Scandiwegians has a lamp repair shop, providing vintage lighting rewire and refurbishment services.
In case you're not familiar with it, the 'Repair Shop' is a reference to the BBC tv programme, presented by the very affable Jay Blades, in which a group of talented, and extremely patient, individuals with old school craft skills gather in a barn in the English countryside to restore people's belongings.
These items usually have a great deal of sentimental value and tears often result, if not from the owners of the items, then definitely from the tv audience.
It's an extremely charming, wholesome programme. It's definitely designed to tug at the heartstrings, but also showcases old school crafts skills, and there's a gentle underlying theme of the value of restoration of old things, even if it takes time and money.
In a side issue, the barn where all this takes place is situated in the wonderful Weald & Downland 'living museum', near where Corinna Scandiwegian was brought up. She visited it on a school trip and it made a very big impression on her, perhaps even contributing to her later qualifying as a history teacher. By coincidence, Claus' Scandiwegian's home town of Aarhus also has a living museum, Den Gamle By, and we recommend that as well if you're in the area.
The Scandiwegians Repair Shop specialises in lighting. At one time most high streets probably had an electrical repair shop, but these days it's sadly become more cost effective to discard old electrical items and buy new ones. But some lighting can be high value, not easily replaced, or have sentimental value which makes rewiring and refurbishing it worthwhile.
Plus, of course, there's the enviromental aspect. The most sustainable item, is the one you already have.
But these days electricians aren't trained to repair things and don't carry the tools and parts required to refurbish vintage lighting. The bread and butter of those with electrical skills is wiring properties and installing new appliances. So the repair skills have, unfortunately, largely been lost.
Over the years, Scandiwegians has built up a great deal of specialist skills in restoring vintage lighting. So it seemed a natural progression to fill this gap in the market by using that experience to work on other people's lamps, and in 2020 we set up a lamp repair shop.
We get lighting brought to us for repair, including from antiques/vintage shops in London, and we also receive items in the post.
Sometimes it's much-loved items that have broken. Or perhaps lighting that has been passed down through families and requires rewiring to ensure it's safe for the next generation - we had the pleaseure of restoring two heirloom bedside lamps that were to be used in the nursery of soon-to-be-born twins.
We also work on vintage lighting that has been 'sold as seen' at auction or markets and needs to be restored so it works safely, including for other vintage shops.
Additionally, we've also been approached by people who've got lighting from overseas that they would like to be reconfigured so that it works safely in the UK.
Lately, we've noticed a real increase in inquiries for our lighting services, so it does seem that our hunch about the gap in the market was well-founded.
The lighting category covers a huge and diverse range of products. Unfortunately, we can't repair everything. For example sometimes lamps have bespoke parts and, if they're broken, we might not be able to source replacements.
But we'll consider everything, so please do get in touch at claus@scandiwegians.com with photos of your lighting and we'll assess it and let you know the possibilities.