New life at White Cross Farm

 Mark and Sally Bailey has given new meaning to the word recycling. Their home is an unlikely mix of old and worn with new life. To their White Cross farm in England, people flock to experience, amazed with the decoration of the places.
Photo: Morten Holtum

 The message conveyed by Mark and Sally Bailey is "re-use, Repair, Rescue and Rethink." Three and a half hour journey by car from London is their White Cross Farm, an old farm from 1764 in which they are combined dwelling and store that combines scrap with good design. Imagination and personality characteristics of both home and business, where you can buy furniture, furnishings, or just enjoy a cup of coffee in the cafe at the back of the store.

It is difficult to determine where the store ends and home begins. The large yard is filled with garden tools and other items that can withstand to stand outside. The decor is indicative of a continuous loop between the store and the private sphere.

 They find things that no longer sees any use-value of, and wondering if things can be used as is, or if they are tailored to a new purpose. By recycling things that others see as old scrap they have been able to earn a living in the past 25 years.

- We have always had a fondness for the old traditions of craftsmanship, good design and decent work done, says Sally.

Sometimes they are also lucky enough to find things to the shop which is still manufactured origin, preferably locally.

- We get, for example, zinc buckets produced in the immediate vicinity, which we prefer to get them hitfraktade from afar. Although china, we prefer the potter in the field than buying at trade fairs abroad, says Sally.

 Sally trained at Cardiff College of Art where she studied interior design. Her husband Mark is a trained carpenter. Together, they are well equipped for the challenge to see new possibilities in old discarded stuff, how to get new value and new features, and putting that into practice. Mark has pretty frequent any project on time and on their journeys around the country looking for him in the area and visit the disused factories in search of old objects no longer used. Sally is often - when she is not in the shop or in his studio. The latter is located in an outbuilding that Mark built on the workplace, and where she spends much time. That the couple likes patina and want the objects history to be seen, is clear.

- But there is no need for us that things are old, we like to mix old and new. Our kitchen stove and refrigerator are two of the more recent date. None of us are not particularly interested in old electrical equipment, so these are also updated.

It may be mentioned that all the light switches in the house have been replaced with new ones in an old-fashioned design, in order to preserve the old familiar click sound when the lights on and off.