Loot From The Junk Shop

We have a few "junk" shops as I like to call them here in Hannover... they are shops where grandmother's things go when grandmother dies. Sorry to be so blunt, but it is what it is. When older folks die, these companies come in (usually called in by relatives) and they take everything to these junk shops for resale. You can find lots of mid century stuff and you can always count on coming across billions of vases and dishes and very funky old furniture (and most of it is funky, funky in a bad way).

If you frequent these shops however, you will be amazed by the things you can find for cheap, cheap, cheap. For instance, these vases. The smallest was .50 and hand signed by an artist and obviously hand thrown, one of a kind, it's gorgeous. Whenever I'm in these shops I comb them and extract only things that I can imagine using and enjoying at home -- in other words, "cheap" isn't enough to make me buy something -- it needs to be nice and made well.

In the vases above, I plan to put single stems of flowers inside and arrange them in my window or perhaps on a shelf or my dresser top. I have lots of vases and things, but I rotate them so frequently as to not bore myself - so in the cupboard some vases go, others come out, then those go in and others come out, etc. I like to freshen up my home by a simple visit to the cupboard or, in this case, the local junk shop. Everything you see above was under $10.

Do you go to junk shops to scout for treasures?

(images: holly becker for haus maus)