It’s not everyday that a piece of furniture will take your breath away but today may be one of those days. Nice Vintage Things has dropped Back to Basic, its first collection of incredible marble pieces. Sustainably sourced, expertly crafted, and coming straight from the brilliant creative mind of Ji Yeo, this collection will make you realize you really should have more marble in your home.
When Ji launched her shop Nice Vintage Things, it sprung out of a love for mid-century modern furniture. Ji, a photographer whose work has been featured in outlets around the world (LA Times, Vogue, BBC, and Esquire to name a few), had fallen in love with its timeless beauty.
“Life got more hectic, but I found my inner peace and everyday joy through the precise simplicity of mid-century modern furniture,” she says.
Once fully in the vintage business, Ji became a bit frustrated with the source and sell cycle. There was something unsatisfying about searching for the perfect vintage piece for six months, finding it, photographing it, and selling it, just for it to be gone forever, never to be seen again. So, coupled with her own “aesthetic desire and desire to create,” she sought to manufacture a one of a kind collection. That’s how Nice Vintage Things’ first drop, Back to Basic, came to life.
“When creating this one of a kind collection I was moved by the sheer power and beauty found in nature. You will find pieces that are meant to mimic the warm tones and curvatures of mountains and deserts and fluid, textural elements of water,” says Ji.
To achieve this stunning result, Ji relied on the breathtaking ability of stone. Study No. 1 Rosa Levanata Cube Table calls to mind a snow capped mountain peak while Study No. 6 Green Onyx N Table’s “gentle hues of green swirled with a labyrinth of ivory veins” reflect both an open field and a cloud filled sky. All six pieces in this collection remind us all why marble is the epitome of luxury.
While every piece is remarkable, the beauty of this NVT collection isn’t just in its aesthetic quality. Every piece is crafted with remnant marble that was handpicked by Ji. While touring stone yards, she noticed marble that had sat unused for decades and was enamored by how much more beautiful it was that fresh marble headed straight into skyscrapers from a quarry. Seeing such a waste of unique natural material motivated Ji to incorporate environmentally friendly sourcing and upcycle what she’d found.
“I'm going to take you to make you beautiful again,” Ji says. “I like the fun of finding something that's abandoned and making it shine and giving it a new life.”
Sustainability can sometimes have its downfalls. By upcycling marble, Ji and the fabricators she worked were able to create a maximum of two (or even one) of each piece in the collection. So just like a true vintage piece, she sourced it, photographed it, and once she sells it, it’ll be gone forever, never to be seen again. That is, of course, unless you’re one of the very lucky people who are wise enough to add a piece from NVT’s first drop, Back to Basic, to your own home collection. You won’t regret it.
