My absolute favourite local shop is Quirky Dovetail.

The owners, Gill and Andy, have a shop in Balham (London SW12) and another in Clapham (SW4). They are pillars of these local communities and are always involved in promoting Balham and Clapham. The shops are crammed with gorgeous painted, vintage and antique furniture and a range of hand-picked home wares, garden items and gifts which are quirky, original, great quality and affordable.

Painted furniture has made a huge comeback recently and there is always a fantastic range of painted chests of drawers, bedside tables, wardrobes, tables, chairs and other random, unusual pieces of furniture in both shops from which to choose. The trend is for farmhouse and cottage looks so people are shunning furniture from Ikea in order to buy quality old furniture.  

My house is full of items of furniture and home wares from Quirky Dovetail.  I regularly go to the shops as they have a huge churn so there is always lots of new stock to view.

I took the photos below at the Clapham shop. Feast your eyes!!