Recycle chic - garage sales and decorations - Brief Article

Sunset, Nov, 2001 by Mary Jo Bowling

Interior design with garage sale finds

Touring Deborah Coburn's home is guaranteed to get a bargain hunter's blood pumping. An inventory of furnishings and accessories reveals some incredible figures: $15 for an elegant painting, $100 for a mirrored chest, $75 for a large Oriental rug. How does she do it? This interior designer shops garage sales, flea markets, auctions, thrift stores, and estate sales.

Coburn decorates with secondhand furnishings because of her environmental beliefs. "My goal as an environmental interior designer is to create the maximum amount of wellbeing and quality of life with the minimum amount of consumption and waste," she says. Her mantra is "reduce, reuse, and recycle."

* Reduce: Why buy new things when inexpensive tactics like rearranging furniture, reconfiguring accessories, or applying a fresh wall color can make a room new again? Coburn begins each interior design project by evaluating existing furniture and assessing whether it's being used to the best advantage. This reduces the shopping list to only the essential new items.

* Reuse: With careful and concerted looking, Coburn finds high-quality furniture at secondhand venues. "Instead of new furniture put together with staples, you can find old furniture with kiln-dried hardwood frames and great workmanship at a better price," she says.

* Of course, recycled furniture may need some rejuvenation. The trick is to look beyond the current state of an old piece. If the lines are good, a fresh coat of paint, new fabric, or a little repair can bring new life to "old junk."

* Recycle: Think about changing the form and function of cast-off objects. In Coburn's home, legs and a glass top are added to a discarded garden gate to make a coffee table; an old theater seat is recast as an easy chair; and a blanket and pillow transform a trunk into extra seating. In each case, she substituted ingenuity for spending a lot of money.

"I like seeing an object out of context and making it into something unusual and beautiful," Coburn says. "In my mind, designing with 'recycled relics' makes a room a lot more interesting and personal."

DESIGN: Deborah Coburn, Healthy Housing, San Rafael, CA (deborah@healthyhousing.net)

How to shop for salvage the Deborah Coburn way

* Look for inspiration to feed the imagination. Study shelter magazines and books about using recycled materials for ideas. This will help you see possibility where others see trash.

* Check the newspaper for garage sales and arrive early for the true finds. Coburn says this is where she finds some of her best bargains: "A lot of people are doing this now. The quality items go quickly, so it pays to get there early."

* Shop often. Finding the true bonanzas means a lot of looking around. Coburn's husband started carrying a book of crossword puzzles in the car after he realized his wife needed to pull over for every garage sale and thrift store.

* Buy bargains now, find the use later. "If you find a piece that is inherently beautiful and well priced, buy it," says Coburn. "If you really like a piece, you can find a use for it."

* To save money, look for timeless designs. Coburn has had the same sofa for 25 years. It's a quality piece with classic lines, and it can be updated with new fabric and accessories.

* Bargain. If the price is $30, and Coburn wants to pay $25, she will offer $20, allowing room for dickering. Consider how much repair an item will need, and factor that into what you are willing to pay.