SAVVY Sophistication

Affordable and intriguing charity shop and eBay finds are teamed with statement pieces in this impressive Victorian home in West Yorkshire

- DOMINIQUE CORLETT

At some point on a Saturday morning, after walking their two dogs up the big hill behind their house in Otley, West Yorkshire, Natalie Cullen and her husband Kieran Bentham will pop into the local charity shops to take a look at the bric-a-brac shelves. Over the years, shelves like these have proffered all manner of enticing pictures, objects and curios that these seasoned hunters of interesting decorative items have snapped up to display in their home.

'I absolutely love looking around charity shops and car boot sales, because you find little pieces that you just don't get anywhere else," says Natalie, a civil servant with a penchant for the whimsical. Small figurines of dogs, lions and other animals are her favourite, with the best examples earning a place on the display shelves in their living room - their version of the curiosity cabinet. Junk shops, antiques markets, vintage fairs and auctions are all on the radar, and the couple love to while away weekends sifting through clutter in search of gemsa hobby they have shared since meeting at university in the early 1990s.