A quirky new shop promising a mix of restored furniture, local art, unusual gifts and even psychic readings has opened in Swanage in Dorset, with its owner determined to help preserve the spirit of the town.
Flipped and Found, in the former Melody phone shop on Station Road, has been launched by Vik Fiasconaro, who has achieved her lifetime ambition of moving to Swanage.
The latest shop to open in Swanage’s Station Road is also one of the more unusual
Lives changed by a sign
Vik was born in Southampton but was living in Northern Ireland, when she visited Langton Matravers on a camping holiday with her young son in June 2026.
On a trip into Swanage, they were walking down Station Road when their lives were changed by a sign in the window of Melody’s.
Vik has known and loved Swanage since childhood, as her uncle once owned the White Swan pub and a cousin formerly ran an antique shop in town, and she has long wanted to move to the town.
Walking past the empty shop, the furniture restorer had a sudden vision of how she could add to the tradition of Swanage while changing her family’s life for the better.
After help from the Emporium’s Trevor Linger, who set her up with a popup shop in Commercial Road to test her business plan, and persuading her parents to give her a loan to take on Melody’s, the dream became a reality.
In a matter of days at the end of August 2026, Vik and her friends picked up the keys to the shop and transformed it from an empty unit into a colourful and eclectic new business, working through the night to get everything ready.
Restored and upcycled furniture brings a unique quality to Flipped and Found
“I won’t lie, I am terrified”
Vik Fiasconaro said:
“We actually opened the shop in less than a week. We were painting the outside at 3 o’clock in the morning one day, then went inside, continued painting until 5am, stopped for a break, fell asleep, woke up at 7 and carried on again!
“We didn’t have time to sit back, I know we have left the summer behind and are moving into winter, which everyone says to me will be hard. I have taken a loan off my parents who have risked it for me while they are trying to move house themselves, and I won’t lie, I am terrified.
“If we can get through the winter and come out the other side, we will be grand, the tourists will love it next year, but it could be a long winter.
“Nowhere in the world has felt more like home to me than Swanage, and now I am here with my own shop. It will work, because I won’t let it fail – and if you are prepared to work hard enough, you will succeed.”
Resident medium Chantelle does Tarot readings from a quiet corner of the shop
“The quirkier, the better!”
Vik added:
“What I really want to do is encourage anyone locally who has a talent but who can’t afford a shop to bring stuff in and sell on commission.
“Anyone who makes or crafts and wants an outlet can come to see me and we can sell it together. I’m happy to work with as many locals as possible, to keep it in the town, and I’m looking for anything that’s a bit different – the quirkier, the better, to be fair!
“I will do my thing, which is upcycling or restoring furniture, and I see Flipped and Found having a little bit of everything. We have old and new, but we are not specifically old or new, we have a little bit of antique, but we are not antique, we have a little magic, but we are not a magic shop.
“I want to keep Swanage quirky, so I’ve introduced the medium side to Flipped and Found because there is nothing like that here. I was a bit worried that people might think it’s dark, but it’s not.
“Our medium, Chantelle, has done some readings already and there has been nothing but happy people coming out, filled with positivity. Chantelle is brilliant and so joyful to have around, and for someone setting up a new business, that is really important, because it is actually terrifying for me!”
Lots of interesting finds in the shop
“I don’t want Swanage to change”
Vik plans to keep Flipped and Found deliberately difficult to categorise, offering a mixture of upcycled and restored furniture, locally made products, artwork, gifts and quirky curiosities, with its main aim being to stock as many locally created products as possible.
Vik Fiasconaro said:
“It would be easy to order everything in bulk from large suppliers, but Swanage and Purbeck is home to so many wonderfully talented and creative people, and I want Flipped and Found to celebrate them!
“I use the Emporium to source some stock, Nixons for our paint, Curiosity for handles, and Burts Bits for business bits and pieces. I try to keep as much custom as I can in the town, because that’s what I’ve seen lost in other places.
“I moved to a little town in Northern Ireland 12 years ago and there were four butchers, a hairdresser, everything you could imagine and since then it has almost all gone – there’s just one butcher, no community, no one to support you.
“Swanage is an amazing community, full of character, so friendly and still thriving, and I don’t want it to change.
“But if we don’t care for what we have, Swanage could go the same way as other towns like Weymouth and Poole which now have town centres just filled with vape shops, phone shops and barbers – then what would people come here into the town for?”
Collectables and curios, many of them custom made, make Flipped and Found a treasure trove to browse
Further information
- Follow Flipped and Found on its Facebook page
