Shabby antiques get extreme makeover

Chris Payne may be more of a magician than an interior designer, which is what he was technically trained to be at Middesex University in UK in the early 1990s.

That’s because the Mombasa-born Briton has a flare and fondness for finding dilapidated home furnishings and transforming them into pieces that are not just fully refurbished.

He also adds a subtle ‘African touch’ (usually with West African fabrics) to make them look unique and virtually brand new.

That’s what he’s doing now at The White Elephant Trading Company, an online vintage furniture firm that he opened a little more than a year ago in partnership with Jacquie Munene who’s the firm’s managing director and Chris the creative director.

Scarcity of antiques

But long before he got the idea to start up a company that allows him to go on shopping sprees around the UK no less than three times a year, buying shabby vintage and antique furniture at art fairs and antique auctions, Chris was actually a successful interior designer and decorator, first in London and then, upon his return to Kenya in the 1990s.

Initially, he partnered with Arvind Vohara to set up several companies, one which somehow morphed from a focus on design into advertising and which they left once it merged with another advertising agency.

After that, a seed idea got planted in his head that would eventually grow into The White Elephant. It grew out of the trip that Chris and Arvind took to India where they spend three weeks doing nothing, but shopping.

“We went overboard and needed three shipping containers to carry all we’d bought back to Kenya,” recalled Chris with a gleam of that fond memory in his eye.

And so was born The Home Store, (a company comparable to the American firm, ‘Bath, Bed and Beyond’) which they based at the Nairobi Business Park in a 4,000 square foot warehouse at Nairobi Race Course.

“We stayed there for two years but once they doubled the rent, we had to move out,” said Chris. But before their big move, they started interviewing to find a store manager. That was in 2005 and that’s when Jacquie Munene came in and got the job in less than half a day.

A graduate with a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Hull University in the UK, Jacquie had also studied art history before returning to Kenya in 2002. She’d just left working at The GoDown Art Centre and arrived right when Chris was starting up another interior design firm called Idea.

Idea quickly became Interior Idea which he co-founded with another interior designer, Emma Campbell and which Jacquie also managed.

‘‘Interior Idea catered to high-end tourist hotels and lodges, and we ran it for nearly nine good years,” said Chris who’d already begun working his magic, giving new life to old shabby sofas, chairs and European chaise lounges.

But due to the scarcity of antiques in Kenya, he’d started to shop at UK art fairs and antique auctions, bringing his bargains back home where he established local networks of skilled artisans who helped him work his alchemy.

Transforming what their former owners considered trash into attractive home furnishings, Chris quickly found an enthusiastic market which is what led him to start up The White Elephant Trading Company, partnering with Jacquie who helped him phase out Interior Idea.

Upcoming trip

Currently working out of a sturdy old colonial house in the leafy Nairobi suburb named after the acclaimed Danish writer Karen Blixen (aka Dame Isaak Dinessen), Chris and Jacquie now use every structure on the five-acres of ground either for storing and showcasing their refurbished vintage and antique furniture or for their offices out of which operate their online Trading Company, where nearly every piece (which Chris describes as ‘lovingly restore’) is on the site for viewers to see.

Early last month, The White Elephant had its first furniture exhibition at Circle Art Gallery which worked out well for both the company and the gallery.

“We tried to time the show so that our latest container would be in transit,” said Jacquie whose work intensifies every time a new shipment of Chris’s shopping sprees arrives at the Mombasa port.

Meanwhile, Chris is getting set to head back to the UK early next year where he’ll once again scour the countryside, shopping in art fairs spanning from Yorkshire to Somerset and Sussex as well as to antique auctions all the way from Norfolk and Suffolk to Wales.

Talking to Chris about his upcoming trip, one can again see the sparkle in his eye as he admits he loves the shopping side of The White Elephant.

“It’s true, we have a passion for furniture,” he says.