Courtyard Antiques

Our quest for super cool furniture for our house brought us to Courtyard Antiques in Causewayside.
Courtyard Antiques, unlike most of the other antique shops I’ve been in in Edinburgh, has a good selection of items ranging from large pieces of furniture to little nick nacks. It’s full without feeling overly cluttered, and I found it impossible not to fall in love with something new around every corner.
Be sure to check out the upstairs, and remember that price tags are just a suggestion.

We learned about Courtyard Antiques after a chance encounter in another shop — «Where did you get that trunk?».
A 15 minute walk from the Royal Mile, tucked down a side alley, this is without a doubt one of the finest shops in all of Edinburgh. We could have bought hundreds of things — this is a treasure trove of vintage and cool. Where else could you buy a table, a motorbike, antique trunks, a WW2 fighter pilot jacket and a diving helmet?

A lot of antiques shops can from the exterior seem a little oppressive, uninviting and almost smugly looking down on you and encouraging you to walk past on the basis that it’s unlikely you’ll be doing more than just browsing. I’m not too offended, because this is largely the case, though I do still like walking round antiques shops, just on the off chance I’ll stumble upon something that I simply must have or that will prove to be unbelievably useful which I would have never found elsewhere. However, as you can probably tell from the photo, this place has more of a relaxed feel to it and feels inviting even to a self confessed browser like me.
Once you’ve ventured into the shop you’ll find that this is your stereotypical antiques shop with a wide variety of items on display ranging all the way between furniture and little trinkets. As antiques shops go this is the best kind — the kind you can spend ages searching through before unveiling some hidden treasure. Quite frankly it’s a pleasure just walking round and you are likely to find something that will catch your imagination enough to encourage a purchase.

Courtyard Antiques is an amazing store and it feels almost magical. It’s very inviting from the outside and in and I love the small floral rockery outside that makes it feel like a house rather than a shop. I browsed round for a good half hour but I was sure to be on my best behaviour as I’m usually very clumsy so I browse at a snails pace to avoid tripping over my own feet. I noticed a sign saying; «things are nice to handle, things are nice to hold, if you should break it, please consider it sold.»
My favourite thing in the shop was a beautiful 1950’s kimono in a light blue colour, it was stunning and the design on it was amazing I could have looked at it for hours.
Most of the antiques are downstairs but they did have a small section upstairs too and when I popped up I felt like I was in my Gran’s attic, with all the old stuffed teddies, dolls, old tea tins and furniture too.
Courtyard Antiques really does feel like a treasure trove and you could easily spend hours exploring, it is very well organised with many items there as display only such as an old London Guard uniform that I thought was awesome. If you’re a lover of antiques then you can’t get much better than this place.

These shops are what make Edinburgh special. Tucked away on a cobbled street in an unlikely area, is this small but overflowing antique shop. I have to be honest I rarely buy anything from these places, I am more their worst nightmare: timely browser. However, the lady who works here is ever so sweet and I have had some lovely chats with her, mostly rants about how the term vintage and second hand have been merged as one.
A delightful shop and if you are into antique furniture you would be a fool to miss this place. Prices are variable and depend on the piece in question.

Let me tell you a story about a wicker chair.
Breezing by on a Tuesday afternoon, I was drawn to Courtyard Antiques not just because of its beautiful back lane building, but by a conveniently placed, quaint wicker chair sitting pretty by the shop door.
On closer inspection, I realised said chair had caved in at the side — tragic, since it was The One (as far as chairs go anyway). It’s a lovely moss green colour with embroidery on the seat. Not being put off by appearances and seeing its potential (I sound like a talent scout — for chairs), I ventured inside to ask the lady how to fix it.
What followed was bizarre and wonderful. She had a look at the article, diagnosed it as having been run over, and then offered to give me it for free since she couldn’t bear looking at its disfigured side. Insisting that I shouldn’t but thanking her for her generosity, I eventually ended up leaving with the battered airloom since she wouldn’t let me leave it.
Vowing to love it, I wandered half a mile down towards Morningside before ditching the chair in apple blossomed suburbia (Grange Road). It was heartbreaking, leaving the chair spurned and rejected like that, but I had to review… I had to review. I also stay in Glasgow and don’t drive, you do the math.
Hours later, I got caught with a pang of guilt. That chair had survived since the 50s (so I was informed) and there was a light shower… I had to save it! Hurrying way back westward, the chair was (unbelievably) still there! School kids had not ravished it, dogs had not pooed on it, and no one had snaffled it up. I carried it back and offered it to another antique stockist nearby who is now storing it for me till next week. How lovely are those people?! He didn’t even think I was ridiculous for waddling about for miles with a chair… he didn’t bat an eyelid.
I should’ve really spared you that story and talked some more about Courtyard, but I had to tell somebody! On with the rest of the review… it’s a very classy establishment and looks like an old extended living room. Sometimes looks like a drawing room in parts (that’ll be the Georgian tables and Victorian dressers). There’s an eclectic assortment of stock very neatly and lovingly placed around the store. Prices vary depending on what you’re buying but everything is in mint condition, so it’s an investment more than anything else.
I’m not just five starring because I got a free chair out of this. It’s great to come across somewhere professional and tidy, where the staff really care about the stock. That’s why, despite its flaws, I’m gonna love that chair forever — because even bfore its accident it was well maintained by a woman who is passionate about her job and her customers! Conservation For Chairs — it’s my new chairty.