Jenny Needham visits Ruby and D, an eclectic interiors shop stuffed to the gills with hand-painted furniture and quirky home accessories

WANT a welded metal pig? A leather hippopotamus? Some Sixties sun loungers, perhaps, or a vintage wooden rack salvaged from a French shoe factory? All these items have recently graced the treasure trove of interesting objects that is Ruby and D, in Barnard Castle, wedged in between the pieces of painted furniture that are the shop’s main attraction.

And they have all caught the eye of owner Helen Gray, who trawls antiques fair up and down the country in search of things to sell.

“I am always on the look-out for stock,” she says. “I also buy privately as many people now seem to be downsizing, and also sometimes from auction. It is very difficult to say what it is that I look for as I don't know until I see it. Things need to be unusual, but useful. I like to buy things I like as I find them much easier to sell: if I like something, I am convinced someone else will too.”

Her favourites at the moment include the metal pig – “he has a great face with heaps of attitude – and a kitchen island which has a new wooden frame but incorporates vintage bakery crates as pull-out shelving. “A very simple idea that looks and works brilliantly,” says Helen.

The shop is named after her daughters, Ruby and Delilah - D for short – and is Helen’s second outlet in the town, after she outgrew the first.

“As the business grew and my need for more storage space and workshop/painting space became more apparent, I was offered the place I am in now,” says Helen. “It has downstairs rooms and two further rooms upstairs, so I didn't hesitate.” She also loves the fact that the building has real street presence, with its corner location next to St Mary’s church, and its eye-catching paintwork.

The upstairs will shortly be used for the furniture-painting workshops that Helen will be holding, starting in October.

“I have always been a creative person: my favourite subject at school was art,” says Helen. She studied textile design and surface pattern at college, did designs for women's fashion fabrics, and was a visual merchandise manager for Habitat.

Ruby and D is an eclectic mix of vintage and unusual items for the home and garden, including painted and non-painted furniture in many different styles. Helen also sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, which she will be using for the workshops, and will paint your furniture for you upon request.

“Many people ask me what makes Annie Sloan paint so special,” she says. “One of its unique selling points is that you don’t need to do any preparation before painting. It paints almost any surface - wood, metal, terracotta - it can be used on floors, indoors or outdoors, where the paint will fade and distress without peeling. There is a beautiful range of 33 colours that can all be mixed to make many more. The possibilities are endless and furniture can be transformed in a matter of hours.”

The recent trends in vintage and up-cycling mean painted furniture has become hugely popular, offering an inexpensive and relatively easy way to transform and update your home. Helen’s own home is a mixture of vintage pieces, some painted, some not.

“My home reflects the shop,” she says. “I take far too many things home. I love colour so I paint all my walls white and accessorise with bold colours and vintage prints and textiles. I would say it is a homely lived-in look.”

Ruby and D, 6-6a The Bank, Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8PQ. T: 01833-908121; W: ruby-and-d.co.uk