The Workshop Gisborne: Anything But Ordinary
Location: 73 Carnarvon Street, Gisborne 4010
Phone: 021 851 829
Website: www.theworkshopgizzy.com
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 4pm; Saturday, 10am to 1pm. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Specialities: Furniture, vintage rugs, distinctive homewares, gifts, interior styling and coffee.
Best for: Design lovers, gift hunters, independent shopping, home inspiration and visitors looking for something different in Gisborne.
Some shops sell things.
Others have personality.
The Workshop, tucked away at 73 Carnarvon Street in Gisborne, has rather a lot of both.
Part furniture showroom, part treasure trove, part design studio and part coffee stop, it's the sort of place where you might wander in looking for a birthday present and emerge seriously considering whether your lounge needs a Moroccan rug.
It probably does.
From Plumbing Workshop to Design Destination
The story behind The Workshop is almost as colourful as its contents.
Owner Amy Moore became a familiar face throughout New Zealand when she and partner Stu won The Block NZ in 2018.
But rather than heading off to establish a design empire in Auckland, Amy returned to Gisborne and turned her enthusiasm for interiors into a business of her own.
The setting was an old plumbing workshop.
Not exactly the obvious starting point for a stylish interiors destination.
But that's rather the point.
Amy transformed the industrial space into an eclectic collection of furniture, homewares, vintage finds and objects gathered from around the world.
The business grew from her interior design work, initially providing somewhere to meet clients and display ideas.
The collection expanded, the shop evolved, and The Workshop became something considerably more interesting than a conventional furniture retailer.
A Shop That Refuses to Look Like Every Other Shop
Walk into many modern homeware stores and you'll find familiar products, predictable colours and carefully coordinated collections.
The Workshop takes a different approach.
Colour is encouraged.
Patterns are allowed to disagree.
Vintage furniture sits comfortably alongside contemporary pieces, unusual ceramics, textured fabrics and handpicked homewares.
There are Moroccan rugs with character, furniture that makes a statement, and gifts that aren't necessarily available in every shopping mall between Auckland and Christchurch.
Amy's particular talent is bringing together pieces from different places, periods and styles without making the result feel contrived.
It is a wonderfully individual approach to decorating.
And refreshingly, there's no suggestion that every home in Gisborne needs to look like a newly furnished holiday rental.
From Morocco to Carnarvon Street
One of The Workshop's distinguishing features is its collection of vintage and original rugs.
These aren't simply anonymous floor coverings ordered by the container load.
Amy sources rugs chosen for their individual colours, textures, craftsmanship and character.
The collection includes pieces from Morocco, while the store also offers furniture, ceramics, textiles and decorative pieces from a variety of makers and suppliers.
The result is a surprising international flavour inside a distinctly Gisborne business.
It's proof that living in a relatively small city doesn't mean accepting a smaller choice of interesting things.
Indeed, being a little removed from the country's main retail centres might be part of the appeal.
The Workshop doesn't need to compete by being another version of everywhere else.
It succeeds by being itself.
And Then There's the Coffee
In a particularly Gisborne development, The Workshop also serves coffee.
Because apparently browsing furniture, admiring rugs and contemplating the state of your living room wasn't quite enough.
The addition of a small café has turned the shop into somewhere customers can linger rather than simply complete a transaction.
Coffee, fresh baking and an unhurried conversation fit comfortably among the colourful surroundings.
It's a reminder that some of the best retail experiences have very little to do with shopping efficiency.
Sometimes the experience is the attraction.
The Sort of Business Gisborne Needs
The Workshop was included in the article, Places That Give Gisborne Its Personality, that featured independent businesses that make Gisborne feel different from the increasingly interchangeable shopping streets found elsewhere.
The Workshop is a particularly good example.
It's locally owned.
It's creative.
It's slightly unconventional.
And it reflects the personality of the person behind it rather than a corporate formula.
You don't need to be furnishing a house to enjoy visiting.
You might discover an unusual gift, find inspiration for a room, admire something you'll never quite convince yourself to buy, or simply stop for a coffee.
That's part of the charm.
In a world increasingly dominated by identical stores selling identical products, there's something reassuring about an old plumbing workshop in Gisborne that has become a colourful little destination in its own right.
And that, perhaps, is exactly the sort of place that gives Gisborne its personality.
