Johnny and Helene Thompson’s furniture business, Dirty Old Town, takes discarded local timbers and gives them new life, writes Christina Giorgio.
I met my love by the gas works wall,
Dreamed a dream by the old canal,
Kissed a girl by the factory wall,
Dirty old town…
Dirty Old Town may not seem, on the face of it, the most romantic of songs, but for Helene and Johnny Thompson it’s been a powerful part of their lives. It was the song that was playing when they met on the dance floor as teenagers and now it’s the name of their restoration business, which they run from their family home in Eureka, in the hills behind Byron Bay.
Renowned for their lovingly crafted furniture and homewares, the couple have had commissions from all around Australia and their one-off pieces can be found in the humblest of flats and most elite stately homes. For Johnny it’s the people who don’t have a lot of money but choose to buy one of their pieces anyway that resonate most with him, and it’s a reminder of the humble roots of their business. “The ones I really appreciate are the ones who really can’t afford it, and would never usually try and buy something like this,” he says. “They’re the best of people, because they’re so appreciative of the pieces and what you do. They’re the ones I love, because that’s where this all started. Necessity was the mother of this invention. Everything we made was because we couldn’t afford to buy it.”
Restoration, renovation, recreation – Dirty Old Town doing what they love. Photo: Matthias Engesser/Narrative Post)
Helene agrees. “When we got together we’d finished school,” she says. “We travelled then moved into our first house and we had nothing so Johnny made coffee tables to sell. I went on a trip to Thailand and when I came home he had made a bed for us, because we’d been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. He’s been making furniture out of pure necessity and always out of recycled materials for over 20 years. He’d drag home old brick pallets and whatever he could find on the street. Back then, people in the city would just throw things out so he’d drag stuff home and make furniture, lighting and art pieces out of it. So he’s been doing it since he was in his 20s.”
But despite his love of restoration a young family meant having a job, and Johnny originally worked as a bricklayer to support the family. Finally at around the same time as the birth of child number four, Johnny put down one set of tools for another to create a business that could feed his family and his passion.
‘I met my love…’ and the rest, as they say, is history for Dirty Old Town. Photo: Matthias Engesser/Narrative Post)
“He was sick of bricklaying,” says Helene. “It was hard and it was horrible and it wasn’t something he was going to do forever. He had this interest in making things so he started doing it at home whilst still bricklaying and then we had John Joseph (our number four child). We were both at a crossroads where I didn’t want to have to go back to work for anyone else, I wanted to put my energy into creating a business for both of us to work at and it could be home based so we just went for it. Friends encouraged him to take his work to the markets so he did the Bangalow market with a few dining tables and the public response was overwhelming, it was pretty emotional. So he built up quite a bit of stock up and Dirty Old Town took off from there.”
Clockwise from top: Showing off their trademark; Johnny examing timbers; workingspace on the property at Eureka and reccyled mirrors and handcrafted table. Photos: Matthias Engesser/Narrative Post)
With Helene’s marketing savvy and business vision the pair are a united team, moving their brand onward and upward with absolute authenticity. In the pipeline are plans to create a coffee table book, and partnerships, such as that with local Artist Joanna Kambourian, are expanding their range to include hand painted vintage feel signage, cushions, coasters and hand painted feature pieces. Their dream to take their family and business on the road and to constantly create new and innovative products makes them a brand, and a couple to watch. It’s a wonderful thing to spend time in the company of people whose passion for life is evident in their family, their home and in each unique, handcrafted piece of furniture they create.
To find out more about Dirty Old Town go to: dirtyoldtownfurniture.com
Facebook: DirtyOldTownFurniture.Collectables
Photography by Narrative Post – check out their website to watch the Dirty Old Town video narrativepost.com.au
Christina Giorgio has been working in the arts for 20 years and is the owner of Creative Consultancies. Check out her creativity retreats for women here: creativeconsultancies.com/bali
To register for her next ‘Left of Centre’ business intensive 0n June 13th and 14th in Bangalow go to: creativeconsultancies.com/business-planning-workshop-for-artists
https://www.facebook.com/CreativeConsultancies
