Shelley’s

Whilst Lombak and Ananda offer a world of inspiration for wood lovers, Shelley’s is a more humble, neighbourhood store. There’s a wide selection of wicker and oak home décor but rather than looking styled and carefully assembled, the products tend to look mismatched and thrown together.
As the window displays demonstrate, Shelley’s stock a random selection of goods from console tables, baskets and newspaper racks to mirrors, canvases and sculptures. There’s also quite a lot of tasteless ornaments and painted models of ships, cars and animals. I’m sure the shop appeals to some people. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them!

Shelley’s is a peculiar little place, somewhere in between furniture store and knick-​knack/​curio shop. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the content: a typical neighbourhood store, which is a bit of an oddity in the often more metropolitan Brighton. The prices are fair, even if the assortment is a little scattered… I wouldn’t know what to direct you here for, but it is a nice place for browsing.
The collection of items here really is peculiar: there’s furniture, ranging from the antique to the modern, various wicker items and cushions and so on, and a collection of trinkets such as sculptures, painted models, jewelry and the like. There’s nothing truly exciting here: just a collection of assorted knick-​knacks. I couldn’t find anything that appealed to me: in all honesty, I found it all toi be a load of tat, but if that’s your sort of thing…
What makes this peculiar set-​up work is the charm of Shelley’s. It is clearly run with heart, and even if the collection is a bit haphazard, you might be able to find something here that appeals. It isn’t anything particularly special, neither is much of the stock, but the pleasantness of the atmosphere and general peculiarity of the set-​up is a nice addition to the Brighton shop scene. Have a meander, see if it’s your sort of thing!

I had a difficult time choosing a category for Shelley’s. The shop offers a real pastiche of goods that don’t seem to fit with any particular theme. There’s some home décor: cushions, mostly, and various things made out of wicker (laundry hampers and baskets of all sizes.) Also, a random assortment of bedroom knick knacks — little mirrors and jewellery boxes, handkerchiefs and feathery broaches.
A few pieces of artwork were for sale — paintings framed and on canvas — and a lovely folding doorway for around £1400 (Nothing else was close to being that expensive.) Then, there were all the model forms of transportation: boats, motorcycles, cars and vans — particularly VW.
So, if this is Shelley’s shop, I can only gather that the theme is Things Shelley Likes.