By Fiora Flinton
Described as a “modern antique shop”, Timeless Haus is the start-up furniture showroom that recently opened up in Leicester’s Corah Building.
Michael Biagioni, owner of Timeless Haus launched his showroom on Saturday 30 July 2022.
His furniture is typically focused around the mid-century era but he states that he is looking to diversify; “I’ve started to diversify into other types of furniture aesthetics, from the 80s and 90s, and then the 2000s further along the line.”
Before starting Timeless Haus, Michael was a furniture buyer for Sainsburys, buying from across the Argos and Habitat brands; “I’d been with then for seven or eight year by the time I’d left, buying and selling was essentially what I was doing before, but I’ve decided to do it for myself now.”
“It began last year but I only became full time this year – when lockdown happened, everyone had time to sit and think about what it is they wanted to do, and that’s how Timeless Haus started.”
“It felt natural because I was already doing it for Sainsburys so all it was, was me doing it for myself.”
The brand name itself gives an insight into the aesthetic of Michaels products; “timeless obviously reflects the antique/second hand aspect and that its aesthetic is still in fashion after 50-60 years.”
The spelling of ‘Haus’ references Bauhaus “which was massive in the mid-century design aesthetic, it’s a play on words.”
The Timeless Haus range varies in product type; when I started off it was very much just teak furniture (sideboards, chests of drawers, coffee tables), some have Danish influences as well, I have started to sell chairs and sofas now, as well as homeware pieces like lamps, vases and even some dinnerware.”
“I would say I am inspired by Habitat, having worked for that brand, more so their older products, old IKEA designs too from the 80s and 90s which are still sought after today.”
Michael’s showroom in the Corah Building recently held an open day which was a great success.
“I went into it with low expectations, I’d been working hard on the showroom for a couple months, getting it in a position where I was happy for it to be open to the public, but I went into it expecting no customers at all, but loads of people came by and I managed to sell a lot of furniture as well.”
“It was great just to share it with everybody and to meet some customers that have followed me for quite a while.”
“The people that came varied too, mid-century furniture has probably got two target audiences – one being the younger generation as the products are seen as trendy, the second being the slightly older generation, those who were brought up with this aesthetic.”
Timeless Haus’ website has launched but “there will be a booking portal on the website, because of where the showroom is located, customers will need to plan ahead.”
“I will probably plan to have an open day one Saturday a month, to have the showroom open for the day and people can just come down.”
It will be open Monday to Friday – “I’m happy to do evenings as well if customers want to visit after work and can message me directly.”
