Stylish, sustainable and purse-friendly – what’s not to love about shopping second hand or 'thrifting' as it's often called in USA? As well as the chance to pick up unique pieces, anything you re-home is saved from ending up in landfill and buying preloved saves on the materials and energy required to produce something new.
Here’s how to make the most of preloved homewares…
How to go 'thrifting'
How to choose the right interior style
A great choice for modern lifestyles is mid-century modern style as it fits in a variety of settings. We don’t always stay in one house forever, we move around, so it’s good to have that versatility. I’ve lived in a Victorian terrace and I’ve just moved into a new build, and that look fits in both properties. When you’re shopping, look out for design classics and brands that were known for good quality, such as Ercol and vintage Laura Ashley. Often, you can get your hands on quality labels that aren’t in production anymore and you know those items are going to stand the test of time.
Find guides to many different interior styles, from Edwardian to Art Deco, shabby chic to Parisian
Think creatively
Make a beeline for easily overlooked items, particularly textiles. You can get amazing old curtains, bedding and cuts of fabric, which can be made into cushions, patchwork quilts or curtains to suit your home now. Look out for coordinating patterns, colours and textures. Seeing the potential of some goods might take imagination, but thinking outside the box is key to successful second-hand shopping as you can’t just walk into a store with a list and go and get it.
How to 'thrift' with confidence
If you’re new to shopping second hand, start small: this way, if you buy something you decide afterwards doesn’t fit your space, you haven’t wasted a lot of money.
If you have a dinner service that’s had a few breakages over the years, a great place to start is picking up replacement pieces.
Resist the temptation to buy every good-value item you come across! A moodboard and a clear idea of what you’re working towards can help you to pin down exactly what you’re looking for, as buying too much can end up diluting your vision.
Try upcycling
Once you’ve built up some confidence, consider taking on an upcycling project but before purchasing, ask yourself what the worst-case scenario is. If you’re buying a sideboard with a mark on it, what if you can’t get the mark out? Would you sell it on? Would you paint it? Stick a vase over it? As long as you have a solution, go for it. You’ll find hundreds of tutorials online to help you with pretty much any DIY project you want to have a go at, with many using chalk paint. Paint companies, such as Annie Sloan, Frenchic, Dulux and Rust-Oleum also have lots of upcycling projects on their websites to guide and inspire you. You can also find lots of projects in our DIY and craft sections.
Where to go second-hand shopping or 'thrifting'
As well as getting to know the smaller charity shops or vintage furniture stores in your area (called thrift stores in the USA), look for charity-shop superstores. Emmaus, for example, has big warehouses nationwide and Air Ambulance is also setting itself up in bigger spaces. These massive operations have a lot more variety and they’re often cheaper because they’re trying to move items on.
Don’t forget to look at some of the online options out there too. As well as eBay and Facebook Marketplace, some charities, such as Oxfam, have their own online shops while others, such as the British Heart Foundation, have stores on eBay.
Photos by Getty Images
