I've never purchased anything from eBay, Craigslist or any other online antique/vintage website except for a botanical print vendor.

I look around locally at antique shops, estate auctions, the studios of crafts people, etc.

When we travel, as DS1 says "always bring back something for the house." And, that's what I've done since my first international trip in 1974. DS1 just came home this week from working in NY. After using the powder room, he immediately said that he likes my Russian cards in there.

Due to my age (and the early passing of my parents), I have a number of antiques that my folks had collected from all over the US. I inherited the china cabinet, ironstone, iron bed, tea cart, washstand and a few miscellaneous items.

As for upholstered furniture, we only have a few antiques. We don't hesitate (we prefer) antique wood and iron items, but with the cost of upholstery and the need for comfort, we buy sofas and chairs as new -- from NC furniture places at a discount.

Here are botanicals that we got from Panteek.com. We had those custom framed. They are hanging over the inherited antique china cabinet (that is filled to the brim with white ironstone, some inherited, some purchased at antique shops and auctions).

Inherited pie safe (used in my kitchen for cookbooks -- when we built, I left wall space for it). The print above was purchased in an antique shop. It is an English mezzotint. The pottery -- left to right -- from Moscow, from Vaison-la-Romaine in France, from Positano in Italy.

Ironstone sugar bowl (inherited), McCoy jardiniere (inherited), ironstone coffee pot (auction)

We purchased this from a French couple who run an antique shop near us. It is a Belgian confection cabinet. The pottery is from local NC potters, except the smallest piece that DH brought to me from a trip to NY.

Look in magazines that appeal to you -- many -- like Country Home, Country Living, Traditional Home -- mention antique shops, antique malls and fairs. One of the largest fairs takes place three times a year in Brimfield, Mass. Another one takes places in Round Top, Texas. I loved visiting the autumn sale at Brimfield -- what a trip!

Check your local thrift stores, antique malls and shops. Check out garage sales. The key is to be VERY early (or very late near the end of the sale), carry cash and have a transport (truck) available!

Measure your rooms (especially your hallways and doorways to make sure that special items will even fit up your stairwell). Even measure the windows! Then take photos of your rooms. Add swatches of your fabrics or even paint samples from your walls. Put all these in a "decorating notebook" to take around with you! This notebook will save you tons of time, trouble, steps and money!

Always carry a flashlight and measuring tape. I've found the best items WAY in the back of a dusty shop, stall or barn. Measure, measure, measure!!

Ask questions! Take notes! Be SURE of any purchasing (and any return) policies before you fall in love with an item of any sort or kind!

Dealers will indeed "deal" about some prices (ask nicely "what is your very best price?") BUT other items will be marked "Firm" And thats the price. Period.

I get my pieces at thrift stores and antique malls.

Wherever I'm headed, I like to do a bit of an internet search beforehand and see what kind of thrift and antiques places there are around-- and get some preliminary directions. They're not always "hits" but it's a heckuva lot of fun searching.

Currently I'm looking for a red upholstered wood frame vintage sofa. And someday I know I'll stumble on it!

Hope you find some items you love!
-Jenn

I have too many favorite pieces! lol I shop in local antique stores, look for small items to bring or ship home when traveling and hit ebay for antique architectural etchings.

I do not do (never had any luck) at estate sales, garage sales or thrift stores. There was a decent consignment shop located not far from me, but it has long since closed.

I do not have any large family pieces but do have various small ones: photographs, crochet baby bonnets, bronze shoes, fishing lures, hats from grandfathers, string of pearls, old earrings, charm bracelets, etc.

My best advice is to hold off until you find "the" piece...even if it takes a few years. I searched for new DR furniture and had about given up. Ran across the sideboard first. Then found table/chairs and vitrine at the same store but a different dealer.

I had always wanted a grandfather clock - found one the day after Christmas at my favorite antique store. On sale too.

For accessories, I'm drawn to different aka odd things. :D Here is my latest purchased, have not decided where it will go. It's zinc, from France and used to hang above a bourcherie chevaline or a horse butcher shop. :( It will have a happier home here and I live in a horse community, so it is fitting.

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Vitrine: Crystal and cake plate (paternal grandmothers)

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Japan Travels

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Local store:

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Local Stores:

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Ebay purchase Before:

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Ebay purchase After:

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Inside MBR walk-in closet (items from family and travels):

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Maternal grandmother's bedside table in powder room. Sconces brought from our previous home:

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Family photographs, paternal grandparents lamp:

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More family photographs. Cabinet holds small items belonging to my grandparents:

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MBR armoire - was in the LR of our last home:

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Thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales. When I lived in Boston I went to antique stores, but the ones in San Francisco are very disappointing - they have nothing like the selection of the ones in the Boston area, and the prices are ridiculous.

What an interesting question. Please pardon the bad pictures.

I found my matching couch and chair (not pictured) in the basement of an antique store, where the public wasn't allowed. I asked if I could look down there. They were filthy dirty and covered with the most horrid fabric, gold and sort of striated and extremely rough to the touch. Just disgusting. I reupholstered them myself in a lovely dusty peach velvet. I just had them reupholstered again, this time professionally because they needed structural repair. I got the mohair velvet on eBay.

The coffee table base I think I found at a garage sale. I inherited the marble top.

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This Victrola is dated 1917, and it still works. A friend had it in his mom's garage for years as it had never fit into his decor. He surprised me with it one year for a birthday present! Sorry the light is catching it badly here. It really is a pretty piece.

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I found my fainting couch in the Little Nickel. It had recently been reupholstered, but I didn't like the fabric. I reupholstered it in this and right now I've got it torn apart again as I'm about to redo it:

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I found my hall tree in an antique store:

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After about three years of looking in every antique shop I could find, I found this armoire at an antiques show at a local junior college:

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I found my dining room table (round, dark oak) at an antique shop. It has no leaves and the base was not original to it, so I got it cheap. I'm sorry I have no pictures of it. I have a few other small things, but my camera is broken and now my Paintshop won't open and my computer won't recognize the disk. I'm scared my computer may be about to die. If I diappear, you'll all know why. :o

I've had all those pieces for years. Now I look for things on eBay and now have started looking at Craigslist.

What a lot of good advice here from some of the best at Garden Web! And Allison's photos are just beautiful. You are a good photographer, Allison, as well as a great judge of vintage pieces.

I can't add much because I do pretty much the same as you have already read. Antique shops are generally too pricey for my budget, although I have at least two or three items that I just had to have. But even if the prices are over the top for you too, they are a wonderful source of ideas, information, and something to measure your own scouting against. If you've already spent some time admiring old sideboards in the antique shops in your town, looking at styles and carvings, checking condition and price, you will be much more prepared to lay down your hard-won cash or whip out your checkbook, when you find something you love at an estate sale or on Craigslist. What stops a lot of people from buying from individual vendors, like the CL seller an hour away, or the garage sale lady up the road, is ignorance, and fear of paying too much--getting taken. If you know that an Eastlake style dresser might cost you $850 at "Old Town Antiques", you will feel pretty jazzed and very confident, about writing a $275 check to Barney from the neighborhood yard sale. So look around. Grab a mocha and kill a couple of fun hours scouting out what's in your local shops. Ask the dealer a few questions. Sometimes, like in my case 17 years ago, you might express admiration for a piece while knowing it's out of your league. But if you're nice, and the dealer remembers your interest, they might even give you a call when they get ready to down-size their inventory. I got a fabulous antique walnut partner's desk that way in New Mexico. In the shop, it was $600. When the dealer saw me months later at an antiques show, she told me it was in her garage and that I could come get it for $100.
Talk about drooling with excitement!
Of course, since I paid her on the spot without checking, measuring, or any other logical thinking processes being invoked, my poor husband not only had to enlist 2 friends to help bring the behemoth home, but it took several hours to REMOVE A BIG WINDOW---BRING IN THE DESK--AND REINSTALL THE WINDOW! **Moral of this story? Maybe a gigantic heavy desk is not the best fit for a 14'x70' mobile home?

So, educating yourself is key. It gives you power and confidence. Carrying a measuring tape at all times, along with some specific measurements of walls that may be crying out for a neat piece, just as Teacats specified so astutely, is invaluable for readying yourself to make a quick decision. But patience is well and truly a virtue. Thrifshopromantic WILL find her Red Vintage Sofa. She's scanning ads, going to estate sales, and probably watching online auctions and craigslist. I put the armoire of my wildest dreams on layaway at an antique store out in the country. It was 7 1/2 feet tall and 6 feet wide. (Yes, I still lived in the little mobile home with a husband, three kids and a dog! Insanity.) Then, we got a job out here in California and I had to let it go. I was incredibly disappointed. But about 3 years later, I happened upon a garage sale on the north end of town, 15 miles from my house. They had the usual crap on the lawn--exercise bikes, treadmill, luggage, etc. It was a drive-by. But there, at the back of the garage, stuffed with paint cans and tools, was a 7' tall armoire with it's doors leaning against the wall next to it. I got out, asked the kid to get his Mom and asked her how much she wanted for "that closet thing in the back of the garage". She told me $100. I gave her the $60 in my wallet, told her I would go to an ATM and be back in 15 minutes. I asked her if I could take a drawer with me. (VITAL to leave with an irreplaceable part of your find so they don't sell it out from under you!) I didn't get back for half an hour and she told me with amazement, that at least three people had tried to give her more money to sell it to them.
Until we got it home and put it together, I wasn't even absolutely positive that it was completely intact, since it has 7 separate pieces. But it was perfect and barely even a scratch on it. Here it is in an old picture of living room before it turned dining room....
Patience IS a virtue.

Red

I have inherited many lovely things. Mum was an auction HOUND and we went into every single antique/junk store in the vicinity at least once a week. She ALWAYS had a measuring tape in her handbag, right alongside the CASH, Red.! (so do I). I learned about "good lines" very early on. And I also learned to look beyond a crummy finish to see the LINES and whether or not they appealed to ME. I watched Mum strip and repair pieces all the time I was a child. I was often recruited to help (I used caustic strippers under supervision when I was about 8 yrs. old).

I grew up smelling solvents, paint, and dyes. (maybe that explains it). I grew up listening to discussions of furniture styles, colors, fabrics. And then there were the tours of "historic" homes/buildings. I was probably the only kid in 4th. grade that knew about Empire, Victorian, Beaux Arts, lol.. Dad was equally into "history". My brother was into restoring automobiles. I am a history buff, I read a lot, and I love furniture and period interiors. So, the more you read the more you will know when you are "on the hunt".

Personally? most of the shops in my area cater to tourists and are too price-y for me. I'm big on FREE stuff. I know when big item pick up is scheduled in our area. I prowl the roads the night before and contentedly load items into my wagon. I have some very nice "finds", too. But it's hard work, and you learn by your mistakes. More than half of my "finds" have been returned to the kerb after some more careful scrutiny. If I see something in a shop that really catches my eye I take note of it and come up with a price that I'd be willing to pay for it. Then I go get the cash. I start out with a really low-ball offer and mention, CASH. Then I incrementally "dicker". I generally walk away with the prize for less than I would have paid.

But CASH IS KING, my friends. And refusing a receipt helps, too.

:)

Chelone, your mom did good by you. Mine knew nothing of antiques and wouldn't have knowingly bought one if she did. She grew up on a farm in Georgia during the 1920's and they cut the posts off their old 4-poster beds to help them look modern. But she did haunt the local auction almost every Saturday, and it was not only a livestock auction, but also a huge flea market. You know, the kind of flea market that a flea market used to be.......Big tables rented to sellers by the day, where you could buy toys, clothes, shoes, furniture, antiques, and car parts. Nothing brand new, just other people's stuff. We dressed from the Auction, furnished our house from the Auction, and bought our fresh produce from the Auction. The Auction still functions around here, but now it's full of the cheap junk from China and Mexico that you see everywhere. Not too many of the old time dealers around these days. But while I was even then, at 7 or 8, looking longingly at antique beds and dressers and chairs, while my Momma was buying toys and shoes and dishes, she did teach me a lot about bargaining, negotiating, and carrying small bills at all times. She kept her mind open to possibilities and she knew that if a deal was good, the time to offer cash was Right Now. She always said that if she left a row of tables and wandered down another row, by the time she got back to something she was thinking about, it would be gone.
She moved back to Georgia many years ago and she's still a force to be reckoned with, but her memories of all those times is growing very dim with age.

And Oceanna, I must have been typing my 5000 word post, because I missed your lovely red mohair sofa. Beautiful. And I was thinking about you the other day, wondering if you had found the right fabric yet for your vintage chaise lounge? Did you buy something yet? I'm going to vote for a textured chenille, maybe something along the lines of the fabric I made my drapes out of in the "Show me your drapes" thread...

Red

Alison - you have great stuff!

It depends on where you live. We have been doing garage/estate sale-ing every Sat for a couple of years and have got great stuff- but some areas just don't have that.

It's also surprising what you can make from a trash-to-treasure point of view.

We have all antiques in our home ,old farmhouse.I found your bigger antique shops have the nicer things,not as much junk as smaller ones/.You never pay the price on tag either.If you look theres usually anither price theyre willing to give.The best shape,condition is usually the best way to go.

redbazel: "...But she did haunt the local auction almost every Saturday, and it was not only a livestock auction, but also a huge flea market. You know, the kind of flea market that a flea market used to be.......Big tables rented to sellers by the day, where you could buy toys, clothes, shoes, furniture, antiques, and car parts. Nothing brand new, just other people's stuff. We dressed from the Auction, furnished our house from the Auction, and bought our fresh produce from the Auction. The Auction still functions around here, but now it's full of the cheap junk from China and Mexico that you see everywhere. Not too many of the old time dealers around these days..."

That sounds like the flea market that runs here every Saturday all year long, weather permitting. There might be a couple tables of the China stuff, but it is largely just people bringing their old stuff and trying to sell it. You MUST get there early, because the good things do go in a heartbeat. I've seen a number of really nifty antique items that I wish I'd been able to get, even if I couldn't use them myself I'd hold them until I could resell them to the right person. I've picked up a lot of smaller items for myself that I know would have gone for much more in actual antique stores around here.

I've bought all of my stuff off of ebay. Yes I've had to pay a few hundred sometimes for shipping but I've never seen anything close to the styles I prefer locally.

That includes my antique lighting as well as furniture pieces. I once drove 2 hrs each way to pick up my nightstands and it wasn't worth it - I should have just had them delivered.

My favorite seller to deal with by far is the Harp Gallery (they have a website too). I got my curio cabinet there and it was beautiful, as described, they had lovingly cleaned and polished it and it showed up in absolutely gorgeous glowing antique condition. Their prices are not the cheapest but I find they have unusual, beautiful things there. I just love to look at their website even if I'm not currently looking for any pieces.

Thank you Red and Cattknap. We started going to antique stores 26 years ago. I find it very relaxing.

My favorite store has month long sales the month of July and starting the day after Christmas....which just happens to be our wedding anniversary. The clock was a great gift to ourselves and I've always enjoyed finding and purchasing on "the day."

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Most stores will take 10% off the top for cash or check. You just have to know to ask. Also, they are more than happy to call a dealer to see if a better price can be had. It never hurts to ask.

We have an antique store leasing from us - a LOT of the dealers are there on the weekends, arranging, bringing in new things, etc. Great time to go bargain with them in person.

Everone has said to bring along measurements and flashlight. I have a few other things to add....... I always keep an old blanket, a couple of bungie cords and a hunk of rope in the truck of the car. Aslways useful for picking up a "dumster" find!

I keep a small tape measure, flashlight, notebook, magnet and a small screwdriver in an old makeup bag. Its tossed in my purse and I have measurements of everything I'm looking for.... register vents, desired cupboard measurements, a list of books I collect --including all door openings in my house. If I've been on the hunt for something for a specific room -- I'll keep an extra paint sample or fabric sample in there. Being prepared helps eliminate costly mistakes.... or lets you grab a great bargain.

Cathy

Clink, great points!

I have a tidy little "toolbox" in my car (learned from Mum and my brother) and more than a few times it's proven extremely helpful to a stranded motorist or fellow "bargain hunter".

If you are going to be a successful "scrounge" you have to be a good girl/boy scout... "always prepared". :)

Here's to the HUNT, you guys!

Love everyone's beautiful things. DH and I have inherited what we have, and he has given me my favorites as gifts. I don't think any of mine are particularly valuable, but I like them! Here are a few of my faves:

I don't know how, but he snuck this music cabinet into the house one Christmas Eve!

This curved glass cabinet and vase collection belonged to one of my great grandmothers. There are more vases that won't fit in the cabinet!