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When I first began living on my own, I didn’t really have any furniture. I started with an IKEA bed and a hand-me-down dresser; from there, I added wobbly particle-board bookshelves and lumpy couches left behind by previous housemates. By the time I was getting ready to move into my current house, a year and a half ago, most of my furniture was, frankly, kind of crappy.
So I started scouring Craigslist, and checking the furniture section at the thrift store, and called in favors from a few friends who owned vans or SUVs. When I moved into my new place, I had ditched most of the old stuff and replaced it with better-made, better-looking vintage pieces, almost none of which cost more than $200 individually (and that was for a midcentury modern dining table with eight teak chairs). Since then, I’ve also swapped out most of my particle-board bookshelves for hardwood replacements. I still pick up nice pieces when I see them and the price is right— most recently, a glass-fronted cabinet ($25), a velvet settee ($300, which is more than I’d usually pay), and a coffee table/console/end table set ($100).
Actual furniture & art currently in my house.
There are a lot of reasons I prefer my current furnishings to the old ones. Well-made vintage pieces are sturdier, last longer, can better survive dis- and re-assembly, and (in my opinion, anyway) generally look nicer. I do still have a couple of Billy bookcases and a Lillesand bed, but I am also a human person under the age of 40 and living within 50 miles of an IKEA, so that’s kind of inevitable.
There’s one other good reason for buying vintage that gets overlooked. The furniture and other housewares I’ve bought secondhand will not lose value; in fact, should I ever resell them they will probably go for more than I paid.
Because here’s the thing: if I hit a rough patch, or an unexpected medical bill, or other major unplanned expense, I am probably not going to have to resort to hocking my laptop or my few pieces of good jewelry. I can sell my 1930s enamel-topped breakfast table (bought from Craigslist for $85; would resell for $200 easily), or my 1920s spool cabinet (bought from an estate sale for $25, would fetch $250+ at an antique store), or a few of the thrifted paintings off my walls. They are all lovely things that I enjoy owning very much, but I would be fine without them and I would find equivalent replacements eventually.
So: let’s say you want to start divesting yourself of particle board. How should you start? What should you look for? How much should you be willing to pay?
Where to Find Good-Quality Vintage Furniture On the Cheap
What Should You Be Looking For?
What Should You Avoid?
Questions to Ask Yourself
Easy Fixes
What Should I Expect to Pay?
Obviously, this depends on your budget and patience level. I personally am an advocate for holding out until you find the exact right thing at the price you are willing to pay. As a general rule, I almost never spend more than $150 on any given piece of furniture, and $200 is generally my limit except in VERY special cases. Of the pieces pictured above, I spent $25 or less on everything but the couches and the dresser. Half-height hardwood bookcases (often with nice carved details) can frequently be had for $10-15.
Thrift stores are usually going to be your cheapest option, but they rarely allow haggling the way estate sales and Craigslist do. It also helps to go thrifting and check listings often— because I run a vintage business, I go thrifting at least weekly and check online listings a couple of times a week. When I am looking for a specific piece I will check Craigslist at least every other day, and will usually find what I want within a week or two.
Conducting the Search
If you can’t find the exact thing you want, a dirt-cheap stopgap solution can sometimes be acceptable. I still haven’t found the pre-1950 seven-drawer teacher’s desk I want at the price I want, so I bought a white-painted 5x3 solid wood table with nice turned legs for $50; it will be totally usable as a desk until I find something better, I can resell it for at least what I paid, and I might even end up liking it enough to keep it.
Distance is also a factor: when I wanted a Lane chest, the one two blocks away was a lot more appealing than the one I had to drive to Virginia for. Looking close to home first, before you widen your search, is a good way to save driving time and transport costs.
It also helps to do a little research to figure out what styles you like. Pinterest is REALLY good for this. I personally like early 20thc stuff, especially 30s and 40s. You might like midcentury modern better, or a rougher, more industrial look.
Once you’ve decided on a look, you do NOT have to drain your bank account all at once. If you find a key piece, there’s nothing wrong with waiting a couple of months before you start looking for the next one; in the meantime keep your eyes peeled for really good deals and smaller things, like art or lamps, that will class up the joint.
Once in a great while the stars will align, and you’ll be able to rent a Uhaul on a Saturday morning, make three stops fifteen minutes apart from each other, and come home with half a room for $400. This is awesome when it happens, but usually requires advanced-level craphound skills which take time to develop. In the meantime, be patient and think about paint colors.
Good luck, and happy hunting!
When I first began living on my own, I didn’t really have any furniture. I started with an IKEA bed and a hand-me-down dresser; from there, I added wobbly particle-board bookshelves and lumpy couches left behind by previous housemates. By the time I was getting ready to move into my current house, a year and a half ago, most of my furniture was, frankly, kind of crappy.
So I started scouring Craigslist, and checking the furniture section at the thrift store, and called in favors from a few friends who owned vans or SUVs. When I moved into my new place, I had ditched most of the old stuff and replaced it with better-made, better-looking vintage pieces, almost none of which cost more than $200 individually (and that was for a midcentury modern dining table with eight teak chairs). Since then, I’ve also swapped out most of my particle-board bookshelves for hardwood replacements. I still pick up nice pieces when I see them and the price is right— most recently, a glass-fronted cabinet ($25), a velvet settee ($300, which is more than I’d usually pay), and a coffee table/console/end table set ($100).
Actual furniture & art currently in my house.
There are a lot of reasons I prefer my current furnishings to the old ones. Well-made vintage pieces are sturdier, last longer, can better survive dis- and re-assembly, and (in my opinion, anyway) generally look nicer. I do still have a couple of Billy bookcases and a Lillesand bed, but I am also a human person under the age of 40 and living within 50 miles of an IKEA, so that’s kind of inevitable.
There’s one other good reason for buying vintage that gets overlooked. The furniture and other housewares I’ve bought secondhand will not lose value; in fact, should I ever resell them they will probably go for more than I paid.
Because here’s the thing: if I hit a rough patch, or an unexpected medical bill, or other major unplanned expense, I am probably not going to have to resort to hocking my laptop or my few pieces of good jewelry. I can sell my 1930s enamel-topped breakfast table (bought from Craigslist for $85; would resell for $200 easily), or my 1920s spool cabinet (bought from an estate sale for $25, would fetch $250+ at an antique store), or a few of the thrifted paintings off my walls. They are all lovely things that I enjoy owning very much, but I would be fine without them and I would find equivalent replacements eventually.
So: let’s say you want to start divesting yourself of particle board. How should you start? What should you look for? How much should you be willing to pay?
Where to Find Good-Quality Vintage Furniture On the Cheap
- Thrift stores (find out if your local stores have discount days— all the Value Villages around here do 25% off on Mondays and Thursdays)
- Estate sales (check estatesales.net, which will email you a daily list of sales within driving range if you sign up)
- Craigslist (useful search terms: “vintage,” “solid wood,” “sturdy”)
- Yard sales (check listings on Craigslist; there are also several ‘yard sale mapper’ smartphone apps)
- Small local flea markets (NOT bigger, antiques-only markets, which will be expensive)
What Should You Be Looking For?
- Pieces made of solid wood (IMPORTANT: including the backing!)
- Pieces with hand-turned or hand-carved details
- Dovetail joints
- Drawers that pull in and out smoothly— same goes for rolltops on desks and drop leaves on tables
- Upholstery in good condition— no stains, rips, or pilling
- Veneers & inlay, if any, in good condition— no missing, broken, or warped pieces
- Pieces YOU LIKE— what is your personal taste?
What Should You Avoid?
- PARTICLE BOARD, especially if it is a piece that needs to be disassembled for transport— every time you take it apart, it will be harder to put back together
- Anything with unfixably wobbly, loose, or missing parts
- Anything missing hard-to-replace hardware or glass
- Anything that cannot stand flat on a level floor
- Seriously bad smells— a little mustiness is fine and usually airs out, but if the couch smells like cat pee now it will ALWAYS smell like cat pee
Questions to Ask Yourself
- Do I have a way of getting this home?
- If I don’t, will the extra cost of a Uhaul be worth it?
- Does this need any major work done to be usable? Do I have the time, skill, and energy to do that work? (This is where being a chronically underemployed Millenial can come in SUPER handy)
- Are there any easy fixes to the problems with it? (For instance, missing knobs or pulls— I highly recommend D. Lawless Hardware for vintage-style knobs and other hardware. Their prices are good enough that you can just buy a full set of new pulls if you can’t match the ones already in place.)
- Will it look good alongside the other furniture already in my house?
- Will I use it?
- Will this be a significant upgrade from a piece I already own?
Easy Fixes
- Wooden chairs with fabric seats can easily be recovered with fabric you like better.
- Desktops or tabletops with a lot of stains and scratches can be repainted (note: this is NOT an endorsement of slapping a coat of milk paint on a perfectly nice piece of furniture and calling it ‘shabby chic’. Repainting is for stuff that is unsightly or unusable without it.)
- As mentioned above, if a few knobs are missing, it is often easier to pull off the rest and replace the whole set
- Missing a vital bolt or screw? Bring one of the remaining ones with you to the hardware store to find a match.
What Should I Expect to Pay?
Obviously, this depends on your budget and patience level. I personally am an advocate for holding out until you find the exact right thing at the price you are willing to pay. As a general rule, I almost never spend more than $150 on any given piece of furniture, and $200 is generally my limit except in VERY special cases. Of the pieces pictured above, I spent $25 or less on everything but the couches and the dresser. Half-height hardwood bookcases (often with nice carved details) can frequently be had for $10-15.
Thrift stores are usually going to be your cheapest option, but they rarely allow haggling the way estate sales and Craigslist do. It also helps to go thrifting and check listings often— because I run a vintage business, I go thrifting at least weekly and check online listings a couple of times a week. When I am looking for a specific piece I will check Craigslist at least every other day, and will usually find what I want within a week or two.
Conducting the Search
If you can’t find the exact thing you want, a dirt-cheap stopgap solution can sometimes be acceptable. I still haven’t found the pre-1950 seven-drawer teacher’s desk I want at the price I want, so I bought a white-painted 5x3 solid wood table with nice turned legs for $50; it will be totally usable as a desk until I find something better, I can resell it for at least what I paid, and I might even end up liking it enough to keep it.
Distance is also a factor: when I wanted a Lane chest, the one two blocks away was a lot more appealing than the one I had to drive to Virginia for. Looking close to home first, before you widen your search, is a good way to save driving time and transport costs.
It also helps to do a little research to figure out what styles you like. Pinterest is REALLY good for this. I personally like early 20thc stuff, especially 30s and 40s. You might like midcentury modern better, or a rougher, more industrial look.
Once you’ve decided on a look, you do NOT have to drain your bank account all at once. If you find a key piece, there’s nothing wrong with waiting a couple of months before you start looking for the next one; in the meantime keep your eyes peeled for really good deals and smaller things, like art or lamps, that will class up the joint.
Once in a great while the stars will align, and you’ll be able to rent a Uhaul on a Saturday morning, make three stops fifteen minutes apart from each other, and come home with half a room for $400. This is awesome when it happens, but usually requires advanced-level craphound skills which take time to develop. In the meantime, be patient and think about paint colors.
Good luck, and happy hunting!
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Date: 2014-11-17 11:20 pm (UTC)