Savvy shoppers discover unique resale items to decorate and furnish their homes
By Jennifer Kneuss
June 1, 2011
317
Thrift is thriving! Thats how Eric Raber, co-manager of Save and Serve thrift store in Millersburg, describes the trend toward using recycled décor.
To create a whole design from thrift is wonderfully creative and fits in well with the philosophy of recycling and caring for the earths resources, added Raber, who has been managing the store for seven years. It leaves people to be freer when it comes to being creative with their home décor. I have heard stories about people decorating their entire home with Save and Serve.
Most of our customers come in and look around, and when they see something that will fit in their homes, they go for it, said Bill Ressler, manager of MCC Connections thrift store in Kidron.
All of our furniture comes from a non-smoking, non-pet environment. It comes in ready to sell, no repairs needed. They are in good working order, and we sanitize stuffed items, emphasized Sherry Trimmer, who manages Browse and Buy, a thrift store that benefits Hospice of Tuscarawas County and is located in New Philadelphia. We cant keep sofas, recliners, dressers, recreation centers, tables and chairs in. It goes out as fast as it comes in. If you see something you like, youd better buy it right away.
Home decorating displays are carefully grouped throughout the New Philadelphia shop. We have very creative volunteers, noted Trimmer. We all decorate. We all organize to make things look better than they did the day before.
Gino and Mary Amistadi, of Dover, have refurbished and decorated their entire home with finds from sales over the 37 years they have been married. From beautiful serving pieces to rescued transoms, doors, woodwork, and stained glass windows, the couple has created a beautiful home at bargain prices.
A lot of this stuff, that others see as scrap, we see its potential, said Gino, as he pointed to well-crafted wooden valances over the windows throughout the home. I took antique woodwork that was going to be pitched out and made it into those.
Mary pointed to a carefully restored wooden door with a stained glass window. That was our bathroom window at our other house, and so we just put it over the old window on this door with clips. We dont actually use that door to go in and out, so we put a full size screen door that was oversized permanently on the porch side. We just open the door for ventilation, and that works beautifully! she exclaimed.
Gino purchased miscellaneous wooden bed rails at an auction on an impulse, and kept them in the barn for years. One day, he realized the rails could be cut down to make an unusual and much needed stairway railing for their basement steps.
I dont know what made me think of them, said Gino. But they worked out great. After the railing was done, he proceeded to use another door, cut to size, and placed it across the top of the rails to create another table surface that Mary uses for displaying old dolls, also resale finds.
The couple has turned their love of decorating with others castoffs into a side business, and often sell items at a booth in a nearby antique mall.
Sometimes when I find something new to bring home, I have to ship out something else to make room for it, noted Mary, who admitted that she finds treasures everywhere she goes. As an example, she pointed to a classic pair of black shoes. These have potential to be decorated and used as planters, she said. Almost everything in our entire house came from someone elses sale.
Raber said that the Amistadis enthusiasm for secondhand finds is not unusual, and is a love shared by many more people today than in years past. There is something special about using your own artistic eye, and almost creating something out of nothing and your own artistic abilities.
