks to neuroimaging) that a particular part of the brain - the anterior insula - is responsible for the appraisal of objects from an aesthetic perspective. We tend (according to Brown & Gao, Scientific American 2011) to cognitively distinguish objects by way of artistic beauty, desirability, appeal and appreciation. One can certainly relate this to art forms or works, to culinary pleasures or to finding others attractive - but surely it very definitely applies to items we furnish our homes and spaces with?
That’s my drive I guess. Beauty, in all its senses, can never be gauged from a one, or even three dimensional image. It’s surely about seeing something in front of you, touching it, smelling it and placing it with your mind. Then there’s its history. You have to appreciate an item in its totality right?
We hope you come and see us. Let us share our vision, our enthusiasm and our passion with you. Oh, and we make great coffee too…..
I love your vision and the pieces that I have seen so far certainly appeal to that part of my brain ! Good luck with your new venture. Exactly what Dorchester needs !