Hooray! In August, we celebrated twelve years of Coastal Vintage.
We are delighted to reach this milestone and are grateful for all your support.
So, I think it is time I told you a little of my story and where it all started.
In 2013, having spent an adventurous ten years sailing around the world working in the super yacht industry, I was at a crossroads in my life. I came home, met my soon to-be husband, and was wondering what to do next.
Sailing the Seven Seas
After experiencing the extremes of both wealth and poverty whilst travelling the world, I decided to set up an online fair trade toy business. I often get asked about how I transitioned from the fair trade business to becoming a mum and starting Coastal Vintage?
When I established the fair trade business, I learnt a lot! The 'what worked and what didn't work' of business. The reason I decided to set up that business was, after coming from an extremely opulent world of yachts, I wanted to do something that helped those less fortunate.
I set up an online store selling educational toys for the childcare industry with products made and sourced from countries with certified fair trade organisations. I also grew the business to a team of eight people that travelled all around Australia, visiting childcare centres, and all the orders were dispatched from my Brisbane warehouse.
My family
At the age of 39 almost 40, I gave birth to my first child Emily, and when she was six months old I decided it was time to sell the business and became a full time mum and enjoy this precious time. Eighteen months later, when I was 41, Sophie arrived in the world.
We then moved from Brisbane to beautiful Noosa in 2013, and while decorating our new home, I discovered a love of coastal home decor and wanted to start a new business. A business that I could grow at a pace that tied in with my lifestyle with two little ones.
After much research I realised that there were a lot of coastal homeware stores in Australia and that I needed a point of difference. With a family history of buying and selling antiques - both my Uncle and Nanna, and my cousins Charlie and Timothy Oulton in England, I realised no one was doing Coastal Vintage. And that is when I had my lightbulb moment and Coastal Vintage was born.
My Uncle's shop in Hale, UK in the 1970s
I had $4000 saved and began by sourcing old wares coastal and nautical style.
Initially, I sourced items locally from swap meets, antique dealers, community websites, word-of-mouth and from people who came to visit the warehouse and asked if we were interested in their late grandfather's shed full of stuff or someone wanting to sell a clam shell that had been in the garden for fifty years. This naturally progressed to sourcing items from overseas including old glass fishing floats from Japan, vintage maritime wares from shipyards in India and old lobster pot buoys from Maine, USA.
Over a three month period I set up a website and started growing my social media pages. I worked on the business a few days a week.
I took all the website photos in a bedroom at home with an old SLR!
Even my little ones would help and I remember shipping these yellow oars all the way to California!
I did everything on my own that was required to run a business - photos, website, logo, shipping, buying, accounts, and I also painted oars, paddles and life rings. As the business grew, I continued to put in the hours.
Within eighteen months, people were coming to visit my shed at home. It was time to moved into a warehouse and I found one in the industrial estate and opened it two days a week while my girls were in childcare.
Inside the first warehouse
As the years went by, it progressed to three days, then five and half days a week and by year four, there were two employees - Kellie & Amanda, and I was travelling overseas to source and ship containers back to Australia.
Every dollar made during those first two years was put back into the business. I never took out a loan and I didn't take my first wage until the summer of 2015.
The week we moved into a bigger space. It didn't take long to fill that space!
Early 2019, the business had grown to a crew of seven on board. It was not only time to move into a bigger space but also re-brand. We moved a few doors down into a space two and half times bigger and also launched a new website, and began turning over three times more than I had in the old warehouse. Not only were we providing wares to home owners, but also hotels, cafes, restaurants and props for television and movie sets.
Coastal Vintage Wholesale
During covid we were still able to import containers (via whatsapp) every few months to keep up with the demand and many retailers asked if they could also stock our wares. So it was a natural progression to set up a wholesale business and as of 2022, we have be supplying our wares to retail businesses around Australia and overseas.
Unloading overseas containers outside our warehouse
SallyO & Co
In 2023, when we turned ten years old, I took the crew to Bali to celebrate this milestone. I showed them the places that I sourced from and my favourite home decor stores. While there, I had another light bulb moment - hosting sourcing adventures to Bali.
So the following year in 2024, after seven years of sourcing in Indonesia, I set up an Indonesian company to host tours, so others can experience sourcing overseas whether they're a business owner or sourcing for their own home. www.sallyo.co
Today, the love for coastal and vintage still excites me. The excitement of the find always drives me whether I'm sourcing down the back streets of Bali or at a swap meet locally.
I get excited by old pieces that bring joy to others, and meeting people in store that share their stories and their love for old things.
I'm truly blessed to be doing something I love.
Sally x
