About & VNTG
I'm Sallie-ann Salter. I source and restore original mid-century and vintage furniture from a workshop in Devon - pieces that were built properly the first time, brought back into everyday use.
When I find a piece that's been loved for decades and still has that solid, well-made feel - that's when I know I've found something worth saving. Sallie-ann Salter, Founder
When I find a piece that's been loved for decades and still has that solid, well-made feel - that's when I know I've found something worth saving.
The story
In 1999 I bought my first flat in Brighton, a short walk from the big Habitat. I’d spend hours wandering round it, completely taken with the whole idea of the place – design-led, properly made, nothing throwaway. I couldn’t afford much as a student, but I’d get the thick catalogues the moment they landed and sit for hours planning exactly what I’d spend my loan on. The Robin Day Forum sofa was well out of my budget – but just about everything else was Habitat: the pots and pans, the cutlery and glasses, the lamps, the curtains, right down to the tea towels. I still have a soft spot for early Habitat, and a few of the things I bought back then are in my home to this day.
The itch went back further still. In 1993 my parents gave me some Victorian pine for my birthday – I stripped it back, restored it, and replaced the handles, and that was the first time I understood that a tired old piece could be brought back to life with a bit of patience. It stuck.
By 2012, my husband and I had bought an old cottage in Devon that needed completely renovating on a tight budget. Rather than fill it with flat-pack that would fall apart in five years, we went hunting for vintage pieces at car boot sales and auctions – and what struck me wasn’t just that they were cheaper. They were genuinely better made: solid wood instead of chipboard, dovetail joints instead of screws, finishes that had aged well over decades. I started buying pieces that needed work and teaching myself restoration properly, through trial and error.
Alongside all this I took a Computer Science degree and spent over 20 years as a web developer – work that drilled in attention to detail and methodical problem-solving, which turns out to be unexpectedly useful when you’re working out exactly what a damaged sideboard needs. I started & VNTG in 2021, and since then I’ve restored over 300 pieces, from Ercol chairs needing new webbing to Danish teak sideboards with damaged veneer.
Sourcing
My days are spent tracking down authentic mid-century and vintage furniture across the Southwest — mainly Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. Over four years I’ve built a regular circuit:
I’ve a particular soft spot for Danish design and the clean lines of the Scandinavian makers – but I’m drawn to anything with solid construction, whether it carries a name everyone knows (G-Plan, Ercol, Nathan) or comes from an anonymous British maker who simply understood good joinery.
In the workshop
It's where I assess, restore, and prepare each item for its new home. Nothing is over-restored - the aim is a well-kept 60-year-old piece, not a brand-new reproduction.
I photograph each piece from every angle and make notes. What’s the wood – teak, oak, elm? What’s the original finish. They all behave differently. How’s it built: dovetails, dowels, mortise and tenon? If there are stamps or labels I research the maker and try to date it, then decide what it genuinely needs rather than over-restoring it.
Most pieces arrive with decades of grime and old wax buildup. I start gently — it’s often remarkable how good something looks after just removing years of dirt. Where more is needed, I use careful stripping methods that won’t damage veneer or original finishes.
Loose joints are re-glued with traditional wood glue — never screws, unless they were original. Damaged veneer is repaired with period-appropriate wood, worn drawer runners replaced so drawers actually slide, locks serviced and hinges tightened. I learned veneer repair through practice (and ruining a few early pieces) — the trick is patience and the right adhesive.
With veneer you can’t afford to go through to the substrate, so I work through progressively finer grits. For finishing I mostly use:
– Danish oil for teak and rosewood — it penetrates the wood, lifts the grain, and gives that warm mid-century glow. – Osmo oil where more protection is needed, like tabletops in daily use. – Traditional wax for oak and darker woods, to preserve the original patina.
For dining chairs and seating, worn webbing is replaced, sagging springs retied, and crumbled foam swapped for proper-density foam. I learned by taking dozens of chairs apart to see how they were built. Anything that needs full professional upholstery goes to a local specialist in mid-century work.
Authentication
Over 13 years of buying vintage furniture I've developed an eye for telling authentic mid-century pieces from later reproductions. Here's what I look at:
Genuine pieces use dovetailed drawers and mortise-and-tenon frames. Reproductions lean on modern adhesives and dowels standing in for real joinery.
Real teak, rosewood, and afromosia have distinctive grain and weight. Watch for teak veneer over cheaper wood, or stained beech pretending to be teak.
Original handles and hinges carry a patina and wear in the places you'd expect. Brand-new brass on supposedly vintage furniture raises questions.
Stamps and labels help when they're there, but plenty of quality furniture never carried them, or has lost them over the decades.
The hardest to put into words. After hundreds of pieces you read the giveaways - the way a leg tapers, the thickness of a drawer front. Originals just look right.
Real patina, oxidation, and honest wear can't be faked convincingly. Distressing on a reproduction never matches 60 years in someone's dining room.
If I have doubts about a piece, I don't buy it.
Why it matters
There’s real satisfaction in keeping well-made furniture in circulation – pieces that would have been skipped or burned just for needing some work, now in homes across the UK and probably good for another 60 years.
The people who find us value the difference between something genuinely well-made and something that just looks the part. The feedback I like most is the photo a customer sends six months on, the piece looking like it’s always belonged there.
Always happy to talk through a specific piece, tell you whether something's genuinely mid-century, or take on a custom sourcing request.
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