Recently, we were featured in the Winter Edition of the In Noosa Magazine. Here is the article.
After a decade sailing the seven seas on superyachts, Sally Oulton founded Coastal Vintage to celebrate the seaside lifestyle.
Georgia Beard from In Noosa Magazine reveals the stories behind her vast collection of historic nautical decor.
Roaming through rows of nautical relics in the Coastal Vintage warehouse feels like descending below the decks of a shipwreck.
Ocean-worn life rings dangle overhead; glass fishing floats pile up on tables; copper diving helmets, brass lanterns and ship’s bells line the shelves.
These artefacts are waterlogged with memories. Glowing sea green, French demijohn vessels once stored wine or vinegar in Borneo during World War II.
Indonesian canoe paddles now stand serrated and smoothed over after years cutting through river rapids.
When Coastal Vintage Captain Sally Oulton receives treasures for her collection, she’ll do her best to find out the story in the chipped paint or wood grain.
Her own life has left a trail of adventurous tales across the seven seas – the ever-flowing source of her passion for coastal treasure hunting.
After a few years floating between careers in Australia and the UK, Sally moved to Bath to study cookery and became a private chef serving seventeen German sailors at the Admiral’s Cup on the Isle of Wight in England.
“During the phone interview, I persuaded the captain that I could handle the job,” she said.
“Several weeks later, another chef and I were cooking a full breakfast, packed lunch and three course dinner every night for two weeks in a grand house on The Esplanade just outside Cowes.
“From the house I watched sail boats tack and jib all day long and discovered an opulent world of racing yachts and wealthy, successful people, where the crew who raced these yachts actually got paid.
I couldn’t believe it and decided I wanted to be a part of that!”
Immersing herself in the maritime industry as a chef and sailor, she moved from luxury yachts in Turkey and the Caribbean;
to an underwater archaeological dig on a shipwreck in the Mediterranean; to race yachts navigating from Southern France to Norway.
She outsailed pirates on the Red Sea, battled ocean swells in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans, trekked across Patagonia in South America
and spent six months in a mountainous village in Italy, learning cookery from the locals and writing her memoir.
After a decade, Sally returned to Australia and started a life of boating and retail business with her husband.
Soon she was restless and ready to reflect on her past with coastal home décor.
“While holidaying in Noosa, I had my light bulb moment,” she said.
“With a family history of buying and selling antiques, I realised no one was doing vintage coastal homewares! And so Coastal Vintage was born.”
Ten years later, Sally has amassed an eight-woman crew, operating Coastal Vintage alongside her wholesale store, Coast Imports, from two warehouses in Noosa.
Sally sources vintage wares from suppliers in Indonesia, India, Japan, Turkey, France and the US; seeks out local collections or even finds pieces washed up on beaches.
Coastal Vintage once sold a porthole taken from the Cherry Venture, the cargo ship that ran aground on Teewah Beach in 1973.
“We have one-off items like a fantastic set of surf boat oars four-and-a-half metres long, or a giant clamshell that used to be in a family for seventy years.”
“I remember finding a framed photo of this family having a picnic lunch on the beach in the 1910s or 20s and put it up on Facebook.
“Somebody messaged me straight away and said, ‘That’s my family. Can I come in and buy the photo?’ and I said, ‘You can have it!’”
Some historical pieces have even graced the film sets of Elvis and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Coastal Vintage also captures the essence of maritime memories with an original range of homewares.
From metal anchors to plastic floats to wooden oars and paddles, all pieces are handmade from recycled materials by Sally’s own staff as well as suppliers in Indonesia.
Coastal Vintage also offers interior styling, drawing on coastal styles such as Hamptons, Luxe Fishing Shack, Beach House Style and Nautical.
“We love helping clients in store by pairing sentimental items with décor they’ve chosen from Coastal Vintage,” Sally said.
“Old pieces with new pieces bring a little bit of character and warmth into the place.
“I love styling a home with beautiful things I picked up on my travels or remind me of something that happened in my life previously.”
When someone takes home a treasure from Coastal Vintage, they remember the stories immersed in our region and in coastal communities across the world – and they begin to write their own.
