Last week I went shopping for some decor for my kitchen. If you’ve been hanging around here for a bit, I RARELY ever show my kitchen. If this house were ours, I would pretty much change everything about it. Sadly, it’s not, so I’ve learnt to be content with it. That being said, it isn’t really anything I want to show off either. In this blog, I want to teach you how to thrift strategically so you can update a space while spending very little.
How To Thrift Strategically
- Have a space in mind
I like to have a space in mind that I’m going to update. It helps me visualize what I want and see how an item might look in my space.
If you even remotely like something, don’t let it slip through your fingers. There are so many ways an item can be styled or updated, and paint goes a long ways
2. Vintage Pottery and Wood
There are two items that thrift stores have a lot of pottery and wood. Both items never go out of style, and you can easily slap some paint on pottery if there is a design on it.
Whenever I go into a thrift store, I look for wooden bowls (of any size), rolling pins, wood mirrors, dressers and anything of the sort. I also always keep my eye open for interesting pottery. I’ve hacked so many pieces from the thrift store that look like they’ve come from Pottery Barn
3. Old Lamps
How many times have you walked by an ugly bubblegum pink lamp? You know, the ones that were all-the-rage in the ’80s!
I have quite a few lamps in my home that I’ve purchased for 5 or 10 dollars that I’ve revamped with a few paint coats. See this blog for another I recently DIY’d.
This is an item that you can see big bucks on if you have a little imagination. I usually get my lampshades at Home Depot for 14-20 dollars!
4. Old Pictures
Even if you don’t like the picture, can you reuse the frame? Or maybe you hate the frame but love the picture - get it!
I’ve spray painted the mats of pictures and spray painted frames and re-used them on new art. Thrift stores are full of cool art and picture frames, and typically they’re only a few dollars.
This picture in our kitchen I fell in love with, but the frame was quite ugly. I sanded it down, spray painted it gold and put dark wax on it to make it look old.
5. Don’t buy what you don’t need
The secret to thrifting success is to go in knowing what you want and what you don’t need. Yes, it might be a good deal, but are you actually going to use it?
This goes hand-in-hand with #1. Make sure you’re always intentional with what you buy, and I promise, you will always come out of the thrift store with some finds!
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