The midcentury glass-and-brass bar cart in my dining room receives lots of compliments—which makes it all the more satisfying when I tell people it was a Craigslist score that my designer friend Danielle Sigwalt discovered on my behalf. Admittedly, I had reservations about it at first (I was afraid the patina would look odd amidst my otherwise contemporary furnishings), but now it’s easily one of my favorite pieces in our house. “Better to have something unusual with a story than to spend money on a new piece that needs to be manufactured for you,” Sigwalt frequently tells me.
She’s not the only local tastemaker to follow this line of thinking. “I’d rather have a set of vintage china that I use every day than a brand-new set from a chain store,” says Gretel Lynch, founder of the Arlington-based home organization and styling business Tully Bommer Direct. “It’s charming, it’s got history, it’s pretty—plus it’s environmentally friendly. For this generation that wants to be so green, why is everyone buying new stuff when there’s perfectly great stuff already out there?”
To be sure, a lot of great stuff is out there. The hitch is knowing where to find it, and how to distinguish the gems from the junk. So I asked a few local experts to share their go-to places for antiquing, plus a few tricks of the trade.
Auction Houses
Love the thrill of a bidding war? Auction houses like Weschler’s (www.weschlers.com) in D.C. and Quinn’s (www.quinnsauction.com) in Falls Church host weekly auctions that offer just about everything you can imagine, from rugs, furniture, china and artwork to kitschy trinkets and fine collectibles, advises Lynch, who spent 17 years managing the Random Harvest furniture store in Alexandria (she also held a stint at Weschler’s) before launching Tully Bommer Direct in 2014. She adds that Weschler’s reserves higher-quality items for its special Capitol Collections estate auctions, which are held roughly five times a year.
Another good bet: Alexandria’s The Potomack Company (www.potomackcompany.com), which sells high-quality furniture, rugs, artwork, jewelry and fine porcelain and sterling silver at irregular intervals. “They also have a ‘make us an offer’ feature for unsold auction items,” Lynch says.
Each of these houses offers both in-person and remote bidding options, with the opportunity to inspect items that are up for auction at least one day ahead of time.
Auctions offer the chance to get “unique, wonderful stuff for pennies,” Lynch says, but take care not to get burned by your own inexperience. If you’re a newbie, consider attending an auction as an observer before you try your hand at active bidding. Once you’re ready for that next step, familiarize yourself with the items you intend to bid on before you raise your paddle.
“Go to a viewing or look at their online catalog the day before, and register with a credit card in advance,” Lynch advises. “Once you’re there, there’s no pussyfooting around. Things move quickly and you have to be decisive—you can’t change your mind. Everything is sold as-is, and it’s up to the buyer to get it off the property in a reasonable amount of time.” Also, be aware that there’s always a buyer’s premium and a sales tax, which together can tack an additional 25 to 30 percent onto the sale price.
Antiques Shops
For everyday treasure hunting, it’s always fun to visit antiques malls such as the Mount Vernon Antique Center in Alexandria (www.mtvernonantiquemall.com) and the Falls Church Antiques Annex (250 West Broad St.). These meandering markets rent space to multiple vendors and offer “a little bit of everything,” says Kelly Pitcairn Holland, owner of the Arlington-based interior design firm KPH Studio.
Holland mines antiques shops to furnish older Arlington homes with small rooms that can’t accommodate today’s oversize furniture. But scoring the right fit often means thinking up new uses for an old piece beyond its original purpose. “I just bought a Flemish tavern bench that will be used as a coffee table,” she says. “It’s great for an Arlington home because it’s slim and long and has two little drawers for the [TV] remote.” For another client, she repurposed an old bank teller grate as a wall hanging.
In McLean, the owners of the expansive Thieves Market (www.antiquesindc.com) scour local estate sales to stock their shelves with everything from rare books and art to period furnishings. Holland also frequents GoodWood (www.goodwooddc.com) and Miss Pixie’s (www.misspixies.com) in D.C.; and Evolution Home (evolutionhome.com) and Eisenhower Consignment (eisenhowerconsignment.com) in Alexandria.
When it comes to antiques shopping, it often pays to see and touch the goods in person, Sigwalt says: “You’ll know whether or not a piece is in good condition and of good quality if it’s sturdy when you sit in it.” The same goes for items that have drawers; open and close all of them to make sure they’re operating smoothly, and look for dovetailed drawer fronts and cabinet doors that are properly aligned.
Up for a road trip? Leesburg is a vintage-shop mecca, and the granddaddy of them all is The Old Lucketts Store (luckettstore.com), a refurbished 18th-century general store that houses dozens of vendors selling vintage (and vintage-looking) items for home and garden. Open seven days a week, Lucketts also hosts periodic events such as design houses, flea markets and paint classes. Pro tip: Bring a truck to haul your loot and a checkbook to save 10 percent off your purchase.
Down the road, On a Whim (www.facebook.com/pinksilo) has everything from “painted furniture to grandma’s attic antiques at great prices,” Holland says. Its next-door neighbor, Rust and Feathers (rustandfeathers.com), sells shabby-chic furniture and accessories from several vendors in the region, including Ekster Antiques (www.eksterantiques.com), whose “natural, reclaimed and recycled” European and Scandinavian furnishings make it a designer favorite.
Rehab and DIY
Bargain hunters will, of course, find a world of antique goodies on websites such as eBay, Etsy, Chairish, EBTH and 1stdibs. But with a caveat: You need to know what you’re looking for and be willing to accept a piece as-is, given that online shopping doesn’t afford the chance to kick the tires. Moreover, online sellers don’t always know the pedigree or era of the items they’re selling, or even the correct terminology. It helps to use creative search terms to suss out unusual items and whittle down the options. “Sometimes I do a search for a detail, like a leg style or color. I might search yellow or orange if I’m looking for something from the ’70s,” says Sigwalt.
With a little elbow grease, someone else’s trash—be it a curb-mined credenza, an armoire from eBay or the sewing table you found in your grandmother’s attic—can become prize-worthy.
As “brown furniture” has lately fallen out of favor, many local vendors are resuscitating hand-me-downs and secondhand finds with a fresh coat of paint. At Stylish Patina and its sister Rough Luxe Warehouse (stylishpatina.com) and The Back Dorr Furniture Rescue (www.facebook.com/TheBackDorr), all in Falls Church, you’ll find one-of-a-kind refurbished pieces for sale, plus furniture painting classes for DIY-ers who want to freshen up their own items. The Back Dorr also provides custom restoration and upholstery services.
Want an even easier face-lift option? Try replacing the dated hardware on those dresser drawers or cabinet doors with modern knobs and pulls. Caprio & Deutsch (www.capriodeutsch.com) in Arlington and The Home Specialty Store in Great Falls (www.homespecialtystore.com) both carry vast selections of cabinet and furniture hardware. Online sources such as Schoolhouse Electric, Etsy, Restoration Hardware, Anthropologie and CB2 can also help you achieve the perfect marriage of old and new.
Flea Markets
If browsing and poking around pop-up stands is more your speed, “The best bang for your buck, hands down, is the DC Big Flea (www.thebigfleamarket.com/dc-show) at the Dulles Expo in Chantilly,” says local antiques dealer Paul Severino. This two-day blockbuster event, which Severino ranks on par with the Paris Flea Market, occurs six times per year, showcasing hundreds of vendors in a warehouse-size space. “It’s soup-to-nuts antiques and collectibles at every price point, and it attracts big-name designers and billionaires with a capital B,” adds Severino, who specializes in silver and better-quality silver-plate, and sells his wares at local antiques shows, as well as at the Antique Center in Savage Mill, Maryland.
Though the quality of the furnishings and collectibles at big shows will run the gamut, Severino recommends buying the best that you can afford. Pieces in good condition are better investments for resale value than items that are cheap but flawed.
“Look around and educate yourself and you’ll start to understand what’s a great price and what’s not,” he says. Attending a few shows and auctions as a bystander will sharpen your radar and improve your hunting skills. “The whole eureka factor—finding something special or underappreciated—that’s the great fun of this business.”
In the District, The Georgetown Flea Market (www.georgetownfleamarket.com), held every Sunday (weather permitting) for 45 years, draws large crowds with its broad mix of vintage and antique items. And two annual antiques shows in McLean—one at the Madeira School in March and an even larger one at the McLean Community Center in November—attract several dozen vendors from around the region selling American and European antiques, art, silver, furnishings and Oriental rugs (wheretobuyantiques.com).
“The only things that are better made today than they were 50 or 100 years ago are electronics or cars,” Severino says. “You buy an antique because of its beauty, because it’s unusual and because it’s not something your neighbors will recognize out of a catalog.”
Before You Buy…
Antiques hunting is an acquired skill and all sales are final. To avoid buyer’s remorse, heed these pointers before you commit.
Size matters. “If you’re looking for something to fit a certain area of your home, keep the measurements on your phone so you have them with you at all times,” advises stylist Gretel Lynch. “And watch your scale. You can’t put a massive four-poster bed in a 9-by-10-foot bedroom.” If you can think of at least a couple of places in your house where the item might fit, you stand a better chance of making a successful purchase.
Proportions have changed. People used to be smaller than they are today, so vintage dining room tables are often shorter with less leg room than today’s standards, cautions designer Kelly Pitcairn Holland. Which means chair seat clearance could be an issue if you’re looking to pair newer chairs with an older table. “Make sure you can scoot your chair in and sit comfortably.”
Re-upholstering is tricky. Love funky seating? “Vintage chairs may offer a better [deal] than sofas, which tend to have more issues with their inner workings and are harder to refresh and more expensive to re-upholster than chairs,” Danielle Sigwalt advises.
Imagination is key. The secret to snagging a fabulous find may lie in your ability to look beyond cosmetic defects like ugly hardware or stained upholstery to see the item’s true potential. “Say you find a fantastic pair of lamps and they come with old granny shades,” Lynch says. “Put a pair of brand-new drum shades on them to give them a 21st-century vibe, and they’re going to look amazing.”
Eclectic is good. Not everything in a space has to match, Lynch stresses, and that includes rugs and artwork. Buy items you love and decorate with them unapologetically. “These are the pieces that don’t have to coordinate with the rest of a room,” she says. “You just have to want to look at them forever.”
Arlington-based freelance writer Adrienne Wichard-Edds is Arlington Magazine’s style columnist. Follow her @WichardEdds.