If you’ve been reading my blog for long, you know that I dearly love to shop secondhand for vintage and older pieces of furniture. Â There has been a huge surge in that market in the last 10 years, but I have been shopping that way for much longer than that. Â When I first set up house and started shopping for furniture, I had heard about antiques, but always thought they were way out of my price range. Â I didn’t think I could afford real antiques. Â Well, let me clarify that. Â I can’t afford the ones we see on Antiques Roadshow…those priceless heirlooms that were centuries old and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Â Those kinds of antiques were not in my budget then or now.
But, I quickly found out that I could afford vintage pieces, those mass produced pieces of furniture from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s that were plentiful and showing up in antiques stores and thrift stores all over the country. Â Solid wood furniture never goes out of style and that’s what I’ve built the bones of my home with. Â Good, solid pieces of furniture that have served me well for years.
I can remember hunting down and bringing home every single one of these and the thrill of the hunt was part of the appeal.  I will still buy new sofas and chairs for the most part and I won’t say I’ll never replace any of my pieces, but I am pretty content with the collection I’ve put together and don’t have a desire to constantly make changes around here.  Mixing old and new is the best way to get that eclectic and unique look in your house, not to mention it’s just plain fun to hunt down the bargains.
I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite pieces with you and how I came to find them. Antiques are considered real antiques when they are 100 years or older and I’m happy to say I have a few of those.
This over 100 year old mirror came from Chattanooga, TN. Â I was up there over 20 years ago with friends and found this in a dusty antique shop. Â It’s the first antique I ever bought and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Â The shop owner told me it came from an old bar/saloon in the area and I can see how that could be.
I love having pieces that are unique and not mass produced and that’s what you get when you shop vintage. Â This old French 1880’s cupboard is like nothing I had ever seen and I found it at Scott Antiques year ago. Â It’s one of the most expensive pieces I’ve bought, but if I remember correctly it was $1,200. Â Not bad when you consider the cost of new furniture and how much more appealing an older piece is for the long haul.
This marble topped plant stand came from an estate sale in the last couple of years. Â I thought it was so pretty and had to have it and at $35, it was a great deal. Â It actually came from a good friend’s dad’s estate, so it’s extra special to me. The Italian wine bottle on top is old as well.
This solid wood Henredon piece came from a yardsale too, at $25. Â It was a natural wood when I bought it and it’s gone from black to this pretty navy blue in our bedroom. It’s the perfect place to put on makeup.
I love color and definitely use color around our house. This armillary was $25 at a yardsale years ago and I still have it and display it on a glass table in our living room.
Family pieces are hard to come by in our family, since neither side of my family had much to pass down. I cherish this little mass produced side table from my grandma on my dad’s side. Â I claimed this one after her death and my dad brought it home. It’s not fancy, but it’s part of my heritage.
My mahogany buffet in the dining room is another classic piece that I’ve had for year. Â I bought it from an antiques store on the Marietta square years ago when there were many more antiques shops than there are now. Â I think I paid $550 for it, a bargain by today’s standards for something new of the same quality. Â If you try to go out to the furniture stores and buy new pieces that are all wood, you’ll definitely spend a fortune on real wood and they won’t be made as well as these older pieces are, for the most part.
I spotted this vintage Ethan Allen piece at a thriftstore for $25. Â I painted the bottom in an Annie Sloan Duck Egg chalk paint and this solid wood piece works just fine for me in our family room. These pics are from both my houses.
This is not a really old piece, but you can pick up so many cute items at antiques shops and thrift stores, which can be repurposed and painted to suit your room. Â I think this console piece was from Bombay Company originally and I paid $75 for it at an antiques store.
Our guest bedroom is an eclectic mix of styles and periods and I found this vintage Thomasville piece for $400. You can’t go wrong with these older vintage name brand pieces. Â It’s gotten a little beat up from moving a couple of times and one day I may paint it, who knows. But it’s a good solid piece of furniture.
My old master bedroom has a very old French bonnetiere/armoire that I picked up at Scott Antiques. It’s a beautiful piece, but I don’t have room for it in our new house. But it’s definitely a piece that I love. It was not a big bargain, but a beauty.
Mixing old and new has always been fun for me and I just can’t ever see myself going out and buying a whole new room of anything. Â That’s not to say that I won’t ever be shopping again, but when I do it will still be a mix of new and vintage. That way of shopping just has the most appeal for me and will always be something I want to incorporate in my house. Â A room just sings when it’s a mix of collected items and not all brand spanking new!
How about you? Are you mixing old and new?Â
Rhoda, love your style in decor and fashion and love your blog. Yours was the very first one that I followed and opened me up to discovering the world of blogs out there. I see you have have a mix of painted and original wood pieces. In a future post perhaps you could talk about how you decide what to paint and what to leave original. You have such good style sense and suggestions. I am afraid to lessen the value of some old furniture pieces. And I wonder when and if this painted furniture craze will come to an end and I will be sorry I painted all my old furniture LOL.
HI, Marcie, thanks so much! I’ll definitely try to remember to do a post about that. I would never paint my old antique pieces. I just posted this French buffet from this post on my Instagram account and someone tagged it for someone else to see, saying your paint would look great on this. I said NOOOOOO, this piece will never be painted, it’s French from the 1880’s. No way!! Anyway, I’m not a complete purist and like painted pieces, but I agree, this painted craze will end some day and then the paint stripping will begin! I try to keep it balanced out and only paint pieces that aren’t worth much or have seen better days.
Hi, Rhoda!
It’s Cat from Cumming. I still remember visiting you during your open house, and marveling over the beautiful condition your Singer sewing machine table is in. When you told me it had come down through your family, I felt so thrilled for you. To have a treasure like that! Wow!
I’m like you – nearly everything I own has been collected over the years from every conceivable place (even cast-offs on curbs!). I love thinking about all of the hands, souls, and memories, that have touched them. It’s an honor and a joy to be the “steward” of these old treasures. I really enjoyed your post!
You have some really lovely pieces Rhoda, I especially love the green painted table which looks a bit like it could be used as a desk too. I am always looking on line for bargain pieces to paint, currently looking for something for my hallway/entrance but the size is a problem. Thanks for sharing,
Lee
I loved this post, and especially a discovery I made! The table that you said you got from your grandma is exactly like mine. Many years ago, when we first moved into our house, we needed a table for the living room. There was an ad in a local paper, and my husband and I drove to the other side of town to look at the furniture the buyer was selling. She had that table and another smaller table. Both were in dire need of refinishing. At the time, we had a local business nearby that did nothing but refinish wood furniture. I liked the table so much and wanted it to be perfect for the room, so I paid to have it refinished. That was the one and only time I have ever had a piece professionally refinished. It looks exactly like yours! I did not realize it until now, but I guess it was refinished to it’s original state. Oh, the lady who sold the table said it was from her grandmother, and she remembered that the grandmother always had fresh cut flowers in a vase placed on that table.
HI, Melanie, that’s a great story. The only thing I’ve done to that table is add a poly on top for protection over the years. I’m sure it was not an expensive table, but it’s part of my family.
I love, love, love older furniture and have been a nervous wreck with the trend to paint it all. Some of it begs for paint, but some of it is so beautiful as-is. Your collection is wonderful and I love it mixed with newer things.
I enjoy mixing old and new also. Your pieces all look beautiful. Especially like your makeup vanity.
Great work, Rhoda. Oh how I love “saving” old pieces, usually with a lick of paint, they still have a lot to give and it gives them a new lease of life … shame I can’t work the same magic on me!
Most are successes but 30 years ago I (naively) chemically stripped the “wood” off the Jones treadle I was gifted and quickly discovered it was veneer, which of course lifted. Your pretty Singer reminded me of that lesson learned. I still have the iron base but it is topped by a piece of limestone these days.
Lmx.
Absolutely buying old and used pieces. You can find such neat pieces that way. I will buy a new sofa, one day. Antiques just aren’t that comfy.
You have some beautiful pieces there. I love the ones you have painted. Our family did not have pieces to inherit either. However, I have my piano (a birthday gift when I was 9) and my bedroom suit (a gift when I was 14). Since I’m in my 60’s, they now qualify as antiques. Also, I have my mom’s treadle Singer machine. I keep it open with a piece of glass over the opening for the machine so I can use it as my crafting table.
Oh Rhoda — it’s your yardsaling expertise that first drew me to you! 🙂 What a wonderful round-up. I actually scooped up some great deals this past fall…it was slim picking for a while but I seem to be on a thrifty upswing! I’ve been doing a bit of purging since the December holidays to make room for my new-old treasures. I will never tire of collecting, and of combining old and new for a unique look that I feel makes our house a home (My friend lovingly calls our thrifty style grandmama chic and I think he’s nailed it!)
Finally have my email to functioning properly here in Dubai, fortunately just in time to see this latest posting! I’m happy I didn’t miss it as I love the look your antique and repurposed pieces mixed in with your other furnishings gives. An eclectic style has always been my favorite and you’ve accomplished it so well. The pieces you have in your home give it that ‘collected’ look many designers advocate and attempt to accomplish, (occasionally by spending inordinate amounts of money, hahaha…). You’ve made it yours by being patient, thrifty and resourceful, not afraid of working with what you’ve found to make it suit your lifestyle and make it ‘a fit’ for your home, for my part that’s quite an accomplishment!!
Although over the years of following your blog I’ve seen you lovingly pamper and restore your cherished family pieces, purchase those antiques you loved, as well as gleefully find and repurpose many of your cherished bargains, it was great to see it all come together. Great post, I enjoyed it very much!!
Beautiful pieces telling sweet stories of history! Love your grandmother’s sewing machine and the tassel on the French cupboard!
Hello Rhoda, I enjoyed this post. My favorite one so far! I enjoyed seeing your antique furniture and vintage pieces. You are so talented knowing how and what to display with. It gives me a few new ideas. Have a great (rest of the week.)
Thanks for sharing all you beautiful “finds” you are great at putting pieces together that I would have never thought of doing. Look forward to all your post.
Hello Rhoda, I love the idea of scoring unique vintage pieces, but where do you even begin? This blog on decorating with vintage furniture is a great start, but any tips for beginners out there?
Hi, Adriana, back then I was outfitting my house and didn’t have a lot of money to spend, so thrifting and shopping at second hand shops were fun to me. Looking for vintage wood pieces that had a lot of life left were what I looked for. Go to antique malls, thriftstores, consignment shops and just get familiar with what is out there. You’ll see a lot of solid wood pieces at all those places and those pieces are much better than what is sold new today. That’s what I did for years and I still have many pieces in my home that I bought back then. I don’t go out and buy all new stuff as trends change, I refresh in other ways and the older vintage pieces are wonderful to live with. I hope this helps!