Rich & Elaine…a husband & wife team.

“We’ve walked very different paths to get to where we are…”

Rich:

After too many years of being extremely bored in IT, I decided enough was enough. I’d always had an interest in design, in particular architecture and furniture, and after getting together with Elaine, who was already working in the interiors industry, I decided it was time to make the break.

It was too late for architecture (we were getting on a bit!), so ‘Chairs & Skyscrapers’ began. I started by selling predominantly mid-century furniture and accessories, but after Elaine came on board, we started buying differently…stuff that we liked, regardless of period or style. Well, that was over ten years ago now, and we still love it!

Elaine:

I’ve been in the interior textiles industry all my working life. After five years working in the US, managing a design and colour studio, I returned to the UK to work as a freelance textile consultant and interior stylist, only breaking off after taking on the role of Creative Brand Manager at the inception of the new Walker Greenbank brand - Scion Fabrics. After three years, I’d had my fill of the stability of regular money, hours, holiday pay and pension, and decided to go back to the uncertainty of freelance work, and driving my husband up the wall! I named my company Frog & Lock.

Back to the hire side of things…

After sourcing and selling vintage and modern for more years than we care to mention, we finally decided that we were tired of letting beautiful pieces slip through our fingers!

How can we keep it all? Plan B (or was it plan C?)…let’s start a prop hire company. Our ‘Frog Island’ tenants were moving out...the timing was bang on, so we decided to use the space for ourselves. The hire side of Frog & Lock was born.

The rest is history, even if only a short one. We’ve been hiring pieces to a handful of regular clients over the last few years, and have now built up quite an inventory.

We don’t claim to be the biggest, but we do try to keep things interesting and varied, so are always buying and adding to the inventory. All our pieces are original…we like to support original design and manufacture, and if you’re looking for an item that we don’t have, we’ll do our very best to find it!

We’re based in the East Midlands, near Leicester city centre, so are handy for the M1 and motorway networks. Depending on your location, we offer a drop-off/pick-up service. Please contact us for a quote.