THRIFTING TIPS AND TRICKS HOW TO SCORE THE GOOD STUFF DECORATING ON A BUDGET

Hey there everyone, my name is Jenna. Welcome or welcome back to the channel. If you guys have been following for a while you know that one of my favorite things to decorate with are thrifted finds. It's actually one of my favorite things to score a budget-friendly piece that gets to have a new life in my home and helps to enhance my decorating by adding character and elevating my space to help it feel a lot more designer. It makes the space feel a lot more storied and layered and just gives your space so much personality and character. So I do have a lot of videos where I take you guys through the thrift stores and I point out pieces that I would pick out and how I would style those pieces and then also coming home to do a little styling session with the items that I bought in a little haul and I show you guys how I style those in my space. But today I wanted to do something a little different where I give you guys my general thrifting tips and kind of share some insight into my process that I use when I go thrifting to help me find the good deals and the really beautiful items. So hopefully next time you're at the thrift store you can use these to source some of those really great finds. So hope you guys enjoy and without further ado let's get into it. Okay so this next thing is probably like one of my biggest slash most important tips and that is to train your eye to spot quality items. And that kind of means different things for different categories so I'll kind of go over each one but like for example when you're sourcing clothing you can very easily just pull the tag and check it on the side of the item to see what it's made out of. So you know those items that are made out of 100% cotton, 100% linen, those are typically going to be a lot better quality than the polyester items, the rayon, the synthetic fabrics. The items that are made out of those more high-quality materials are typically going to hold up a lot better over time. And also something that I look for in terms of quality when I'm searching for furniture are pieces that are made out of solid wood versus like that cheapy particle board that's just all glued together. So when you have pieces that are made out of real wood they are a lot easier to sand down and refinish in whatever stain or color you want to redo them in versus those items that are made out of like the cheap particle board you know you sand it too hard and you go right through the veneer down to like the particle board and it's ruined and you really can't restain it after that. Those items are also typically just kind of glued together and they don't have like the highest construction quality so that's another thing you want to look for is like the edges and see how the piece is actually constructed. You know dovetail joints and corners is a sign of high quality and high craftsmanship. I recently found that beautiful scrubbed pine trunk and that had the really nice dovetail joints so that's a sign of quality and just something that's really hard to find these days. Another way that you can look for quality is in dishware and decor by actually just like turning the piece over and seeing where it came from. Most of the time if it's a nice handmade piece of ceramics it will have a signature on the bottom and I find a lot of this at thrift stores and typically a well-made ceramic piece will have a little bit more weight to it and it will be heavier than you know a cheap ceramic piece that was just made out of a mold and just collecting pieces that have the human element in them so they were actually handcrafted by somebody really helps to elevate your space and gives it a much more high-end collected feel so you know incorporating those items that have artistry and were actually made by a person versus a machine so things that have hand-painted details on them that's also something that you can look for. A lot of times too with decor you know it's also just labeled where it came from so you can turn the piece over and it will say you know made in China or pottery barn or you know whatever and so you can kind of gauge the quality that way as well so those are the things you kind of want to look for and keep in mind when sourcing your pieces because when you pick something that's made out of a natural material or you know a hundred percent linen solid wood you avoid a lot of those synthetic fibers a lot of those synthetic wood pieces that will just help to add a sense of quality to your home and you can know that the items that you're bringing into your home are well sourced. Okay so this next tip is probably the one that I'm like the most passionate about and honestly it's probably like my best tip for finding pieces that are really elevated that fit into your space and that is to look beyond the face value of the item and ask yourself is there anything that I can change about this to make it fit into my space to give it a more elevated look and just really use your imagination when you're looking at a piece with good bones. So for example I recently came across this really dilapidated looking director's chair you know the fabric didn't fit straight and it was really faded and there were actually like little bugs within the fabric and it was kind of gross looking but I loved the wooden frame it just had all of this beautiful distressing on it and it had that old-world vintagey look with some beautiful brass hardware that had like a little patina on it and I just loved the look of the frame so I knew that if I bought that I could change out the fabric. Director's chairs are actually designed to have the fabric be swapped out so you can find replacement fabric for super cheap online and they have like simple like white or cream colored canvas ones they have really beautiful like striped ones so I just figured I could swap that out and this chair that was like six bucks could be given a totally new life and the bones were good with that beautiful distressed frame with the brass hardware but I could just do a little simple swap to make it feel and look a lot more elevated so I even did think of the idea of eventually making it leather I think just using like a distressed faux leather would look so beautiful and really help to give it that like you know vintage safari chair look and I could use it as my desk chair so that's the eventual plan for it. Another example was that like weird cone thing that I found recently and I knew that if I took that woven cone out I could use that as a little face holder so just those simple little altercations when you initially look at an item and not taking it for its face value and thinking creatively okay what can I change about this to use it in my space to where it would actually elevate the space or make it look a lot better. Same thing with an old large hamper that I found a while back it had kind of this like orangey yellow undertone to it that I really didn't like but I knew I could change that because the bones of the piece were really good I loved the size of it and I knew it would be perfect to use as a little basket for my Christmas tree every year to just help elevate that and give it more of like a cozy warm collected feel when it comes to the holidays so what I did was I just gave it a nice little paint wash with some gray taupey paints to kind of tone down that yellowy orange tone and make it feel a lot more vintage and kind of sun-weathered and just fit into the color scheme of our space a lot better and you know a while back actually I found this kind of interesting looking pillar but it had this like ugly peachy color that I just did not like and there was like a bunch of like pattern and kind of scrolling or like a design on one side that I was not a big fan of so what I did was I took it home and I painted it I gave it like a little sponge technique to make it look a little bit more like actual stone and then I just turned the ugly side to the back and placed that against the wall and it was just this really beautiful pillar that kind of had a nice little moment in our entryway and it was a nice spot for me to style things like plants and vases and it just looked really elevated but in fact it was just kind of like an ugly piece that I DIY'd at the thrift store and I gave it some new life so that's one of my favorite things to do is just think a little bit out of the box when it comes to sourcing your pieces and asking yourself if there's anything about the piece that you could change to maybe use it in a different way make it a different color swap out the fabric and just give it that second life that it needs okay so this next tip is to always do a second lap around the thrift store you've probably heard this one before but I feel like a lot of times I miss things on my first go-around you know maybe there's a plate that's stuck under a bowl that I didn't see and typically with thrift stores there's a lot to sift through so a lot of times I will miss things or you know maybe I'll go to another section of the thrift store to look at clothes and then I come back and they've restocked some of the home decor stuff so I always always always do a second lap just to see and a lot of times I do find really good gems on that second lap and obviously that's when I have a lot of time and I'm like doing a full-on thrifting trip a lot of times I just do quick pop-ins to kind of check the inventory and make sure that there's nothing that I can't live without in there so I'll just scan through the section really quick and then I'll just scan through the clothing real fast so I call it my sleeve scan so I'll just go through and I'll look and see if there's any materials that jump out at me any colors any stitching you know embroidery or anything like that like certain fabrics certain sleeve types I usually will just go through and I will just like scan through all of the sleeves that is where if I'm doing like my quick little pop-in and I don't have a lot of time that's how I'll try to find something and it works a lot the sleeve scan is very good because sleeves can tell you a lot about the clothing item a lot of times if it's like a really beautiful kind of like white lineny blouse you'll see that from the sleeve so what I look for the most is color and material so a lot of times I personally gravitate towards things that you know are more neutral so browns olive greens blacks white cream those are kind of the colors that I tend to wear in my wardrobe so I'll go through those sections and see if there's any materials that pop out of me that I really like or any kind of like sleeve shape if it has like a really beautiful ruffle or you know I am a big sucker for like a balloon sleeve or like a gauzy material so I'll just scan through the sleeves and see if there's anything that jumps out at me so that's a tip that I have if you're tight on time and you still want to go through the clothing section but you don't have time to like look at every single thing I'll do a little quick sleeve scan but a lot of times if I'm going through the clothing section like a little bit more detailed and then I'll go back again through the home decor section and a lot of times I find something that jumps out at me the second time that I did not see the first time and a little tip that I have when it comes to sourcing your clothing at thrift stores is I do not stick to just my size and here is why a lot of times that people donate things to the thrift store because they have shrunk them too small or you know maybe they buy something online and it's just too big and they've missed the return window so there's not always consistent sizing throughout the thrift store even though it is usually very well organized just because it says like a large on the tag or a small on the tag doesn't mean that that's how it fits so I usually go through all of the sizes and I kind of eyeball it and there's been a lot of times when I go through you know the larger clothing section that is like way above my size and I actually find something that fits me so you know recently I found this beautiful like kind of like hippie style jumpsuit with these palazzo pants and it was size extra-large which I'm typically a small to medium but it had a brand new tag on it and I knew that the material that it was made out of shrinks so I took it home and I put it in the dryer and it is like oversized on me but it still fits and it's so comfortable because it has kind of like that baggy look to it and it's perfect for you know throwing on as a cover-up if I'm going to the pool or doing a boat day or going to the beach or whatever so that was such a find and I found it way out of my size range so you know obviously I'll start with my size and then you know I'll kind of look through the rest of the stuff and see if there's anything you know color wise or material wise that sticks out at me and if it's not in my specific size section then that's okay I'll kind of eyeball it and see if it's something that would fit me okay so this next one probably goes without saying for a lot of people it's probably not much of a tip or a realization for most of you but I'm just gonna say it anyway because there are some of us that think we can save everything and I am one of those people so my tip is if it smells just leave it do not buy it do not bring it into your home there have been times where I will find something that I think oh this kind of stinks or it's a little dirty I think I can clean this and you know I have had success you know I found an olive jar that way it had all this black stuff on it but even still I still keep it outside because I think of the state that I found it in and I kind of question like what's in the pores of this terracotta material was that mold I don't know so I don't bring it in my home I keep it outside on my porch and you know I have found things before that had a pretty bad stench in the store and I'm just like oh I can get this out no problem and then I get it home I bleach it and I clean it whatever and I just it still smells so I think for me I'm always gonna remember that it smelled when I bought it and I'm gonna be a little bit grossed out by that so I've found when I do purchase those items I don't love them in my home so I know I showed you guys that Tara Humara pot that I got for our living room and I love how that kind of completes the corner with our beautiful ficus tree so recently when I was at another thrift store I found a similar Tara Humara pot and I thought it'd be really beautiful styled on our shelves once we put those in so I thought it was like a larger scale and I liked that it was kind of like a darker color so it would provide some contrast against our built-in and it would kind of go with the other Tara Humara pot but it wasn't too matchy matchy it was just like a similar vibe so it would kind of unite the space and make it feel a little bit more cohesive and I was so excited about it I was like ready to get it and then I had it in my cart and I was like going around the store and I was just like what is that smell like I was just smelling it as I was like wheeling my cart around and I realized that it was the Tara Humara pot and it smelled awful I don't know what was in there or what the smell was from but I had learned by that point I was like if it stinks just don't even bring it into your home because you're not gonna love it and be at peace with it at least I personally won't so that is a tip that I've learned over the years I think I can save things I think that I will think oh I washed it it's clean no problem but a lot of times it still just has like that smelly stigma on it and sometimes I can't even get the smell out so if it smells leave it alright everyone that about wraps up this video I hope that you guys enjoyed this one if you did please don't forget to give this video a thumbs up it really does help to support my channel and I hope that you find it useful next time you're outsourcing items at your own thrift store I hope you have a beautiful and wonderful week and I will see you guys in my next one bye