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A room feels bespoke when its contents are personal and individual, rather than Pinterest-packaged and freshly picked from a mass retailer. Thrift stores are fertile hunting grounds because their stock is unique and unpredictable, offering a variation in age, material, and provenance.
The greatest decorative potential tends to lie in items with scale. Oversized paintings or reams of old textiles are widely available, while something like decorative wall plates can fill up a wall for next to nothing.
And each has the scope to be adapted, which is where a modest thrift store purchase can begin to resemble something commissioned.
Here is what to look for, what to avoid, and how to make each find work at home.
1. Oversized wall art
Large pictures are one of the best thrift store purchases because original art and good-quality picture frames can be astronomical.
Landscapes, vintage maps, botanical studies, and portraits are all common finds, so too are timber frames with gilt moldings. Even when the art itself holds little appeal, a second-hand frame may be worth buying for another picture.
Don't dismiss a painting because the subject feels old-fashioned. Portraits of unknown sitters, hunting scenes, bowls of fruit, and views of places you have never visited can all have considerable decorative appeal if the color palette and scale both work in your home.
Small chips and worn gilding are harmless, but signs of woodworm or damp staining are quite the opposite. Old picture wire can become brittle, so replace it with new cord or wire.
2. Vintage textiles
Thrift stores are a useful source of fabric offcuts, curtains, tablecloths, bedspreads, blankets, and embroidered panels that can be repurposed in a million useful ways.
A wide pair of curtains can provide fabric for an upholstered headboard or a short pelmet, tablecloths are well-suited to becoming cushions, and quilts and bedspreads make great wall hangings or pillow covers.
The easiest way to produce a tailored finish is to combine vintage fabric with new. Use a decorative vintage textile on the front of a cushion and a sturdy linen or cotton ticking on the back, for instance, or add brightly colored piping to more traditional upholstery.
Before buying, unfold everything – holes and fading are usually hidden along hems and fold lines. Washable cottons and linens can usually be cleaned on a gentle cycle after a colorfastness test. Velvet, tapestry, silk, and heavily embroidered fabrics need more cautious treatment and may require dry cleaning.
3. Wall plates
A collection of wall plates can fill a generous stretch of wall not much money. Thrift stores are full of incomplete dinner services, souvenir plates, transferware, hand-painted ceramics and single pieces whose companions have long since disappeared. But their lack of a matching set is useful here.
Look for a connection between the plates rather than exact uniformity. A shared color, similar border or recurring subject will give the arrangement some coherence. Blue-and-white transferware is an obvious starting point, although botanical designs, lustreware, naïve painted flowers and brown-and-cream pottery can be equally effective.
Check every plate for hairline cracks and chips, but minor wear around the rim is rarely a problem when the plate is viewed from a distance.
