Dunedin antique dealer and restorer Ray Paul might be soon closing the doors of Princes St business Anderson & Paul but, as he puts it, he’s "not retiring from life".
Nor is he completely walking away from his long-standing career.
"I’m going to stop being a shopkeeper.
"I’ll still have an involvement with the trade because it’s part of my life.
"I’m just not going to come to work at 8.30am every day and not have a Saturday off," he said.
Mr Paul, 67, worked in partnership with Geoffrey Anderson until Mr Anderson’s death last year.
The pair made a good team as they focused on different sides of the business.
Mr Anderson did a lot of the repair work while Mr Paul tended to do the cleanup of the furniture, colour matching and waxing.
"I took care of making it look the part," he said.
Mr Paul’s interest in antiques was initially whetted through his aunt who had an antique jewellery shop and his uncle who had an auctioneer’s rooms.
When he bought his own house in his early 20s and had to furnish it, he bought furniture that needed restoration.
He was self-taught, although he acknowledged the guidance he received over the years, and he and Mr Anderson also learned a lot from each other, he said.
Restoring furniture to its "former glory" was never his ambition.
Rather, the ideal result was having a piece that looked well cared for and well looked after.
Antique and older furniture needing "a bit of work" was cheap at present and Mr Paul encouraged people to patronise local auction houses and buy furniture that had a story.
He cited a kauri dresser in his store which came from a South Canterbury sheep station.
Missing its original doors, it was chosen as the spot by a farm dog to have her pups.
He urged people to "be eclectic" in their homes.
New houses were often relatively bland — all windows and with no wall space — and art and large pieces of interesting furniture often did not fit into the "modern way of living".
Fortunately, Dunedin still had its character homes and many clients Anderson & Paul had previously sold pieces to and done work for were now downsizing and their stuff was turning up.
But it would not keep turning up in volumes and, when it came around again, it would be "extremely expensive", he expected.
Mr Paul was bemused by some aspects of the movement towards carbon neutral, saying some young proponents were going against it in the way they lived.
Most of the stuff in his shop was "already well and truly carbon neutral".
"We can’t continue to keep buying stuff and dumping it."
A lot of stuff in the shop had already been sold and he was having a sale to clear the remaining items.
He expected to finish up at the end of July.
He recently taught himself kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery, which he would also continue to do in his retirement.
He intended to work in a small workshop at his home.
While there were downsides to being self-employed, Mr Paul felt "extremely blessed and lucky" to have been able to do what he loved, supported by his family.
