styleNorth

On October 2 and 3 I’ll be a featured speaker at the Fall Home Show where I’ll be talking up the many advantages of buying vintage furnishings. The session is part of the HGTV Workshop Series.

With cheap goods flooding into Canada from overseas, the phrase “buyer beware” has never been more apropos. “Vintage pieces have already lasted 40 or 50 years,” says Philip Hatherly, a professional upholsterer and manager of Toronto vintage furniture store Filter (75 Jarvis St.) “The frames are solid and in many cases the upholstery has years of life left in it. If you do want to update the fabric, you can be confident that the quality is impeccable because they were built at a time when good quality was extremely important to consumers.”

Hatherly points to a set of beautiful Kittinger, onyx-topped side tables, left, priced at $1,495 for the pair, a bit steep, but you’d never find anything this luxe at West Elm or Pottery Barn. “The quality is superb,” he says, “and the styling is completely current again.”

Like new cars, new furniture depreciates the moment it leaves the showroom, whereas vintage pieces may actually be worth more over time depending on their pedigree. It might seem counter-intuitive but the more you pay for vintage furniture, the more it’s likely be worth down the road.

The vintage T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings side chair above left is from a set of 12 currently for sale on 1stdibs.com for $33,600 USD, that’s $2,800 per chair and no, I’m not making this up. The chair above right, I bought for $20 at the last Rogue Gallery Warehouse Sale; the frame needs to be refreshed and it requires new upholstery but it’s stamped Widdicomb, same as the 1stdibs chair, which means I panned myself a nugget.

One of the very best ways to save big on vintage home décor is to buy pieces in less than amazing condition and fix them up yourself. “People don’t seem to know how little effort it actually takes,” says INabstracto’s Kate Eisen.

And finding a Widdicomb chair in a parking lot sale is not as rare as you might imagine. Do you recall the steel, Art Moderne coffee table, below left, that I found at Toronto’s Elegant Garage Sale for $165? Well, yesterday, while searching 1stdibs for the Robsjohn-Gibbings chair, I discovered an identical piece priced at $1,480 USD. Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus.

I can’t promise Christmas in October with my talk next month but I’ll include lots of sources, tips and other great examples. I’ll also be giving away tickets to the show next week on styleNorth so keep coming back.