We love supporting small businesses in the interiors and homewares industry and last year, one couple (in love and business) stood out. They were Crystal Bailey and Mitchel Lindsay from Design Twins and we are a bit smug with ourselves for having been the first blog to feature their gorgeous concrete wares!
The business was in fact, only launched six months ago in June. “The adventure has become a dream come true,” Crystal says. “We spent the start of the year working on original designs that no one had ever seen before and decided to make them all out of an industrial obsession with concrete! It turned out to be so much fun that we would start selling them at the markets. We started to gain a fair amount of interest on social media when we started participating in Interiors Addict’s 7 Vignettes challenge (thank you for being the reason I woke up so early, half asleep in my PJs to take a styled shot!), so setting up a website seemed like a natural thing to do. Once our website was live, our orders were so huge, that we had to move out of our tiny little apartment and into a home with a workshop. It was bittersweet, because we still miss that cute little place on the beach!”
A few weeks later, the couple started receiving a large amount of interest from stockists around the country and decided to move Design Twins into a warehouse, where they juggled business with other jobs and family and then Crystal found out she was six weeks pregnant on her 30th birthday!
(I told you they had a big year!)
“The following month, we moved home and our warehouse again, but it all finally works perfectly and we are working on a brand new collection,” says Crystal. “It’s definitely the hardest we have ever worked, but everything has been so worth it. We have had our products featured in our favourite magazines such as Real Living, Marie Claire and Inside Out and currently have our products stocked in the most beautiful homewares stores such as Fenton & Fenton, Ahoy Trader and The Minimalist. We were also invited to teach sold out concrete classes at The School by Megan Morton.”
In October, Design Twins exhibited at Grand Designs Live and they had a sale event on Temple & Webster.
“All of this, with huge amounts of online orders, and it’s been one crazy, fun, exhausting but rewarding year for us! Everything happened so naturally that we actually can’t explain how it all happened, but we have always remained inspired by others, constantly designing and true to ourselves.”
Crystal credits stylist Megan Morton for the initial inspiration to launch the business, after attending one of her workshops, which she described as life-changing.
The duo have just announced they are taking on new stockists. Contact them via their website if you’re interested.
If you’re a homewares startup, get in touch and share your products with us!
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