Happy Sunday, friends! Welcome to another Stationery Sunday in Seoul post. Today we will continue our walk down the street from Mazzzzy and mimidonut to visit Object in Hongdae, a whole building dedicated to carefully curated stationery, fashion and interior goods!
I’m excited to share this store because not only is it an awesome space, but Object also has an online global shop in English! They carry many of the indie Korean illustrators and brands I like, so the site is a great option if you’re outside of Korea. The flagship store is in Seoul (Hongdae), but there are satellite stores in Samcheong, Seoul as well as Daegu, Busan and Jeju.
See my Seoul Stationery Guide for all the shops with other resources (Google maps, social media links and more.)
Object (오브젝트)
Address: 326-2 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul (Google map link)
Instagram: @insideobject
Website (English): http://en.insideobject.com/
Object, four floors of carefully curated goods and stationery 
The Gyeongi Line book street is an old railway turned culture street celebrating books.
Object is a short walk from Hongdae Station Exit 6 or 7 (Airport railway line). It’s also across the street from the Gyeongi Line book street, which is an old railway line-turned-cultural street dedicated to books and literature. It’s a great, pedestrian-only walkway with little independent shops and studios celebrating books!
Once inside Object, you can take your time perusing all four floors of the store. According to the Global shop website, they offer fashion goods, kitchen utensils, daily supplies, stationery, diary items, interior goods, and books.
Table of basic stationery and school supplies 
Notebooks, pens and washi
The fourth floor has books and a long table of basic stationery and school supply type goods. I got a little recycled paper notebook from this floor. (All the floors have this gorgeous long table in the middle.)
The next three floors are a delightful mix of stationery, accessories, fashion and home living.
Honestly there were so many lovely things to look at I didn’t know what to photograph. I actually went to visit a special exhibition on the ground floor, but I had to stop myself from buying ALL. THE. THINGS. And not just stationery. Like wooden spoons and linen bags and jewelry. I think that was partly due to this day being my first outing outside of my neighborhood in weeks.
Embroidered greeting cards 
Fun upcycled coasters 
Cute pins and matchstick books
After perusing the top three floors, I went downstairs to check out the purpose of my visit: the gongjang brand’s special exhibit on the Art of Organization. I already had some gongjang products after visiting their own store last year (next week’s preview!). I really appreciate the brand’s commitment to sustainability and eco-friendly products. Much of their line is printed on recycled paper with more sustainable inks (like soy).
Customize your own notebook by Gongjang 
Customize your notebook section by Gongang
This wall had a customize-your-own notebook section where you could pick out a notebook (with different pages like grid, lined, unlined), folder cover, elastic, and decorative stickers. I adore gongjang’s color palette and simple aesthetic.
However the purpose of my visit was this two button book pouch. I didn’t even know I needed a book pouch until I saw this shade of red. It’s gorgeous, and my photo doesn’t do it justice! That sentence smells a bit of impulsive consumerism, but I had been eyeing this book pouch for months. The top part is a zippered pencil case and the bottom fits A4-sized books and magazines.
I haven’t used it as much as I’d like yet since I’m still not going out very often. But the few times I have used it, I liked how it protected all my little notebooks inside my backpack. It’s also the perfect size to comfortably carry my planner and a copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, which I started last week.
If you’d like to see more of the shop and my haul, I’ve linked the video below to when the Object tour starts. (You can watch from the beginning to see Mazzzzy and mimidonut‘s tour and haul.)
What is your stationery style? Graphic and cute like last week’s Mazzzzy and mimidonut, or more minimal and aesthetic like gongjang? I’d love to hear if anything caught your eye in this tour. Thanks for tuning in and see you next week for another episode of Stationery Sunday in Seoul!
A wonderful sheep 
The book pouch is awesome! Wanna get one. Haha.
And I liked the way your video showed around the shops. Feels like I am walking with you. Or rather, like I am hiding inside your jacket pouch, peeping through a hole to have a look at the wonderful stationary items. =)
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Aww how sweet! I need to work on my camera skills so it’s less shaky and more pleasing to watch! Thank you for watching and stopping by ❤
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Oh I love stationery stores!
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So glad to meet a fellow stationery lover 😀
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😁
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What a darling store! I’m so impressed there are so many cute places like this near you. The upcycled coasters are my favorite thing here.
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One of the perks of living in a dense and concentrated city–there’s a lot of everything! I really liked the coasters too. Though rather than buying, I wondered how I could weave my own 😀
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Yep. That’s what I would do too! 🙂
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Wow!! The store would have bankrupted a younger me. I’ve learned to curb my stationery buying (learning how to do hand-made books helps), but I love the bag and pencil holder so much and am going to try making one — or at least my version of one.
Thank you for the tour and the link; perhaps a wee bit of shopping wouldn’t hurt …..
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Su do you do bookbinding? I had a bit of a book binding phase last year. These days I’ll occasionally glue bind little notebooks. I’ll have to take better pictures of the book bag and pencil holder for you! It’s got two levels of snap buttons so you can fold it in half or thirds.
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Su, this link is to the book pouch product site. It’s obvi in Korean but hopefully you can get a better sense of the specs from the photos: http://www.gongjangstore.com/product/detail.html?product_no=682&cate_no=1&display_group=3
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Thank you so much. I’ve been playing with possible designs and trying to figure out if I have enough supplies to attempt making one. Our fabric stores are closed except for online sales, and their websites are so terrible to navigate!
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Oof. Hope you can find enough material (and the stores open soon). This one is made of nylon, but another durable fabric would also work I think. I was thinking upcycled denim jeans would look cute too. 🙂
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I was thinking some sort of heavy cotton. I was also tempted to up-cycle an obi, but it’s probably not particularly robust. I suspect the embroidered threads would get pulled quite quickly. There is a shop here that imports used textiles from Japan and I can get obi really cheaply. They make great cushion covers.
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Heavy cotton sounds good. Ooh an obi sounds really pretty! But as you said it probably wouldn’t be robust on its own if the bag is to be carried around and to carry things. In my next house I’d like to have a sewing machine. 🤩
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I do love mine. The trouble is, once you have a machine, then you need space to store it and all the other kit, and a table for cutting out …
I don’t have a permanent sewing space and have to drag everything out each time. But I am grateful that I can do that.
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Website for those of us outside of Korea? DANGEROUS.
Thanks for another tour of cuteness!
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Haha I should put an advisory in the post! WARNING! Thanks for the smile and for stopping by♡
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Oh my goodness! A book street – and it still has a cute Christmas ornament on one of the roofs! I like the idea of Christmas all year round!
Object is a wonderful treasure trove! It is so gratifying that bookstores (and book streets) are thriving in Seoul!
We have lost many of our bookstores in Singapore – too many online options, I think. Kinokuniya is our last stronghold. Others left are small independents, which we try very hard to support.
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Hehe! There were a couple of these fun balloon characters when I visited the book street. I believe the book street is closed now due to covid, since it is gov supported. But I did stop by a different indie book shop yesterday and it was just sooo nice to peruse all the self published books and zines.
I think the loss of bookstores is probably a global phenomenon. Indie bookstores also sell online, so hopefully that helps keep them afloat. But who knows how brick and mortar retail, and the world in general, will change now.
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Ah! They are balloon characters! What fun!
Our family still likes books – maybe one of the few among our family & friends. Most of them we borrow from the library still, and buy when we want our own copy.
I know, right, we have talked quite extensively about what life on the street will be like when this is all over. We have begun to see the smaller vendors hurting from the closures & restrictions; we understand the necessity, but mourn the impending loss.
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It was hard for me staying concentrated after I read that you have a whole street dedicated to books!!?? 😂 Oh my, that sounds like heaven! And only-pedestrian too!! Just wow! But back to the store – another heaven and how ever did you manage not to BUY.ALL.THINGS?!?! 😂 That book pouch is a definite must have!! Also thought how to do it myself but maybe I’ll just ask Su to make one for me too! 😉
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I have some photos of the book street from the fall, but I’m hoping to take better ones once it reopens up (fingers crossed) before sharing! Also you totally could make one. For your reference, this link to the book pouch product might be useful: http://www.gongjangstore.com/product/detail.html?product_no=682&cate_no=1&display_group=3 (It’s in Korean but you can see the product better from the design photos)
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Awesome! Thank you for the link! I will give it a try! 😀 Hope you’ll soon find the chance to make new pictures!!
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