Trash and Treasures

Family has a heavy influence on design.  My aunt and uncle adorn their Berlin home with edgy artwork and artifacts from their travels, but lighten the mood with nanu-nana trinkets (www.nanu-nana.de) like rubber duckies and fish floating in the toilet seat cover. My grandmother made me love Eames furniture and the Native American pottery brought back from her anual trips to Sante Fe.  When decorating my college dorm, I even started to consider mom’s opinion when she insisted that not everything needs to match; asian influence can compliment modern furniture and we don’t need to stick to the same shade of red for EVERYTHING.  But the biggest advocate for re-purposed treasures was my dad, the man who on Saturday mornings said “I don’t give a shit what you do – I’m going garage-saling” and to him, I dedicate this first blog post.

We always knew that my sister was my dad’s daughter because they shared a love for junk.  Their Saturday morning expeditions lead to Saturday evening arguments with my mom about where we’d put the shit that they brought home.  But with my parents move to Oregon in 2003, came resolution.  Their new property was grounds for an old blue barn that could hold more garage sale furniture than you can imagine.  This blue barn is still a trōv for treasures, so last year I went digging.

Finds: a singer sewing machine, an old rack of test tubes, a pair of cowboy boots, and a slew of children’s books sending me down memory lane.

Tip 1: Urban vintage stores are far too expensive.  Look for old family treasures or other people’s family treasures at garage sales.  Your family’s junk has sentimental value; it’s priceless and cost free.

Tip 2: Spend time hunting when you’re in the country.  The ‘vintage’ trend hasn’t made it past most major city limits so people don’t know the value of their hand-me-downs.