Today, I wanted to share some of my super exciting second hand purchases! I’ve been pretty patient as I look for things that I want to bring into our house at a price that I want to pay—with some success!
After creating a mood board for the library, I knew that one of the styles of floor lamps that would look good in the space was a pharmacy lamp. They were available online at a few retailers, but the lowest price was around $125-$150. Imagine my surprise when I searched Facebook Marketplace for pharmacy lamp and nothing showed up—hahah, just kidding, that was expected. But, it did pop up with a result from outside of my radius; a pharmacy lamp for $20! It didn’t have as many details as the ones I had seen online, but the round shape for the light bulb (as opposed to a rectangle) was exactly what I was looking for. So, after a few logistical issues and a road trip, I was able to get the lamp on our way home since we were going in the same general direction. A trip that would have been a three hour drive, ended up just taking an extra 45 minutes out of our day. Score! It was exactly as I had hoped.
A little bit later, I found someone selling a gilded, baroque-style mirror. On my Christmas wish list last year, I had a gilded, baroque-style frame in which to hang a paper doll. Well, the mirror was the perfect size, and the frame was in good shape, so I figured I could just take the mirror out because it was listed online for $15! So, I went for it. The frame had a price sticker on the back saying it was from JcPenney and was once $50. I think I got a pretty great deal. Also, since I’ve brought it home, I’m thinking that the paper doll will actually look great on top of the mirror, so that’ll be fun!
My next find wasn’t really on purpose. I had been checking out Facebook Marketplace every day, and I wanted a table lamp for the new library configuration, but I didn’t know what exactly I was looking for. So, a couple weeks ago, a lamp from West Elm popped up for $50. I liked it, but I thought it was too much for a lamp. Then went to West Elm’s website to see if I could find it, and I did! For $179! So, realizing that maybe it was a better deal than I thought, I reached out to the seller and offered her $40. She agreed, I picked it up, and boy, it is beautiful! I’m so excited to see it in the final space. Funny how that works out, huh?
All these really exciting buys were great deals for not a lot of money, but the purchase that I am most excited about by far started off with another Facebook Marketplace post. Someone was advertising their space in an antique shop, but what caught my eye was, specifically, two chairs in the image. I had been searching for two mid century, Danish style, wooden chairs that cost less than $1,000 each for a while. Even resellers would ask $500 a pop and that was still more than I wanted to spend. Another concern of mine was that if I bought them separately, then there would probably be differences between the styles. Well, back to the antique shop—someone was selling their two matching chairs for $450 total! $225 each! Holy cow was I stoked! I got down there as soon as I could and snatched them up. I’m in love. They are in great shape! I’m planning on refinishing them and making some new box cushions for them since the fabric is supposedly original to the chairs and I would like something less busy. *swoon*
So, what’s the secret? I check Marketplace a lot. Not for very long, but I look at what’s new for about 5 minutes every day to see if anything stands out. Truthfully, between the time I started this post and now, Facebook has updated some of their methods of Marketplace in a way that I don’t totally agree with. Now, sellers can pay to have their items show up higher in search results—Which means, if there’s something you’re looking for, definitely search for it! And only click on things that you’re really interested in, because Marketplace learns from your actions and tailors it’s suggestions to you based on those clicks. I’ve started perusing Craigslist again too as well as trying out a few apps… Are there any apps that you like to snag second hand score from? I love a good old garage sale hunt as well, but in Colorado, people seem to focus their sales to the summer months.
Love, Shauna
Lovely!