The Find: The Housing Works Book of Decorating with Thrift Shop Treasures, Flea Market Objects, and Vintage Details

by Stan Williams, Charles King (Foreword by)

Sometimes you’re looking for it, sometimes it just finds you

Treasures of home décor abound at flea markets, thrift shops, and garage sales. But how do you know a find when you find it?
In The Find , Stan Williams and some of today’s most clever style makers, including Simon Doonan, John Derian, and Real Simple’s Kristin van Ogtrop–all diehard devotees of New York City’s Housing Works–show not just what to look for, but also how to look at an object to identify a great piece. The trick is to see beyond nicks and wobbles, color and intended purpose and to focus on potential. For example, a vintage leather trunk encased in Lucite works as a stunning coffee table. Pages from old books wallpaper a foyer. A cushion fashioned from a baseball diamond’s home plate makes a garden chair comfortable.

The Find includes chapters on furniture, accessories, small spaces, and entertaining. From a suburban ranch to an East Village studio in New York, each abode illustrates unexpected ways that secondhand items can make statements (or space) throughout a home.

Elegantly photographed, filled with practical sidebars about refurbishing, styling, and treasure-hunting, and replete with the quirky sensibility that has made Housing Works one of the most popular destinations for great things, The Find is at once a handbook and inspiration for vintage decorating. Secondhand does not mean second rate when there’s always something special to be found.

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2009

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few decorating books I can think of that you'll actually want to read...not just look at the pictures. Lots of tips on turning trash into treasure, where to find the goodies, and when it's just not worth fixing them up. Tons of great photos, the strangest of which is a happy Simon Doonan wheeling his "find" - a wicker "Rosemary's Baby carriage" - down a New York City street. You go, Simon!

[Tammy V · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful photography couldn't make up for the feeling of "nothing new" here for me. I myself and my friends can do better than the prices he was quoting for the "find" back in 2009 (published so before that I'm sure). And I wasn't really taken with his color schemes or finished examples. Worth a browse in case something strikes you, but only from the library or sitting in the store. Wouldn't recommend it for the "gotta have this on my bookself" collection.

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicely photographed. There wasn't much new information here, though, and I didn't walk away with the feeling that I'd learned anything. The pictures were pretty, though the decorating was uninspiring and stale to my eye. I want more punch, more incongruous juxtaposition, an odder collection of oddities and less of a Generic Stylish Interior Magazine look.

[Rae Waller]

Read for RBC Charity Shop challenge. I don't feel I can rate this book accurately because I'm really not interested in interior design, but I'll keep it in mind as reference for the badges which involve upcycling. Pretty photos too.

[Leticia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is even more boring than the last one I reviewed.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cons - Some repetitive photo captions and even repeated photos, or nearly repeated.

Pro - Covers a wide variety of interior styles

Overall - Fun to flip through the homes of people richer than I'll ever be, even if they are using thrift store finds.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

very close to 5

[Relyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It was one of those eye candy books that actually has ideas you haven't read a hundred times in magazines. Plus, it's well written.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the interiors in this book aren't exactly my style, but it is always inspiring to see how people decorate with thrift!