After getting a pie from the Braidwood Bakery, generations of Canberrans have ambled next door to the treasure trove that is the Bernardoff's antiques and mid-century store, fossicking through the cavernous former garage for something special to take home.
Opening the glass-windowed wooden door, customers walked into a one-of-a-kind space, where you could find a Parker Furniture sideboard next to a Eames lounge chair, with a pile of vintage Life magazines by their side. It was a mid-century furniture fan's dream.
People sometimes got lost in the looking.
"We've been known to [accidentally] lock people in the shop," owner Gilles Bernardoff said, with a laugh.
But, after nearly 25 years, Gilles and his wife Olivia have decided to close the store, with the last day of trade on May 31.
The building - a former motor garage on Wallace Street - has been bought by Sydney investors (not the Mona Farm owners, we are told) with plans to turn it into an emporium of multiple traders. The building extends way back on the block, with the idea to convert Gilles' workshop to more retail space.
"We came 40 years ago from Melbourne, we were just passing through and saw a lovely old house and it was ridiculously cheap," Olivia said.
They opened the first version of the shop further north along Wallace Street, closer to the park, in 1998.
"Gilles was making furniture and I was doing paint finishes and we had a little bit of second-hand furniture," Olivia said.
They moved down to the prime spot in the main street next to the bakery a few years later, in what was an old garage.
"It had petrol bowsers out the front," Olivia said.
Gilles put his workshop out the back and start trading out the front. They also built a studio flat on a block behind, some of the wood taken from the old government printing office in Kingston. And then they started stocking everything from furniture worth thousands to little curiosities.
"We source things mainly from other shops and op shops and people brought things to us," Gilles said.
Olivia said the market had changed over the years.
"When we moved into second-hand, mid-century particularly, we were the only people doing it, so it was great," she said.
"There was a lot of stuff from government buildings and things that they were getting rid of and people thought we were mad because nobody liked it. They were all after cedar. Now, nobody wants cedar.
"And now it's really hard. We basically get [stock] from our storeroom which we've been filling up for years. There's nothing much around anymore. And it's desirable and there's lots of people doing it.
"But it's still exciting when you find good things....Danish, Italian. We once bought a container in from France, that was kind of fun."
The decision to close comes as both Olivia and Gilles turn 70 this year.
"I've been wanting to finish for a long time," she said.
Once they had decided to close, the universe responded and they were approached by investors from Sydney to buy the building.
"We were not actively looking for a buyer but this guy presented himself, 'I want to see your building'," Giles said.
How do they feel about leaving?
"Sort of ambiguous," Olivia said.
"I thought I had a few more years to go," Gilles said.
"The town has changed a lot. It's very busy, a lot more people. You used to know everybody," Olivia said.
"We want to go travelling. It's the time to do it because we can still walk up stairs."
Olivia and Gilles met in his his home country France when she was learning French.
"He followed me to Scotland where I worked as a chef in a castle," she said. And then to Australia.
The couple's sons, Willy and Charlot, went away but have settled back in Braidwood with their families, so Gilles and Olivia want to stay in the town.
"We want to build, actually," he said.
The last two years have been difficult with the bushfires of the 2019-20 summer and then COVID.
"We did go through a lot, we couldn't trade for months when the fires were on and, then, COVID came and there was not many people travelling. It was disheartening to have a shop with no people in it," Gilles said.
"But at least we didn't get burnt out," Olivia said.
After a quarter of a century and the end of an era, Gilles said he wouldn't be giving up picking for hidden gems entirely.
"I don't think I will stop completely," he said.
- Bernardoff's will be selling some of their items, including unrestored pieces, at a garage sale on the Easter long weekend, April 15-18, starting at 9am each day. There will be furniture, bric a brac, paintings, books, records, curtains, materials, tools and curiosities.
