Thrift store and antique store finds are some of the best kinds of treasure! And the real fun begins when you get them home and get to style them!

Happy 2022!

I’m happy to be starting this year off with a community favorite – styling thrifted finds! I’ve heard from so many of you that you love these posts and so do I! So in this new year, I’m going to be working thrifted finds into even more of my posts and videos through the year!

If you’re new here and want a chance to see what all the excitement is about, here’s a full round up of my thrifting content!

Related Thrifting Blog Posts:

• 5 Secrets for Shopping Yard Sales
• 10 Tips for Negotiating at Yard Sales
• How to Clothes Shop at a Thrift Store
• 4 Tips for Finding Decor at Thrift Stores
• Tips for Styling Thrifted Decor
• Styling Your Thrifted Finds, Part 2
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 3
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 4 (Christmas Edition 2020)
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 5
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 6 (Spring Edition)
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 7
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 8
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 9 (Summer Edition)
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 10
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 11
• Styling Thrifted Decor, Part 12 (Fall Edition)
• Styling Thrifted Linens
• Styling Thrifted Decorations (Christmas Edition 2021)
• Thrifted Christmas Gift Ideas

I also have an entire board on Pinterest dedicated entirely to Thrifting Tips & Inspiration if you’re looking for even more content!

And before we jump into our new items for this month, I’ll share another community favorite, our dog, Kierra! (She’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback.)

Read on to see some of the details about her own little corner in our living room is coming along.

*This post contains affiliate links to products I know &/or love.

How I’ve Styled My Current Finds:

Sometimes the items I find aren’t styled right away because I need to get other projects done before I can focus on those areas. This little corner that we’re affectionately calling Kierra’s corner is that same way!

I shared some plans about it a few months back when I was chatting about our living room progress, and I’ve found items over the course of the past year that I knew I wanted to use here, but it’s just now finally all coming together!

We’ve wanted to give Kierra her own space for a while and now that it’s coming together I’m so glad!

This cute shelf was a $3 thrift store find and was originally from Michaels.

On the shelf I have a thrifted glass jar to hold her treats, a picture of her in a little golden thrifted frame, and a vintage brush.

I love that I can group together these thrifted items that are all related to dogs in a subtle way, while still being feminine and beautiful in our living room.

On the shelf hooks I added a pretty leather leash that I found on Etsy.

Below the shelf I added a picture that has been in our family for years that I love. I especially think the dark colors go nicely with the dark browns I’m working on adding throughout the room.

In my design progress blog from a few months ago, I mentioned that we were going to be upgrading Kierra’s bed to a really cute settee I found.

I did order it, and while it technically fits in the space, it just feels too big for the area, so we’re back to the drawing board!

Her original bed here is from Hay Needle, and I added some farmhouse charm to her cushion a few years back, but this bed is actually on the small size for how big she is.

I’d love your help! If anyone has any sources that would fit the style of our room, and our extra large girl, would you please list them in the comments below?

Stepping Back:

Whenever you’re designing a space, I always recommend zooming in close for the details, but not forgetting to take a step back to make sure that the overall look remains cohesive.

When I stood back across the living room and planned this space, I knew that I wanted the shelf hanging even with the picture on the left side of the door to help keep the design consistent.

I also wanted to add some navy blue elements to the shelf in the left corner, and luckily, I had thrifted items for that as well!

If you haven’t guessed yet, it’s books! Surprise!

I got these really pretty navy dictionaries at a garage sale this past summer.

As a general tip for pricing and haggling at garage sales, here’s what I like to do (and what worked for these books, too!)

When you come up to the seller to check out, have an idea of what you’d like to pay already in mind, and then offer a little less. For me, I had a large crock I had found and wanted to buy, and I offered him $8 for it.

He was the kind of guy you could tell enjoys wheelin’ and dealin’ and was having a great time pricing and chatting with buyers, and his reply was that he was hoping to get $10 for it.

That’s when I scooted over my stack of blue linen covered vintage books and said, “What about adding these books in and I’ll do $10?”

He accepted the deal, and we both got what we were hoping for!

In addition to these blue books on the shelf, I also set up my thrifted blue globe that I got earlier in the year to make sure that the navy blue looked like it belonged.

It’s a pretty generally known design idea that if an item, or color is repeated at least three times, it starts to look designed rather than haphazard.

I personally love working my repetitions in on different planes to really give the eye a chance to move around the room, but in general, just remember the 3 repeats is what it takes to make something look designed and intentional!

Can you see how well the blue from the books and the globe catches the blue in the door? That’s exactly what we’re going for.

More Finds:

Another area of the house that I was wanted to refresh for the New Year is our breakfast area in the kitchen. I first started using the space in this way about a year ago, and it’s been a success, so I was happy to simply update some design elements and keep the functionality the same.

Back in November I had the pleasure of joining some of the ladies from my Behind the Scenes design class for an in-person meetup in Snohomish, Washington! We visited, shopped and had a lovely lunch together, and in addition, each found some great pieces!

One of the items I found was this pretty lamp for $40. That was a bit more than I might usually pay, but it was an antique, and I really loved the detailing on the bottom of the base.

I’m still deciding how I feel about the up-turned detailing at top of the base, and it’s been dubbed the “batman lamp” around here. I think I will replace the shade and see how I feel about it then.

I do really just love the cozy warm glow it adds to our house on winter mornings, though! If you have space for a lamp in your kitchen, I highly suggest it.

On the wall above our breakfast area I added some old family pictures in a pretty gold frame and a wall calendar that was a home goods find to help organize our schedules.

The smaller of the two wooden cutting boards behind the cereal jars was also a free garage sale find!

Don’t forget to ask if there’s a free box when you’re out garage saling this summer!

Another of my Snohomish treasures were these two pretty embossed chargers.

They both came with d-hooks on the back, which make me think they were originally intended as wall decor.

I decided to paint them because while I loved the vintage horse pictures and English farmhouse detailing, the color wasn’t really what I wanted for this space.

I originally tried painting them with some chalk paint I had on hand, but the white was too stark. I ended up using my favorite Heirloom White spray paint by Rustoleum as a second coat.

Once again this color proved to be the best for my home and design style. It’s the perfect creamy white. And it’s no wonder I buy these cans by the case!

I added a beautiful green ribbon for the top charger and hung these up on the backside of our chicken porch door.

I think they would look even more lovely against a painted door or wall… but I don’t have a space for them like that, yet! I was tempted to paint this door right after I hung them up, but I resisted for the time being.

My final great Snohomish find was this really lovely silver bowl.

It was quite tarnished, but I knew it would clean right up with some TLC.

This one cost me $12, which is more than what I would usually pay, but it was part of a larger purchase from a great thrift store in Snohomish (he doesn’t have an online website or presence, I’m sorry I can’t link it!) and with the number of smaller free items he said I could add on to my order, it worked out to be an even better price.

My favorite silver polish is by Wright’s. It comes with it’s own sponge and doesn’t even take too much elbow grease.

Look how nicely it cleaned up! (Don’t you love a good before & after?!)

I added it to my breakfast area lined with a pretty table runner and filled with some fresh scones.

And those are the treasures for this go-around! I hope you were inspired and got some new ideas for your own thrifting searches!

Next week I’m going to be talking all about cleaning supplies, and how to make them fit the feel of your home while also making cleaning a bit more fun. Make sure you don’t miss it!

Save these Thrift Store Tips for Later: