Everything old is new again
Buy only what you love when second-hand shopping, experts warn
There’s a new trend in shopping and it has everything to do with buying something old. Baby boomers’ offspring are buying up everything from used lamps to old laundry boards as they feather their own nests.
Along the way, they are embracing their own unique esthetic, happy to have, for instance, a mid-century modern teak sideboard, alongside a coffee table repurposed from an old cannery cart, sitting on a bright pink IKEA area rug.
“The vintage pieces mix beautifully with today’s designer looks,” says former antiques dealer Renee Lafontaine, whose Vancouver company, 21 Century Promotions, hosts flea markets and antique fairs. “It’s shabby chic, boho chic, you mix old and new. It makes it interesting and uniquely yours. It’s not cookiecutter.”
Many of the second-hand shoppers who head to weekend garage sales and shops are also on a quest for quality.
“I think a lot of people are finding the older stuff has value, not just in terms of money, but durability,” says Jo-Anne Lauzer, an experienced second-hand shopper and blogger ( secondhandsavvy.ca). “And we’re also supporting business and local charities and I think a lot of the younger folks now kind of get that. It’s supporting our own history, preserving our history and keeping things out of the landfills.”
Professional appraiser and lifelong antique lover Gale Pirie says this is a good time to shop for antiques and second-hand items.
“We’re now starting to see some movement after quite a few years of the doldrums,” says Pirie, who writes for the antiques magazine The Upper Canadian and works with clients around the globe. “The 50s-, 60s-and-up crowd are downsizing and getting rid of stuff, so there is good supply.”
Like fashion, fitness and food, the world of antiques and second-hand goods also has its trendy moments. Lauzer says she has seen people paying a lot more attention to industrial items that can be used for a new purpose.
Imagine a giant iron wheel as a coffee-table base or, in Lauzer’s case, a floor-to-ceiling filing cabinet she just found and uses for general storage.
“It’s beautiful,” says Lauzer. “It’s got this great esthetic to it, but it is also very useful.”
Pirie says the colour turquoise is popular these days.
Another sought-after item is something that no longer has a function — unless, of course, you are doing a theatrical adaptation of Murder, She Wrote.
“A hot item right now is typewriters, which I threw out years ago,” says Pirie. “No longer made, no longer used, obsolete.”
Pirie warns that not all trendy items have long-term value.
“Look what happened to Cabbage Patch Kids. People were collecting them like crazy and paying any price. Now they get $5 for them,” says Pirie. “Collect what you love because you’ll love it even if the value goes down.”