6 Exquisite Thrifted Decor Ideas For Your Home

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Unique thrifted home décor ideas can cost a fraction of retail prices. You just need patience and persistence to find the perfect items to accent your home. Thrifted decor does not mean cheap or shabby, it can be of elegant quality. The choice is yours. The one-of-a-kind look can make an interior decorator proud. It’s true. They just don’t make things like they used to.

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Furniture Made Of Wood

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Brush your hand along the wood grain on a real wood table, bookcase, or bedroom set, and you can feel the richness of the wood grain. If you buy real wood at a retail furniture store it will be costly. You pay for what you get. Quality. We’re not talking about laminate that looks like wood or MDF (medium-density fiberboard), which is made by breaking down wood parts and combining them with wax and resin. We’re talking about furniture made from actual oak, mahogany, cherry, and even pine.

If you have patience and persistence you can find quality wood furniture to decorate with unique thrifted home décor. Let’s say, you want a new tall dresser for your son’s room. The easiest place to start shopping for decor ideas, of course, is right from your phone. Search for “dressers for sale near me.” The retail furniture stores pop up first. Scroll down. Check out Facebook Marketplace or www.offerup.com. Many communities have local trading and sale sites, too.

You will be surprised at the options: tall dressers, long dressers, pink dressers, solid wood dressers from the 1950s, painted dressers, and more. This is the time for patience and persistence as you search for exactly what you want featuring quality, style, and price. Be selective. Just because the post says it is real wood furniture does not mean it is actually real wood furniture. Don’t be afraid to visit a few dressers. Some are free for hauling and most cost a fraction of what new solid-wood furniture costs.

If you do not find a dresser online, visit your local thrift and antique stores. Venture away from your town for decor ideas, make it a quest to discover the perfect thrifted home décor for you. Inventory constantly changes at thrift stores and antique stores because store owners buy estates and people donate unwanted items to the stores. Once you find the perfect dresser you have to decide if you like the existing look and condition or if you want to give it new life with your creative decor ideas.

Refinishing Furniture

The beauty of quality wood furniture is that it lasts for a very long time. The stain can be stripped and sanded off. To match your current home decor ideas re-stain furniture the color you want and add a sealer like polyurethane. Of course, there are tons of articles and how-to videos out there. Check out Bob Vila’s article on How To Refinish A Dresser.

It is a bit time-consuming, but it feels amazing to refinish wood furniture and bring it back to life in its natural wood state. Sanding out the scratches and imperfections in the wood brings such satisfaction. Staining the thrifted furniture in the perfect color to match an existing piece or showcase home decor ideas that you may be dreaming of, brings joy. The finished piece becomes a personal work of art. A triumph.

Chalk-Painted Furniture

A trendy and easier method to breathe new life into old furniture is with chalk paint. Chalk paint is forgiving. You do not have to strip the stain or finish your new thrifted home décor. This is a great place to start for beginners.

“I get great satisfaction making something that is broken, scratched, ugly, dirty, forgotten, unloved, and maybe just out of date into something that is fresh, renewed, clean, and pretty again,” says Sandy LaCassa, owner of Granola Girl Treasures. “I’ve always enjoyed painting and find it very therapeutic. It’s a great way for me to de-stress from my nursing job and hone into something creative.”

LaCassa started as a do-it-yourself chalk painter and now refinishes furniture for others through her Etsy store: Granola Girl Treasures. As a traveling nurse, she has delivered a custom chalk-painted dresser as far as Alaska from her home outside Daytona Beach on the way to one of her nursing jobs. “Absolutely, this is a project you can do yourself. Painting furniture is not hard, but it is time-consuming. You don’t have to be creative you just have to be patient,” she says. “Painting is so fun.”

For those who want to try chalk painting their new thrifted home décor pieces or an old dresser you already own, you do need to do a bit of prep work before those decor ideas are underway.

First: Clean the entire piece of furniture.

Second: Although you do not need to sand and strip the entire piece of the thrifted home décor, a bit of sanding will keep wood stains from bleeding through your paint. “Scuffing up” shiny surfaces with sandpaper will give texture allowing the paint to stick better, she says.

Third: Choose your chalk paint color and brand. LaCassa recommends Annie Sloan Chalk Paint because of its vast variety of colors, and it provides good paint coverage. She also uses Fusion Mineral Paint when looking for a different type of finish.

“You can literally use your fingers to paint with chalk paint. It is so forgiving. You can just slap it on. It gives you flexibility in the effect or design you want to achieve,” she says. “And, I continue to learn as each piece is unique.”

Fourth: Every piece of chalk-painted furniture needs to be sealed with wax or a clear coat, which can take four to six weeks to cure but is as hard as polyurethane once hardened.

The finished piece becomes a source of pride. A one-of-a-kind piece of art for your home.

Glassware

If you are looking for priceless antiques and collectibles for thrift store prices as decor ideas for your home, it’s not as easy as it used to be thanks to Internet research. Most people research what they have before pricing it for sale. But if you are looking for unique thrifted home décor ideas rather than cheaply-made, discount-priced, mass-produced home décor; thrift stores and antique stores are the place to shop. Step back in time as you go to a few antique stores and see what decor ideas catch your eye. Is it art glass, mid-century glass, or stained-glass windows?

Antique glass bowls, vases, fairy lights, punch bowls, and drinking glasses make beautiful display pieces. Don’t be afraid to use them as serving dishes in addition to beautiful thrifted home decor. Once you fall in love with a style of glassware the hunt for a particular matching piece becomes part of the fun and the story of owning and decorating with it. The more you visit antique stores and thrift stores looking for unique decor ideas and one-of-a-kind pieces for your home, you will start to see other pieces that will coordinate with your décor.

Art

Just like glassware, you can find unique paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures at thrift stores and antique stores. But unlike when you shop at a big-box store and you can check around and come back for it later, when thrifting and antiquing, you need to be ready to buy these decor ideas. Typically, there is only one art piece and it might not be there when you return.

Art, along with glassware, can be found on Facebook Marketplace and local sale sites, too. But there is something to seeing and holding the art in your hands. Seeing the brush strokes. Thinking of the artist and the previous owners as you proudly display these decor ideas in your home. Vintage art brings a story to your home and your decor ideas come to life.

Collectibles

Another way to decorate with unique thrifted décor is with movie or sports collectibles. Making a theme room can be fun with collectible vintage pieces tied into a modern collection. This takes a bit of luck, patience, and persistence when hunting for the perfect additions to the home. But you can really make a statement with a collectible like a vintage ticket sign from a ballpark or a classic movie poster.

Whatever look you choose, thrifted home décor ideas not only save you money but help you decorate your living space like no one else. The unique decor ideas carefully selected for your home from antique stores, thrift stores, swap sites, or even a yard sale can bring harmony to the rooms of your home. They also can be excellent conversation pieces as you adventure to find the perfect items and learn the history of your new thrifted home decor.

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