Timothy Oulton, Founder and Creative Director of his eponymous brand, is a master of reinvention and a pioneer of design.
Tim’s story dates back to his childhood days in Manchester, where he grew up surrounded by antiques from his father’s business, Halo Antiques. Tim embarked on a career in the furniture industry in 1985 after leaving school and entering the family’s antique business. Originally, Tim never planned to build his own career in the industry. Upon leaving school at 18 with no job prospects, Tim took his father’s advice to try his hand at antiques. At first, he thought he would only do the job for a year or so and then move on to becoming a banker, however, he soon caught the furniture and designing bug.
Having inherited a keen eye for detail and an appreciation for classic, timeless design, Tim found himself captivated by the exquisite quality of the antiques that came from meticulous, time-honoured handcraftsmanship.
Following five successful years of selling restored homeware items in the US, Tim, along with his brother, expanded the business into the UK, where they achieved sales of over £1 million in the first year. Then the company started supplying to respected UK furniture retailer, Carpenters, where sales nearly doubled in one year on pine tables alone.
That same year, Tim officially took the helm at Halo, repositioning the company to focus on the recreation of antique pieces with a modern timothyoulton.com viewpoint. Tim intelligently decided that there was no long-term future in the antiques business and began instead to focus on reinventing antiques.
Handcrafted with only the best traditional techniques and fabrications, each Timothy Oulton piece is inspired by the past, but reconceived from a contemporary perspective, producing a collection that is uniquely authentic and pushes the boundaries of furniture design. These values have formed the foundation for the brand over the years and continue to be a vital part of Tim’s collections today.
Timothy Oulton stores are currently located in Singapore, Beijing, and Barbados, as well as in specialty retailers worldwide, including HD Buttercup, and ABC Carpet & Home in the United States and El Corte Ingles in Spain. There are currently plans to open more stores in other cities worldwide.