Basic Elements

What a great vintage store with a mix of rustic farm tools, oriental parasols, timber furniture and old bicycle frames. There is a small courtyard at the rear with outdoor pieces.

This was one of my favourite stops on the antique journey I set myself upon when visiting Guildford. Antiques are cool, but when you get Antiques from mystical Asian countries and all over the world that is where Basic Elements ups the anti.
I really wanted so many things in here. From old statuettes of people’s heads, to musical toad instruments, old walking sticks, ancient Asian opium pipes and normal pipes.
Mortar and pestles, Asian parasols, fans, fencing masks, pieces of wood that used to be doors. This place is so rich with variety when you are in here your imagination is racing trying to fit things into their original context. The lady here is also pretty awesome I want to be like her when I’m older.
Outside there are lots of garden statuettes from when Buddha heads and Asian sculptures weren’t in fashion.
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The first thing that I noticed about Basic Elements were their beautiful vintage multi coloured wood furniture, this is something I haven’t seen in Perth at all but is very popular back home in Mauritius and I immediately needed to see what other items reminiscent of home they had.
Exotic treasures predominantly from countries in Asia but from others are the world are are stocked in Basic Elements with a range of beautiful and different antique furniture, detailed architectural fittings like doors, shutters and separators, hand made ceramic crockery, sculptures and other decorations. Some of my favourite things I saw was a case filled with beautiful glass spheres and domes (not entirely sure of their function) a magnificent black type writer which any writer or journalist would have fall in love with and quirky old bottles and artefacts turned into clocks.
A cute little narrow courtyard leads out of the store filled with plants, pots and Buddhas statues on which most people leave a few coins, as a symbol of good luck and fortune. Truly amazing little store with treasures vastly different from what you find on the rest of James Street.

The highlight of the Basic Elements store are their beautiful glass lanterns, like you would see in Morocco. Anywhere from $ 75 to a few hundred dollars, these are beautiful accessories that would compliment any backyard. Inside, they had interesting Eastern inspired artifacts, hand crafted ceramics, and figurines for the house. They have lots of items that are small and would be good items to buy for gifts. This is a cool store to find interesting items for your home. In downtown Guildford, where the street is paved with antique shops, it’s refreshing to see a store that offers something else.

Pretty much every other shop on James Street is an antique shop, and if you’re on an antique trawling mission down the strip they tend to all blend into one musty, secondhand blur. Basic Elements, however, stands out. It specialises in imported antiques, furniture and bric-​à-​brac from all over the world, but mainly South-​East Asia. It’s a great place to find beautiful, unique and exotic items for your home, although they have a distinct surfeit of buddha figurines. It’s a treasure trove and a browser’s paradise, and you’ll always find something unusual and interesting. They’ve got a nice leafy garden courtyard out the back, with some lovely garden furniture — and even more buddhas.