Play It Again

Hey there party people! You are listening to episode 33 of Soft Landing, the podcast for Do-It-Yourself-ers, and interior design stans, fans, and aficionados. 

I know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have at least even a tiny, little, itty bitty obsession with furniture. It’s okay - your secret is safe with me. In fact, I’m here to keep the furniture fan club alive and well. We are here to celebrate all things as the french say “meuble”. I’ve talked about Ikea on episode three of this podcast, I’ve talked about Target’s furniture offerings- and today we are going down the rabbit hole of green and sustainable furniture AKA thrifted furniture.

I took a poll on my instagram a few months back, and I asked how many pieces of vintage or thrifted furniture you owned and it seemed split between some of you having a ton and others have none or maybe a couple. So for those of you that do own a lot of vintage furniture, you are my heroes- keep doing what you are doing. Today’s episode is all about outlining resources and methods that will help you take your collections even further and help you through the inevitable issues that arise with used items. For those of you that don’t have a lot of thrifted pieces this episode will help you get started, get informed and feel prepared to take a step into the world of vintage and used furniture because there’s a lot to keep in mind and I’m just going to start with the truth - this is not the easiest way to get furniture. It requires digging, it requires patience, and you have to get a feel for it. It will always be easier to open amazon and type what you are looking for into the search bar and hit purchase, but there are so many reasons why thrifting furniture is the best way to go for your home.

The level of authenticity that you get from vintage furniture is off the charts, and what I mean by authenticity is you aren’t dealing with a copy of a copy of a copy the way an item in a furniture store can be - which -  side note, theres nothing new under the sun, every piece of furniture you see online or in a store is at the very least taking precedent from some previous decade or trend, and at the very worst is straight up ripping something off. When you shop for vintage furniture, you’re looking at original pieces, items that were designed in by gone eras that were of that particular moment. Even if its an item that was mass produced at one time, chances are so many of its siblings were thrown away, damaged or destroyed that by now its a  very unique piece. So that means that what you bring into your home is maybe not one of a kind, although it could be, but the likely hood that someone else would be able to run out and get something just like it is way less than if you’re shopping at Crate and Barrel. 

There’s this element of treasure hunting - you are gifted with sense of pride that occurs when you score something that you truly love because it’s something you worked for. the act of thrifting is a much more creative process than shopping for furniture at a national chain. you have to look work with whats available rather than asking a sales person  if something is available in another color, you can take on the creativity of making it another color,  and that ultimately puts you in the drivers seat in a way that nothing in West Elm can.

Not to mention, you are more likely to end up with a piece of furniture that is crafted to a quality standard that basically doesn’t exist anymore. they don’t make things like they used to, and thats a cliche for a reason - furniture is a great example of this. So many pieces of upholstered goods like sofas and chairs in store today actually have a skeletal structure made of cardboard. and hey, I love cardboard as much ad the next designer, but believe me, they aren’t making it known to consumers - bragging about their cardboard frames inside every sofa! You won’t find that with older pieces -you’re much more likely to find solid wood in place of laminate, chip board, and plastic.

The elephant in the room is that purchasing used furniture is a major factor in our ability to fight for a sustainable future and take care of our planet. Interior design and construction has a massive carbon footprint problem, which is an industry wide issue that designers everywhere are wrestling with - our desire to creative completely customized visions from scratch versus our primal birthright understanding that the onus of taking care of the planet we inhabit is in us alone. And so much of this can be solved with that old platitude of reduce reuse recycle - and thrifting furniture covers all three of those tenants.

When I buy thrifted furniture, I like to think of it as rescuing something from the dumpster- people love rescuing puppies and kittens off the street, you can do the same thing with furniture. Tell people when they complement you on it. Thanks, it’s a rescue. You’re lessening demand for new furniture so really the environmental impact is two fold.  You could have a carbon negative living room if you really set your mind to it…

One more point that may seem obvious but I think is important to emphasize is that thrifting furniture is economical. There are so many resources that provide low cost and even free second hand furniture - if you’re on a budget there is no better way to furniture, accessorize and style your space than with second hand furniture.

So where do you even get second hand furniture? Are all second hand sources created equal? I mentioned that there are sources for free furniture a second ago so I want to start with the lowest cost resources and work our way up to the high end antique realm. 

This may seem a little obvious, but a great free source for second hand furniture that’s available in every city, is your friends and family. Literally asking friends and family if they want to get rid of anything, plenty of people have things they are meaning to get ride of. You’ll be doing them a favor to haul away an d extra dresser or an old chair. Especially if someone is getting ready to move - think of that as a flash sale. Hit them up.

Now if you’re a little bolder and into the risk/reward cycle - consider going cruising on trash night! 

New York City trash is particularly excellent for this, its a bit of a new york phenomenon that people simply leave items like area rugs, sofas, end tables, books, and even kitchen appliances out on the curb, knowing full well someone will come and swipe them up before the garbage truck gets anywhere close. Richie-rich neighborhoods like park slope and  the upper west side are particularly great for this, I’m shocked by what some people throw out, but honestly I get it - it’s just the easiest way to get ride of something. And I will tell you, I practice what I preach, I said my wedding vows on a beautiful aqua blue area rug I found on 8th avenue. 

Now, if you don’t live in NYC, consider driving through the upscale neighborhoods in your town for stuff thats left out - it never hurts to look. I get that some people feel grossed out and I would not advocate ever doing this for a mattress or maybe even any large upholstered items, within reason - but use your judgement! Side tables,

plant stands, storage of all kinds - one persons trash is another person brand new living room furniture.

Okay okay I get that dumpster diving and stooping isn’t for everyone, so if thats a non starter for you, skip directly to the online market, which is a great for scoring local finds.

Websites like craigslist, free cycle, Letgo, and Facebook Marketplace are all easy to browse, search and save. You will find a wide variety of quality of these websites. One rule of thumb I follow on these sites is to look for listings that use images of the actual piece being sold, rather than a catalogue image - this allows you to really understand the level of wear and tear on your prospective new purchase. make sure to ask sellers lots of questions, ask for follow up detail images of joinery, corners and seams. If a seller doesn’t seem helpful or eager- move on. And keep in mind that the turn over on these sties is high so the item you are looking at may have already been snatched up, try to approach it as light heartedly as possible - if you get something for a steal, great. If not - there will be more listed tomorrow. Also - Most of these listings ask for buyers to pick up the items - And if you feel weird about picking something up from a stranger, bring a friend or two.

I’m also an huge fan yard sales, I love seeing all the random stuff people try to sell, but if you’re serious about finding good items, you kind of have to plan out your trip - know about sales a head of time and get to them early, before all the crown jewels are taken.

Then there are my personal favorite - all the second hand stores like good will, Salvation Army, St. Vincent DePaul, and local salvage shops. Every town has these stores, and it pays to get to know the ones near you - I’ve found that there are always certain locations that focus more on furniture while other mainly have clothes and toys. Once you know which of your local thrift stores is the furniture hot spot, go often - make browsing part of the process. it’s okay to leave empty handed on a regular basis, the point of thrifting is not settle for whats in the store, but to wait patiently until that rare find happens to be right in front of you at the right time. Sometimes for me it feels like the furniture finds me. I just have to show up for it. It’s a different experience than going to the mall or target - the inventory is new constantly and once something is gone, it wont get restocked, so if you feel excited about something, don’t walk away. You also never know what might show up, so keep an open mind. 

Somewhere in the middle of the scale from street trash first dibs lies estate sales. If you haven’t been to an estate sale before, you have many adventures ahead of you. An estate sale occur when a full property is being sold off, usually after the head of the estate passes on. These a scheduled open houses where lots of eager thrifters wait inline in the early morning hours to be let into mansions and homes where literally everything inside them is for sale. This can be a fun process just for the experience of seeing inside someones lavish home, but you can find a wide variety of unique and very cool items, from clothes to jewelry and yes, so much furniture. Depending on how motivated the sellers are, prices can be shockingly affordable or closer to some of the more antique store prices, but its always worth the look. Plenty of estate sales are online now as well, letting you browse from the comfort of your home.

So at the far end of the spectrum we have high end resale and antique shops. These in themselves vary from being similar in price to west elm to major major dollar signs. Plenty of these places have more of a stiff collector vibe, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth checking out! You will be able to see some of the highest quality secondhand pieces around, and thats important at the very least for comparison purposes.

Now, sometimes the pieces we find are in tiptop shape and thats great, but a lot of times they need a little TLC, so it’s good to know what to have in your tool kit. Get friendly with your local neighborhood reupholsterer - getting a vintage piece reupholstered in the fabric of your choice may be one of the most satisfying home upgrades in the world, this is not the first time I will mentioned this on this podcast and it wont be the last. I’m telling you - its life changing. You may also want to get comfortable with the idea sanding and refinishing - I go through this process in detail is the episode called skincare for your furniture.

At the very least, you’ll want to give your new rescue a good cleaning - try wiping an item down with warm water and soft cotton rag, and if the piece needs any more detailing, add a little white vinegar to some water to get things super clean. FABRICs and rugs can be vacuumed and steam cleaned. 

Some of you may have seen my most recent thrifted  purchase that I posted on instagram -I purchase an old metal and glass bar cart that I am using as my new work station and Im completely in love with it, but there was a little unexpected issue - tobacco smell!

honestly I think things that have a story to them are so much more interesting than the things that you just buy brand new at a store. even though the bar cart I bought needed a deep cleaning, I love the idea that this piece has a whole history to it, like I imagined that it was probably used in someone’s living room as a true bar cart and people would have their little drink concoction library all set up on it and they would serve people and smoke cigarettes and I have these like madman style images in my mind and it just makes me happy to think about my little desks previous life.

Thank you so much for joining me today and if you have any stories about thrifted pieces you want to share with me, send me a message on instagram @softlandingpodcast - I hope you have an awesome week and do something awesome for your space!