Hunted House: Hip Nesters Haunt Flea Markets, Craigslist to Score Vintage Artifacts

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DIY DECORATING USED TO to be simpler: Pick a style (modern, shabby chic, country craft), acquire its key accoutrements (chrome accents, weathered finishes, "Little House on the Prairie" ginghams), repeat until complete. But now, savvy nesters no longer want to be defined by one design look. Instead, they're fusing high and low, old and new, classic and oddball, for an effect that's both chic and cheeky. The trick to this artsy, madcap aesthetic? A healthy collection of vintage pieces, repurposed in unexpected ways (think an old classroom map hung as artwork or laboratory beakers as flower vases). We tagged along with three local experts to learn the secrets of nabbing secondhand scores.

[Flea Market]
TREASURE QUEST: Stu Eli and Janet Morales, Threepotatofourshop.com
When Janet Morales, above, and Stu Eli decamped from Brooklyn to NoVa a few years ago, they realized the quirky-cool pieces they were collecting for their new house might appeal to other hip homemakers, too. It wasn't long before their Reston, Va.-based Web store, Threepotatofourshop.com, earned a devoted design following for its mom-and-pop feel and well-sourced selection of eclectic vintage objects (retro letters that once belonged to 1960s-era storefronts, Fiberglas classroom chairs) unearthed at flea markets, antique malls and other troves easily reached via the duo's minivan.

On a recent Sunday, Eli and Morales unpack two strollers, their two toddlers — Holly, 4, and Otis, 1 — and a few reusable totes to tackle the Georgetown Flea Market (Sun., 8 a.m.-4 p.m.). Eli's eyes quickly dart across the crowded tables. "I start by quickly scanning for anything brightly colored," he says.

Within minutes, he snags an oversized red Tonka jeep for $18 ("the bold color and retro shape make it a great display piece on a bookshelf," he says). Working quickly around the market, they add two wooden lanterns ($18) and an antique washboard ($5). "I like that every piece has a story," Morales says. "This washboard used to clean laundry, but now, it will be hung on someone else's wall as art."

» Best Advice: "Don't get discouraged. It only takes one really great booth to make it a good day," Eli says.

[Thrift Store]
DISCARD STYLE: Amy Rutherford, Red Barn Mercantile
As the owner of cozy Old Town decor den Red Barn Mercantile (113 S. Columbus St., Alexandria; 703-838-0355), Amy Rutherford has a rep for a mix of hard-to-find new items — Thomas Paul's vibrant patterned pillows, colorful Fishs Eddy pottery — and nifty secondhand finds, such as salvaged library card catalogs or worn farm pulleys meant to be used as doorstops or bookends. "I hit up any resource I can — thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls, auctions," Rutherford says while pawing through piles of housewares at Look Again Resale Shop (900 King St., Alexandria; 703-683-2558), a neighborhood thrift store where she regularly stops.

She pauses over a selection of silver serving dishes. "These pieces might be older, but they're still very classic," she says. "Stores are making reproductions of them now, but it's easy to find the originals on the cheap." Sweet antique teacups (about $5 each) also catch her eye, though she'd use them as teensy planters. The busy shop overflows with small and big buys. One bummer: An iconic Eero Saarinen marble-topped tulip table ($995) that dominates the furnishing area wears a "sold" tag.

"In thrift stores, patience is key," she says. "You've got to scour the sections, move things around, look underneath them. That's where you'll find your treasure." She pounces on an antique bank security deposit box ($9) — "they're great for storing everything from pencils to papers" — and two retro children's records whose vibrant, illustrated album covers she plans to reframe as art for a kid's space.
» Best advice: "Always think outside the box on how to use an item. In fact, don't even think about what it was made for; think of what it could be instead."

[Craigslist.org]
WEB OF BUYS: Sally Steponkus, interior designer
>> D.C.-based interiors maven Sally Steponkus (Steponkus.com) doesn't do dirty. "I'm not the kind of person who likes to dig around an antique shop," she says. Instead, she lands her deals the new-fashioned way: via the Internet. On the D.C. portal for classified-ad site Craigslist.org, Steponkus browses for high-quality furnishings and display pieces being sold for little money. It's how she scored the oversized, gilt-bamboo-framed mirror over her couch for just $25. "I would sell this myself for $4,000," she says.
Her trick to shopping multi-merchant sites such as Craigslist.org or Ebay.com: Be as specific as possible for what you're looking for. Steponkus favors design-centric search terms such as "bamboo," "antiqued," "gilded" or "Greek key." "Just looking for something like 'lighting' is too vague," she says. "You're going to end up clicking through listings of junk. I'd try 'sconce,' 'chandelier' or 'pendant lamp' instead."

Like all secondhand sources, the selection online is hit or miss, so it helps to check often. "No one has the time to stop by a store every day, but it's easy to go online," she says. Persistence helped Steponkus recently score a vintage bamboo dining set — six chairs, table, sideboard and bar — for $400, which she relacquered for $3,000 to be spotlighted in a designer showhouse.

» Best advice: "Everything can be redone. A coat of bright paint, new upholstery or adding trim or gilding can dramatically refresh an older piece."

MORE WAYS TO SCORE
» Sunday Driver's pamphlet-style directories (free; Sundaydriver.com) are one of Stu Eli's top ways to suss out antique malls and dealers up and down the East Coast.
» Red Barn's Amy Rutherford leads shopping expeditions to area antique markets; the next outing is Oct. 10 to the Shenandoah Antique Expo. See Redbarnmercantile.com.
» Local decorating blogs — Sally Steponkus frequents Homersoddisnthe.blogspot.com and Mynottinghill.blogspot.com — list news on area auctions and store sales.

AT TOP: A mix of vintage items and secondhand scores pepper the Reston-area home of Stu Eli and Janet Morales, here with son Otis, 1. They sell the same eclectic pieces in their online shop, Threepotatofourshop.com.

Photos by Abby Greenawalt, Lawrence Luk for Express; Marge Ely/Express