Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Oxford Patina was born out of my growing interest in Mid Century design quickly turning into obsession. I think I’ve always been interested in design but never particularly noticed it in my life until I had the chance to furnish my own home. I like to refer to this point in my life as the awakening. Once I started to notice modernist forms and quality of materials I began to see it everywhere I went. I would see it in the buildings we’d pass by, the chairs in the restaurants we sat in, even in the solid wood of my old guitars.

So when we travelled to Japan, it’s safe to assume that I was having a sensory overload. In October of 2017, I went to Japan and proposed to my girlfriend, Mel. Fast forward one week later and Mel decides to send in her resignation letter for her 9-5 job while we’re in line at Tokyo Disneysea. Assuming that we’d be fine since I still had my job, we went on with the rest of our trip as planned. Upon arriving back in Los Angeles, I had the (un)pleasant surprise of finding out that I too was now unemployed. After a not so mild freak-out session, we sat down and evaluated our options.

Option 1: Look for new jobs.

Option 2: Lean into Oxford Patina full-time and see how it goes for one month.

By now, I’m sure you can tell that we chose “Option 2”. We never planned to start a business, let alone a shop or gallery, but the stars just aligned perfectly in a way that we’d be doing a disservice to the universe if we didn’t pursue it wholeheartedly. In one year we were able to run Oxford Patina full time, we had our dream wedding, and we traveled to multiple countries. It was the best year of our lives and we are eternally grateful to those who have supported us along the way.

So for 2019, our mission is to grow and educate others on this small but passionate community of design lovers!