From the practical to the purely frivolous, Simply Dutch has everything to enhance your home.

IS your front garden crying out for a Landseer lion, just like the ones in Trafalgar Square? Or maybe a knight in shining armour? Or a barrel as high as a house? And surely no home is complete without a miniature carriage or a life size dinosaur.

If this is what you're thinking, Simply Dutch could probably solve your problems. It started life as simply that - solid, old oak furniture imported from Holland, which is still the main core of the business on the corner at Leeming Bar, just a few hundred yards from the A1 near Northallerton.

"But it's metamorphosed into I don't quite know what," says owner Jason Hadlow, who took it over last year. "It's very eclectic. All I know is that it's the total antithesis of Ikea."

It's certainly that. The vast showrooms overflow with good solid furniture. The sort that will still be serving its purpose long after most MDF kitchens have returned to the dust from whence they came. A solid oak table with six matching chairs costs £650; a solid oak octagonal table with four chairs, £465.

Here are dressers, cupboards, cabinets, plate racks, kitchens - some re-modelled with granite tops and Belfast sinks. A marble topped kitchen island costs £275. There's also a range of kitchen furniture made from pallets in Vietnam, with pine from Russia. You can just see them as props in one of those country style magazines. There are some huge cupboards and cabinets.

"Yes they're big, but once you've got one of these in your home you can clear out all the other clutter," says Jason persuasively. "It actually frees up space."

And, of course, they don't have to be built in and you can take them with you when you move.

There are lovely faded painted corner cupboards - the sort that you either fall instantly in love with or want to give a good sand down and coat of white gloss, depending on your view point. Ornate French-style painted wardrobes cost £759; a gothic monks' bench, £309.

Jason bounces enthusiastically in between them all, talking non-stop, still in love with every idiosyncratic piece in the place, frequently taking items home to his house in Yarm - and then swapping them again in a few months' time when he's fallen in love with something else.

He trained as a chef, had his own business, worked in marketing, moved north with wife Catherine and their children "because London was getting ridiculous" and then last year, bought Simply Dutch from the founders, Alfie and Susan Gilmore.

"It just keeps getting bigger. We keep expanding into more space," he says, leading the way past reclaimed pine kitchen tables with solid, fairy-story style chairs, upholstered sofas, sideboards, cupboards, vast wooden framed beds, candelabras, chandeliers, bird cages. Two old doors, rescued from Algeria, open to reveal a television cabinet.

Much of his stock goes to pub and hotel owners. "But an amazing amount goes to ordinary people for ordinary homes and gardens," says Jason.

Bars are apparently big in Bishop Auckland. Converted from enormous Dutch cabinets, they're just the thing for the corner of the sitting room.

And if you really want to impress your friends, you can have a champagne rack that holds 120 bottles. Or an ornate two drawer wine rack for around £250.

Outside, much of the stock the store carries is similar to many ordinary garden centres - but on a much, much bigger scale. Like those larger than life lions - Trafalgar Square or Chinese style - the giant barrel, or a street lamp that really is the size of, well, a street lamp.

There are patio sets to seat up to 12 people, sets made from stone and concrete or that retain the warmth of the sun even on a chilly day. And fountains and statues of course. Mosaic table and chair sets cost £255; cast iron tree benches, £250 and a cast iron garden bench, £150.

Back inside, working our way past the upholstery, pews and phaetons, we bump into a life size bull. "The cows sold very quickly, and we also had lots of pigs and sheep." says Jason. "But I'm sure in time the bull will find a good home."

Customers come from all over the country and Europe. This month a batch of reclaimed furniture came from Holland to Yorkshire and then went on to Malta.

As well as big pieces, they also sell smaller items - lots of really unusual bags, for instance - to appeal to people who want something small but different.

It is all an indefinable mixture - old, new, reclaimed, reproduction, restored. But definitely different. They are currently out of dinosaurs - "don't want to do the same things all the time" - but can order you one if needs be.

Just when we're finishing the head-spinning tour, Jason hops up onto one of those solid oak tables and produces a snake charming kit.

You certainly don't get that at Ikea.

* Simply Dutch, Leeming Bar, Northallerton. Tel: (01677) 427800. www.simplydutch.co.uk. Open Mon-Sat, 9am-5pm; Sun, 11am-5pm.

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