Tag Archives: secondhand furniture

A New Bed

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In a post from last week I mentioned that I was searching for alternatives to the bed that we had in the spare room. You can read about it here.

I feel as though I have spent the past week buying and selling beds on Facebook Marketplace.

We thought we had found a suitable bed, however, it turned out to be too big for the room as it had quite chunky timber head and foot ends. I managed to sell the original bed quite quickly and thought I would need to make do with the one that was a bit of a squeeze as we have guests arriving on Sunday.

Luckily, I spotted the perfect bed not too far from home and we were able to collect it today.

The bed is assembled, remade and the room is back in order and I am really pleased with the outcome.

Now all I need to do is to sell the one which did not suit our space. It was definitely a ‘whoops’ moment but not the end of the world.

A Footpath Find

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A couple of days ago we took the dog for a walk. There was nothing out of the ordinary about this and we were following our usual route when we spotted an outdoor lounge on the footpath with a note offering it to a ‘good home’.

There is a tiny bit of wear and tear evident and of course the cushions are faded but we decided that it was too good an opportunity to pass up. GMan headed home to get the ute while I waited with the lounge. I even met the gentleman who had offered it.

A short trip home and here it is set up on the front terrace outside the lounge room.

I am not 100% sure whether this will be its final location but it will do for the moment. Landscaping of the front yard and terrace is still a work in progress so I won’t always look quite this drab.

Scrolling Idly

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Many would say that idle scrolling through your social media feed is an appalling waste of time and a bad habit. Generally, I would agree with these sentiments but randomly checking Facebook has proved to be very worthwhile in the past week.

One evening I quickly checked and happened upon a small cupboard for sale on Marketplace. I showed GMan as he had been saying that he needed a stand for his BBQ (also sourced from Marketplace). He was also thinking that some storage underneath the stand would be useful. I checked the dimensions of the advertised cupboard and we decided that it would be perfect for this purpose.

A short drive and $20 later and we had a stand for the BBQ.

I could not believe my luck when I managed to follow up that win with another. Yesterday afternoon I spotted a sofa which looked perfect for our family room. We had a sofa bed there which we had brought from Queensland and although it is good for a spare bed it is not the most comfortable sofa in the world. This ‘new to us’ leather sofa is in excellent condition and is a welcome addition for $190. The sofa bed has been rehomed in the spare bedroom.

Of course, you can’t pick and choose exact colours when buying secondhand. This shows the colour of the sofa and that colour of the back of the sideboard which is quite close to it. 

I am planning to find some fabric which incorporates the taupe and indigo/navy colours to make a couple of cushions for the sofa which will tie it all together colourwise. Perhaps something like this.

With a bit of creativity I think I can make it all work really well together.

More Bargains

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We have been rather occupied with our guests for the past five days so no time for blog posts.

Yesterday I took my granddaughters to Bendigo. I bought more fruit and vegetables, we enjoyed the Australian Women’s Weekly exhibition at the art gallery and we found time to check out a couple of op shops.

I found a summer dress for Liv – no mean feat as she is 15 and liable to change her mind at a moment’s notice. Also, a warm fleecy black top for Izz as well as a skirt, long sleeve knit top and scarf for myself.

However, the standout purchases were a pair of shoes and a chair.

These shoes caught my eye but did not appear to have any size, brand or country of origin markings. In fact, I think they may be handmade. I tried them on and they fitted perfectly. They have barely been worn and were priced at $8. Lucky me!

I actually saw the chair outside the shop as we approached the door. You may remember that I bought a dining setting with 4 chairs from Marketplace some weeks ago. You can read about it here. I was prepared to have one or two extra chairs and was not too worried about whether they were an exact match. I figured that this one would be suitable so I handed over $5 and it was mine.

I brought it home and here is the recent purchase (on the left) beside one of the existing set. Can you pick the difference? The whole chair is marginally (about 1cm) lower, the curve at the top is not quite as pronounced and the top of the sides are rounded rather than flat.

I am absolutely chuffed with my finds.

Fun with Furniture

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Yesterday we picked up a couple more secondhand finds. A pair of bedside tables to complete the guest room from one seller and lamps from another.

I am convinced that there is plenty of suitable pre-loved furniture and home decor available if you are prepared to look around.

In fact, the other success actually came from within our own home. When we moved here there was cube shelving along one side of the walk-in wardrobe which was not terribly useful in my opinion. So, yesterday we moved it out of that location and into what is going to be my sewing room. Now I just need to unpack all of the boxes of fabric.

It is a very good replacement for the storage we left behind in Queensland.

More Progress

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Since my last post we have continued to make progress in setting up our new home. A huge achievement has been to pass all of the unpacked boxes and packing materials to other people for reuse.

Meanwhile, I have continued to successfully trawl Facebook Marketplace to source items I need.

Today we picked up this dining table and chairs. We plan to sand, paint and update them at some stage but at the moment we don’t have any workspace in the shed – and it is too cold to consider working out there. I think that will be a project for the warmer weather.

Hanging the artwork above the table was another achievement for today.

The curtains were a new buy as I decided that the semi-sheer ones that were already hung were not really suitable as we approach winter. The creases have not really dropped out yet but once they do we will adjust the position of the curtain rail to suit the length of the curtains.

A couple of days ago we picked up this desk to use in my sewing room.

I am working on finding homes for everything in the kitchen and the office and will share a bit more about those spaces in upcoming posts.

A Refresh

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I have not forgotten you even though it has been nearly 4 weeks since my last post.

After a very wet autumn our weather suddenly turned dry and cold as winter officially began here at the beginning of June. It somehow made our planned holiday very appealing. We had 9 days in north Queensland where the daytime temperatures ranged from about 26C up to 32C. It was a great opportunity to thaw out. I am still adding to the posts on my holiday blog but you can pop over here to read all about it.

We came back with renewed enthusiasm to tackle some jobs around the house. It is really a bit like spring-cleaning in winter. GMan has scrubbed all of the skirting boards, architraves and doors in the lounge/dining area and the office/library.

A bit of decluttering and rearranging of furniture ensued. One thing certainly leads to another.

Bookshelf from the lounge to the office.

Sideboard from the front lobby to the lounge.

A ‘new’ glass fronted cabinet for the lobby. I picked this bargain up on Marketplace.

Scrubbing was not enough for the front lobby so it received a fresh coat of paint.

There is more painting and rearranging in progress. More photos to come.

Patience Pays Off

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We often think of being patient and/or persistent when it comes to locating a specific item.  It can be trawling secondhand shops or even looking for a vary particular item brand-new.

However, I have discovered that patience and allowing things to take their course can apply in equal measure when trying to sell or give something away.  Somewhere, sometime there will be somebody for whom your treasure will be just perfect.  It is simply a matter of finding them.

A case in point is this dressing table.  We bought it several years ago with a view to restoring it but plans and needs changed and we needed to find a new home for it.

The mirror attaches to the back of the dressing table and the mirror is absolutely stunning – almost a metre in diameter with a beautiful pie crust edge.

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The interior of the cupboards features a central shelf on one side and 4 drawers on the other.

I listed it over 2 months ago on several local Buy, Swap, Sell groups on Facebook.  Despite a few enquiries it failed to be sold.  A couple of weeks ago I decided to try Gumtree and was feeling a bit despondent as there did not seem to be any interest.

Yesterday I received an enquiry about the Gumtree advertisement from people who live in an adjacent locality in our semi-rural area.  They arranged to collect it at 10am this morning.

I held my breath as I cannot remember the countless times that promising sales or giveaways have failed to eventuate.

As arranged the purchasers arrived with a trailer at the appointed time and were absolutely delighted with the dressing table which they plan to put to good use as they fit out their newly-acquired home.

I was really pleased to see this go to a good home and know that it will be appreciated.

A Chair Repair

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This was quite a minor repair in the scheme of things but it restored a damaged piece of furniture to its original state.

We bought this chair secondhand from Gumtree a couple of years ago.  My original intention was to have an occasional chair in the corner of the office/library but I found a pair of chairs and the seller was not prepared to separate them so we bought them both and managed to fit both of them into the newly re-arranged room.

I recently noticed that a piece of wood had come off an arm of one of the chairs.

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It appears that the rolled ends on the arms is actually 2 pieces of timber glued together and the glue had probably dried out allowing the curved underneath piece to become detached.

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I applied some Aquadhere wood glue to the surface and used a clamp to hold it into position until the glue dried.

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The chair now looks as good as new.

New to Us

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I have been looking on Gumtree for the past couple of months for an armchair to go in the vacant corner of our office/library.  The space was created when we decided that we only needed one bookshelf rather than two.  You can read about the previous steps of the revamping of this room here.

This morning I found a listing on Gumtree for 2 chairs which were to be sold as a pair.  Although I really only wanted a single chair, we decided to take a look as it was not too far from home.

We bought the two chairs and by moving the bookcase slightly we can actually fit them both in.

012They are solid timber and are over 70 years old.  The current upholstery is in excellent condition and works perfectly in this room.  It is great to be able to find quality furniture and give it a new home.

In preparation for more furniture re-arranging tomorrow I have sold this small chest of drawers.

001They are nothing special, I bought them from Gumtree a few years ago when they were bare chipboard and painted gloss white.  I have used them for storing material and craft supplies in my sewing room but now it is time to move them along.  They will be collected tomorrow morning.

Come back tomorrow to see the newly re-vamped TV cabinet and more changes to the location and use of our existing TV stand.