Meet Hausmarkt – a lifestyle store bringing timeless and functional home goods to Newstead
Luxury meets practicality and elegance merges with efficiency at Hausmarkt, a brand-new home goods store now open in the back streets of Newstead. Here, you’ll find everything from alluring fragrances and stylishly utilitarian tableware to lifestyle items made from upcycled materials, durable and rugged storage solutions, and precision-crafted timepieces.
Before opening Hausmarkt, Tom Chai never expected to find himself in retail. For much of his adult working life, the entrepreneur worked as a quantity surveyor in the mining industry, but in 2020 – just before the pandemic hit – Tom encountered a brand that would eventually convince him to swap his day job for a completely different vocation.
PUEBCO – a Japanese lifestyle brand that has been championing sustainable manufacturing with its retro-industrial and minimalist designs since 2007. For Tom, it was love at first sight.
“The brand does things a little bit differently – most of its wares have a theme around upcycling,” explains Tom. “For example, it makes bags from stockpiled vintage parachute fabric sourced from India. PUEBCO just turns stuff like that into daily essential goods that have a Japanese minimalist design aspect to it.”
Unfortunately, PUEBCO wares were incredibly hard to find in Australia. Not long after the borders closed, Tom reached out to the brand and expressed an interest in stocking its goods. It was here that Hausmarkt was born.
Hausmarkt first launched as an e-commerce store, hawking a selection of PUEBCO gear alongside automatic calendar digital clocks from Hong Kong brand TWEMCO and porcelain crockery from JIPO in the Czech Republic. Soon after, Tom opened a pop-up store in Newrybar, where he was able to experiment more with physical retail. At this point, Hausmarkt started gaining steam as more than just a passion project
“I want to do something for myself – something a bit more personal,” Tom says of Hausmarkt’s origins. “It started as more of a side business, but it gave me confidence to see it grow bit by bit and noticing people were actually liking it. I started thinking that I’m actually good at it.”
Fast forward to now and Hausmarkt now boasts its own store on Maud Street in Newstead. Tom has leaned into the site’s high ceilings and industrial aspects, fitting out the space across a blistering two-month process and transforming it into a shop front that aligns aesthetically with its wares.
Hausmarkt serves two purposes. Towards the front of the space sits the retail section, filled with wares that all blend style and utility. In addition to previously mentioned brands, the shop stocks hand-crafted fragrances from APFR, stainless steel tableware and cutlery from Aoyoshi, cotton towels from Watanabe Pile, steel shackles and nautical accessories from GLOMA NAUTICA, and minimalist stackable tableware from HoGaKa Profi. The rear of the space is given over to Hausmarkt’s wholesale and packaging facilities, with Tom now PUEBCO’s Australian distributor.
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“Each product has its purpose and a brief behind the design,” says Tom of Hausmarkt’s overall curatorial ethos. “I want to tell people about the story behind each of the products, not just simply sell them.”
Hausmarkt will be hosting a grand-opening party on Saturday November 16 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. The team from Single O will be on site slinging free coffee alongside home-made brownies, while Hausmarkt is offering a 15-percent discount on in-store purchases. Head to The Directory for more information.
Image credit: Jack Gibson