Bargainhunters of the forum unite

[ilona73]

Having spent the afternoon trawling the internet for any ideas and antique desks/chairs... bookcases etc for my husbands home office it got me wondering..Have any of you found mega bargains for your homes?

What were they?

Any tips you would like to share with others when searching for such treasures to fill your home?

do you want the perfect antique or do you prefer it to have the lived in and well loved look?

sorry i am just a nosey devil ha!

 

[yamin]

I got a solid oak table and 4 chairs including 1 carver for £80 from newspaper ad. Been with us for 16 years now and taking everything me and my family can throw at it in good spirits, inlcuding several housemoves and much storage in non-ideal conditions!

Freecycle is good, as is ebay and newspapers. I listen longingly to my parents stories of going to stately home contents sales where they could pick up the most amazing things for so little (a dining table in inlaid and french polished mahogany to sit 18, for some ridiculous amount less than £100!) - I have this dream of going to one of these sales and getting things that are both interesting but also low priced. However, I don't think these sales really happen anymore, and also, everyone is so much more savvy/greedy/aware in this money grabbing society that I don't think bargains like that exist anymore - they get snapped up. Sorry, that turned into a tirade didn't it? Good luck in your searches, my feeling is that with a limited budget you can certainly still get interesting, but not treasures unrealised. I would love to have beautiful antiques, but do err towards the beauty of age and even scruffiness, rather than beauty from perfection and finery, which I would likely ruin!

Have fun with it!

 

[judrop]

You need to get DWB on this Jaqy is a bargain hunter par excellence ! A whole house full of amazing bargains ! Ju X

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I had some success at a Stately Home boot sale two years ago, haggling was very much the way to go, especially as the Vendors were well laced with champers!
I spotted a well known Antiques Roadshow expert advising on asking prices, supposedly to avoid the legendary 50p purchase being worth loads more. But there was definitely some wonderful linen, clothing, mirrors, sets of chairs and endless saddles, riding gear, tennis and cricket stuff to be found-- seriously out of Granny's attic.
That particular event is held every 5 years and raised a huge sum of money for Historic Churches , about 30k I believe.

 

[DaveBrigg]

I was given a solid wood panel door in a pile of scrap for burning. The top half had a single square panel, which was missing. With the addition of an offcut of skirting board to make a ledge along the bottom of the panel hole, and a coat of paint, it has been transformed into a much loved puppet theatre. Just the thing in case your husband fancies becoming a children's entertainer.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Since giving up work and the recession, which nearly finished us off, I've had to readjust my shopping preferences and reconnect with my 17 year old self who loved nothing better than a morning in the charity shops and an afternoon with the scissors to indecently modify what I'd bought. Lincolnshire is bargain heaven! The only place I've ever been to where you're likely to be haggled down, as when I bought that little table in the market place and a cheery passer by shouted I should only pay £15, not £20, so that's what I did.

I've talked before about the eerily wonderful china graveyard at Horncastle, a rambling place with a parrot, a cat, and canaries, where the dishes, tureens and cups are piled 3 feet high and are brimful of rotting leaves and puddle water. (Everything there's a pound, I bought a collection of various Coronation mugs, which this Christmas were retailing as candles at Liberty's for £50 each!) You could make up a gorgeous, mis-matched but toning, antique dinner service from there for about £30 if you had the patience. And then there's all the furniture - all reasonably priced but open to offer anyway.

My local British Red Cross is a smelly but rather sobering place where the hard-up get excited over '70s veneer sideboards and stained old mattresses. Amongst the frayed clutter of the deceased you can find '40s and '50s pieces with typical price tags between £20-£40. Recently I saw a rather sweet 50s dressing table there for £15. With a new Cath Kidston frilled curtain around the base that would have fetched £200 in London. I saw this "Old Charm" dresser in there at £40, hesitated over it and then bought it a month later from the antique shop round the corner, who had painted it blue and charged me £60.

I agree that there aren't any real "treasures" to be found anymore, but you can find interesting, well worn pieces and create a cosy, curious environment with them.

 

[LadyArowana]

. I saw this "Old Charm" dresser in there at £40, hesitated over it and then bought it a month later from the antique shop round the corner, who had painted it blue and charged me £60.

I agree that there aren't any real "treasures" to be found anymore, but you can find interesting, well worn pieces and create a cosy, curious environment with them.

I still think it was money well spent, sometimes it's nice to get something that isn't a project and you can move swiftly on to the fun part like arranging the dishes.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Bless you, yes, that's the best bit. I have seasonal displays. And I'd probably have spent that much on paint and brushes anyway.

Here's another of my Lincs bargains

a supposedly 18th C ( please don't tell me it's not, I don't want to know) "log box", which I haggled down from £160 to £120. At night it scuttles about the passageways.

 

[LadyArowana]

Bless you, yes, that's the best bit. I have seasonal displays. And I'd probably have spent that much on paint and brushes anyway.

Here's another of my Lincs bargains

a supposedly 18th C ( please don't tell me it's not, I don't want to know) "log box", which I haggled down from £160 to £120. At night it scuttles about the passageways.

Is that a coal scuttle ? Have you no fear of the possible retribution you face for being so shameless in your wanton exhibition of fossil fuels ? If you swear that it is only for decoration or gifts from New Year you may escape.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol: Gosh, I'm bad aren't I? Yes, a coal-scuttle, for glorious, coal-fired, stay hot for hours with minimum fuss, blazing fires.

Whip me now!

 

[ilona73]

Wow!!!
haven't you all done wel???l.I asked because typically i love battered tattered well worn lived in look furniture although i do have a few favourite pieces of my own.I bought a painted cabinet from a car boot sale for just £20 which my Tv stands on currently..
Also when we moved into this old house there were a few pieces of furniture left which i have either kept, revamped or chopped up for firewood if they were way past repair .. i love make do and mend.. sometimes i think it can have the most positive of outcomes and somethings that were not necessarily beautiful take on their own beauty once you have spent the time on them. The trash turns to treasure in your own surroundings as it were.
I have also bought a pie crust mahogany table which cost me but £3 at a car boot sale... so i came home and revamped it now to french cream shabby chic-esque style.
I love an eclectic mix of old and newish but not too modern....this weekend i bought a yew leather inlaid barrasters desk for just £62.. and a huge gold mirror for £18 for pauls office... he is determined to have a gentlemans smoking room style with dark green painted wood panelling and atlas style wallpaper with tones of gold added in...As the credit crunch is hitting us all in the pocket it was my challenge to see if i could buy all the furniture for his room for less than £300... so far so good though i think i will end up lowing the budget on a captains chair and light fittings.
Home sense is a very good place if you are looking for items to dress in the room ... they have all sorts of curiosities.

Joce i too have a few old charm pieces that were left here... a corner cabinet that i painted and put in the girls room.. a dresser but the doors are falling off so going to see what i can do with that and a book case. your cabinet looks fab! its surprising what a lick of paint will do ! and i am soooo jealous of your coal helmet or whatever you prefer to call them.. the legs are so comical.. i bet it does scuttle away hahaha ......xx

 

[Feltwell]

I'm not really a fan of "fine" antique furniture, I prefer the well worn look in furniture (Mrs F prefers it in husbands as well, luckily). It also makes for a much more stress-free life with young kids - if my 3 year old son crashes his scooter into the dining table, aside from any personal injury it's just a bit more character to the table if he puts a dent in it!

Antique pine is a bit of a cliche I know but there are some very nice items out there, Ebay + my old trailer have got us a lot of stuff. A big scrubbed pine table, seats 8 comfortably / 10 at a push, very old with the top replaced with floorboards at some point, £300 complete with 8 chairs - I thought that was OK.

I also got an quadruple size wardrobe for £200. Not old, it's new but was from John Lewis and is quite good quality, matches pretty close to the internal doors and architraves in my house, is in perfect condition and comes apart to get it up the stairs! About £1500 new so at £200 I was chuffed to find it.

My favourite though is a little 3 legged "milking" stool. Very solidly made, the top I think is a piece of elm that's about 2" thick, the stool is the perfect height for kids - £10.

A quote from my 5 year old daughter shocked me slightly recently - I couldn't answer some obscure question that only a 5 year old would ask, and was replied to with "Why don't you Google it?" :shock: Turns out they were shown how to use Google in the Reception class at primary school. How much better are my kids going to be with computers than I am? A lot, that's for certain.

As a result I scrounged an old laptop from work for the kids, and was thinking what to put it on - an old school desk would be perfect I reckon, a single one should just be big enough for a laptop with enough room to use a mouse alongside. So I'm on the hunt for one of those now, a proper one with a lift-up lid and an ink-well !

 

[Feltwell]

Is that a coal scuttle ? Have you no fear of the possible retribution you face for being so shameless in your wanton exhibition of fossil fuels ? If you swear that it is only for decoration or gifts from New Year you may escape.

That didn't scare me, it's the gun on top of the door next to to the dresser that looks far scarier!

Nice dresser by the way, the curved top sits very well with the vaulted ceiling. £60 sounds very cheap to me.

 

[LadyArowana]

That didn't scare me, it's the gun on top of the door next to to the dresser that looks far scarier!

Nice dresser by the way, the curved top sits very well with the vaulted ceiling. £60 sounds very cheap to me.

I am sure you have nothing to fear, I bet it's only used on local authority water inspectors and chaps offering plastic windows.

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a great idea of yours Feltwell about those old desks- that would be lovely.

Don't worry about the current gun, only a little air rifle. It's been used once, on a bunny- and I've never seen so many glum faces as at that lunch party - so decided the bunnies can stay.

Thanks or the nice comment about the dresser- it is hard to find little, low things to fit my downstairs kitchen. If anyone spots a narrow shelving unit - say 60 by 130cm, please let me know!

this weekend i bought a yew leather inlaid barrasters desk for just £62.. and a huge gold mirror for £18 for pauls office... he is determined to have a gentlemans smoking room style with dark green painted wood panelling and atlas style wallpaper with tones of gold added in...As the credit crunch is hitting us all in the pocket it was my challenge to see if i could buy all the furniture for his room for less than £300... so far so good though i think i will end up lowing the budget on a captains chair and light fittings.

Your Paul sounds a lot like my Chris, who spends many hours wishfully shopping on the Internet for things like stuffed stags' heads and silver decanters. Chris is now pretty inseparable from his new Laura Ashley Denbigh leather chair - 50% off currently! Your study sounds fab. You won't see Paul anymore though!

By the way ilona, last year sometime I saw in a magazine a range of tweed cushions with stag heads (I think) appliqued on, by a female designer whose name has completely escaped me. There were blankets and other things too. Don't suppose you, or anyone, recognises where this might be from?

 

[LadyArowana]

Like this ?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Have you photoshopped that? :shock: 8)

Very much like that, except there was less neck, and the head was in soft cerise felt.

 

[LadyArowana]

No digital cheating it's by angharad jefferson, she has a website and sells on Etsy, also does commissions.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Having been lucky enough both to see and be fed a delicious lunch at Joce's I can vouch for her excellent taste and good eye. The brick vaulted kitchen and adjacent spaces are extraordinary, and have such a warm and welcoming feel to them (please dont lime render those brick ceilings, even if Gareth says its the authentic treatment!).

 

[ilona73]

What a great idea of yours Feltwell about those old desks- that would be lovely.

.

Your Paul sounds a lot like my Chris, who spends many hours wishfully shopping on the Internet for things like stuffed stags' heads and silver decanters. Chris is now pretty inseparable from his new Laura Ashley Denbigh leather chair - 50% off currently! Your study sounds fab. You won't see Paul anymore though!

By the way ilona, last year sometime I saw in a magazine a range of tweed cushions with stag heads (I think) appliqued on, by a female designer whose name has completely escaped me. There were blankets and other things too. Don't suppose you, or anyone, recognises where this might be from?[/quote]


do you mean this???



http://www.lassco.co.uk/app/product-detail/keyword/stags%20head/report/lassco_product_list_view/uid/7027/?viewType=list

had to post the link as the picture isnt too big...
Its from Lascos and is £68 i think.... its a great site for all sorts of curiosities!
and yep you are right about my husband.. he is hankering after the very same chair from Laura Ashleys... i might order him one for his birthday but at the moment i will see how he behaves ha!!