How to Guide: Vintage shopping

I’ve been getting this question a lot recently: where do you get your vintage finds, anyway? The question certainly gave me pause. After checking out a similar blog post about Summer Antiquing by Invaluable, I wanted to give a go at answering it on my blog.

I will stop at any cute looking vintage/antique shop during my travels, but really, there are a few places that are my heavy hitters. Read on for my favourite places to shop for a beautiful bargain!

How to source rare finds on Kijiji

I’ve mentioned Kijiji before. It’s the equivalent of Craigslist around here. It’s the kind of site that you have to don’t mind sifting through dealers selling new furniture and people trying to make too much money on their junk, only to find that when you do find a gem it’s already gone. But with persistence, you can really snag some awesome stuff. Things I’ve found through Kijiji:

Morris Chair: An arts and crafts piece that I’ve since reupholstered, and our kitchen island that used to be a store front counter in its previous life.

How to pluck through garage sales

Garage sales are fairly labour intensive, often with minimal reward. But the thrill never really wears off when you score a really, really awesome find. Some examples:

Found this beautiful chair years ago and still love everything about it! And a metal fish. Awesome. Plus this metal box thingy that I would love to think is also functional but it’s not storing anything yet.

How to scour a ReStore

Habitat for Humanity is best known for it’s charity that build and provides affordable housing for families, but they also have this great side business. You can donate unused/old building materials at their ReStore locations and also shop there for whatever you may need for your next reno project! Major hardware stores routinely donate their overstock, and you can pick-up some amazing vintage pieces also. My prizes:

This chair. $2. And a fantastic daybed that doubles as couch for the kids to come and chat while I work, and a bed for guests.

Shopping at Local Thrift Stores

This is one of my favourite ways to buy textiles and kitchen ware.

My biggest scores ever were my Noritake Progression China cup and saucer set: Still get a small thrill every time I drink out of these babies, for which I paid a hefty 10 cents per pair….I actually bid at a silent auction for the horns, and won. Pretty happy about it, too, which is obvious since it’s the first thing you see when you walk in our house.

Finding Treasures at Vintage furniture shops

London and St. Thomas both have their fair share of commercial vintage shops. Some are better than others, but I always stop in when I have a spare 10 minutes to kill between errands. It usually pays off in the greatest of ways. In this case, both the lamp and dresser were steals.

My parents had a furniture set almost exactly like this when I was growing up. Total nostalgia!

There are also a few that I wish were just a little closer to home (sigh) but I will just have to make shopping a bigger part of my weekend excursions 🙂 They include:

bungalow
smashsalvage
artefacts