Homewares at The Mailbox, Birmingham

by Dave Massey twitter.com/brumhour

I’m sat in Mailbox in the Urban Room having a cuppa from Tom’s Kitchen cafe style area, its full of comfy chairs and big national and international brands around me. Underneath, in the past couple of weeks a brand new area has opened on the lower shopping level.

It’s called Homewares, and rather than being self contained stores its a open series of spaces which seem to blend into each other, without realising I walk straight to the end of the level 1, to Made.com‘s entrance, it doesn’t have a glass shop front and this is my main reason for walking right towards it.

I’m here for a walk round and to have a nose at whats here. I head round to Heal’s which have a Brunel Apartment range of flexible furniture aimed at those who have been in their first place for a few months and need flexible spaces, there’s coffee tables that become benches and side tables that become dining stools. Black metal legs and wood surfaces are the order of the day here.

Lighting is a key part of Heal’s offering and there’s much to distract. I’m still not sure what sort of lighting I’d like for my place in the future, currently it has very basic lights.

It’s at this point that I realise I have on idea what I want or what my own style is at all.

I move on to BoConcept which has opened their first West Midlands branch here. Their values are based on practical lifestyle furniture and this shows. A kind BoConcept representative shows me how the coffee tables can transform into storage spaces and higher desk areas. They can even come and interior design your space for you!

The next section I visit is Wesley Barrell which is mainly sofas. Lots of sofas, from classic style ones to modern. I start to imagine the types of living rooms, lounges and sitting rooms you might find them in.

I switch around heading back towards Made.com and pause at Calligaris, an Italian furniture store within Homewares. I keep testing sofas and chairs to see what is comfortable and easy to relax on. And I’m also on the look for a high table with high chairs.

Back to Made.com and each sofa is presented as part of a lifestyle. There’s magazines on the table and scatter cushions on the sofas.

I’m going to be back here again when I finally get a living room sorted at home and I’ve planned my finances, obviously.

Check out Homewares at the Mailbox from 10am-7pm Monday to Saturday and 11am-5pm Sundays.

This isn’t a sponsored post but I am open to receiving payments in furniture.

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