My Five Favourite Places To Shop For (Affordable) Vintage Homewares
Here’s the BIGGEST SECRET, amazing vintage homewares are EVERYWHERE! No really! And they are often pretty cheap too. Why? Because every house has a finite amount of space and once that space has been used up, you have to let the unwanted furniture go. Whilst a cute vintage dresses can sit unworn in a wardrobe for years, the same can’t be said for a mid-century coffee table. Once it’s time is done, it’s done and that’s where we swoop in… am I right?! The biggest challenge with vintage furniture shopping is using your imagination. You need to see past the charity shop clutter, past the bad Ebay photos and instead think about how that bamboo shelving unit would look next to your pot plant and waxed wood floor. Answer: Cute AF! It’s SO easy to sand back table tops, re-wax wood, paint sideboards and change handles. I promise you, if you look, amazing vintage furniture is everywhere, you just need to look for it and use your imagination! In these photos, both rugs, the side table, the curtain tassels and floor lamp are ALL vintage / second hand… would you have guessed?!
Local Charity Shops (Especially For Big Pieces)
I’m addicted to my local charity shops, my favourite has to be the British Heart Foundation Furniture store. I’ve made donations and bought plenty from here. From a coal bucket to a pink chair, a sideboard to a bamboo coffee table. Look past the clutter and look for anything old and Anthropologie-esque! You can also find really basic furniture to do up cycling projects on… like this one!
Etsy (Make Sure You Filter Location!)
I LOVE Etsy for vintage, the only thing is, if you are shopping for furniture, make sure you are looking for your local Etsy, for me that’s Etsy.co.uk or filter your search by location. You don’t want to fall in love with a sofa which needs collecting from Portland. We got our vintage tea chests from Etsy which we use as bedside tables in our Airbnb.
Ebay (& Best Delivery Options!)
I have bought (and sold!) SO much amazing furniture on Ebay. One of my favourite things is probably this sofa and this chair. FYI, the sofa was actually FREE (no really! The seller gave it to me as the highest bidder never collected it and she said I could have it for free if I collected it immediately!) and this pink chair was £1.20. Just type in keywords and see what happens, also filter by location if you want to see what you can find locally to avoid shipping costs. Also, save yourself the effort of hiring a van and just use Anyvan, it’s fast and affordable, especially if you can be fairly flexible with dates.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook marketplace varies from area to area, but it’s where the hipsters are buying and selling their unwanted furniture. check it out, you never know what’s going cheap in our area!
Local Vintage Furniture Stores (Tried & True!)
In my experience, vintage stores can vary massively price wise, but it’s always worth looking around. The great thing about vintage stores is they tend to merchandise better so you can get a better idea of how items will look in your home, and often items are cleaned up and polished for sale too, so they can be cleaned up and put straight into your home. I bought this vintage record player sideboard from a local vintage furniture store and honestly, it makes me happy every day! It cost £150 which I think is pretty amazing!! Also, if you live in East London, look out for gems at brick lane market, broadway market and any pop-up furniture sales. Also, if you wait til the end of the market / sale, the prices get even better, especially for the bigger, bulkier items which are more annoying for the sellers to load up into their vans and store until the next sale date… you know it! Play the long game and it pays off!
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…And there we have it, I hope this post if of help, let me know if you have any questions and my best advice is just use your imagination! Oh and this post contains some affiliate links.
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