Second-Hand Furniture shopping
When I took part in Grillo Designs, How I Rent series, one thing Medina commented on was my love of second-hand furniture / a bargain. And it’s true, I really do love hunting out second-hand furniture for our home, for a few reasons really:
We rent, and I don’t want to invest in big pieces of furniture as up until recently I‘ve moved almost every year of my adult life and what works for one space, doesn’t always work for the next.
It’s mostly cheaper than buying something new, I can’t have an expensive dress habit and an expensive furniture one too, it has to be one or the other. I also find the quality is better too.
It adds character, I love the feel of older pieces, and I’m quite into the hunt too. I enjoy finding just the right piece.
It’s really customisable and adaptable. With a sand, lick of paint and in some cases the upgrading of hardware, the possibilities are endless
It’s totally unique to you, now don’t get me wrong I love Instagram, but it can be very easy for our homes to look exactly the same. Of course, certain trends will be popular, which I am sure I have a few of in my home, but I love the fact secondhand furniture is unique to you.
Floral Chair
By far my best second-hand purchase, and if I haven’t bored you with the story of how we came to be together, indulge me again? When we lived in Margate, we lived very near the British Heart Foundation furniture shop. I’d have a mooch at least once a week, and then one week I saw the floral sofa of my dreams. We had had a red leather one in our flat, which we covered in cream throws, but it was a constant fight with those throws which kept slipping off because of the leather. The floral sofa came with a chair and a pouffe, for one hundred and forty English pounds. Now at the time, that seemed like a stretch, but after a week of longingly staring at the 3 piece, I emailed my landlord to see if they could remove the red sofas (it was supposed to be unfurnished flat anyhow) and when I got the green light off I trotted to buy the floral sofa. When I got there, SOMEONE ELSE HAD BOUGHT IT. Well, I didn’t stop going on about that sofa for a week, until one day on the way back from the beach, there it was, back in the window pride of place. To not cut a long story short at all, turns out the person who bought it returned it because it didn’t fit. It was a bank holiday, so the second the BHF opened again, I was the first person stood outside ready to go. Friends kindly wheeled it up Margate High Street, up two flights of stairs, and we’ve been together ever since. We’ve since said goodbye to the sofa, when we moved to Lincoln we learnt it wasn't actually very comfy at all. But the chair is extremely comfy, and it is my favourite place to sit and read a book.
Dresser
Next to the floral chair sits a dresser, which once belonged to my now 18-year-old nephew when he was a baby and used to be a changing table. His parents got all their nursery furniture for a pretty penny from Mama’s and Papas, and because it's solid pine it was in perfect condition all those years later. Whilst I know some people get very upset about painted wooden furniture I knew with a lick of chalk paint it would be perfect in the alcove in our living room. I upgraded the handles to gold ones from Dowsing and Reynolds (https://www.dowsingandreynolds.com/shop/drawer-pull-handles-surrealist/), which I wouldn’t want to be buying more than two of, but I think it was worth it.
Wardrobe
This wardrobe has had a life, once upon a time, it lived in my bedroom when I lived at home with my parents over 16 years ago. When I moved out the top part went in the garage, and the drawer part of it was used for built-in wardrobes. Fast forward to 2018, when we moved into our current house the top part went in my daughter’s room, we painted it with leftover paint from our bathroom and we added hairpin legs which you can read more about here. Just last week, the built-in wardrobes at my parent’s house have been recently been changed, freeing up the drawers. We needed more storage in my daughter’s room, where do these toys come from? So the hairpin legs have been taken off and the two pieces of the wardrobe have been reunited at long last.
Rattan Shelf
What is better than second-hand furniture? Free second-hand furniture! Out on one of our daily walks last year, I saw this bamboo shelf outside someone’s house. Now I normally assume most furniture outside someone’s house is free to take (always check for a moving van first), but normally there’s at least a sign or other bits and bobs sat together. I decided to knock on the door to check, and when the person said I was good to go we took them home and now they live in our kitchen. One of the hooks needs replacing, and I am sure it’s one of those jobs I’ll get round to one day, it just needs a small piece of dowl to be as good as new. To ensure my free furniture karma is topped up, I often put good quality bits and bobs outside when we are having a clear-out, one man’s trash….
Curtains
Ok, not strictly furniture, but my favourite thing to shop second hand for. Again because we rent, I don’t want to invest in curtains for our space because have you seen the price of curtains?! Both the curtains in the living room and my daughter’s room are from eBay, and also both are lined which is a great bonus of buying older curtains. There’s always a lot of curtains for sale, you do have to be patient to wait for the right width/length but when they come up, it’s quite a thrill.
Do you have second-hand pieces in your home? Let me know in the comments.
P.S. I will definitely do another piece about buying non-furniture pieces and smaller trinkets second hand and what I like to look out for at antique fairs now they are open again.
