Treasure Hunting at Local Thrift Stores

Grand Rapids has lots of great places to find treasure: antique stores, resale shops and a handful of quirky stores that sell all kinds of art!

 Two weeks ago, I found a few new stores full of goodies to share with you:

One of the great places I visited with my friends Justin and Molly was the White Barn Thrift Store, on 28th Street .  Its a great new store filled with old things, new things, and old things made new again (my favorite).  The owner rescues and refurbishes worn furniture.  He also has booths filled with all kinds of beautiful jewelry and home decor made by local artists.  The prices are very manageable.  I brought home this green candle holder (above)  made by Green Door Design and Finds for only six dollars.  We will definitely be going back soon.
(photo from the White Barn Thrift Store Facebook page)

We also visited the 29th Street Antique Mall.  This is seriously the biggest antique mall I've ever seen in my life.  It goes on for an eternity.  We walked through so many rooms and passages that I was pretty sure we would get lost and die there.  If you ever need anything old -I mean ANYTHING- you should stop by this place.  This has to be one of the largest collections of ancient breakable dishes and jewelry I've ever seen.  We spent hours wandered through room after room looking at vintage clocks and teacups.  At one point, Molly even found a weird, secret Alice in Wonderland style door, but don't ask me where it is; I doubt I could ever find it again.  If we didn't have a picture, I'd be sure I had imagined it.

The next day, at the Goodwill Outlet Center, I found a giant cardboard crate filled with hundreds of these adorable plaster trays with birds, for .25 cents a piece.    I'm not sure what they are: dishes, bird feeders, maybe jewelry trays?  Eight of them came home with me.  I would have bought more if I had some idea of what I would do with them.  This isn't a new place for me to shop, but I always find something unique here.

Later in the week, after lunch with my mother-in-law and her friend Grace, we all went to Nice Twice to check out the bag sale (fit as much clothing as you can in a bag for $8), but I didn't pay any attention to the clothes.  I found some little picture frames for a future project and Grace found me this gorgeous necklace, something I would have never picked out for myself.


It was a good week :)