Interior Trends, Budget-Friendly Prices

Whether you are very poor or just skating by, rummage sale furniture can still help you achieve the objective of keeping up with your neighbors.

But which furniture fashion meets the bill is a matter of perspective, now more than ever, say experts in rummage, home furnishings and even TV staging.

Young people don’t want “brown furniture” anymore: their mom’s Queen Anne, Victorian mahogany or painted maple, said Susan O’Connor, director of North Shore Chicago Rummage, who coordinates with churches that host annual and semi-annual sales. The trend she was seeing through last year’s sales – the first regular year since the COVID-19 pandemic – was Mid-Century Modern, white wood, or IKEA. Nor do Gen Zers (born since 1997) want Limoges china, sterling silver flatware, Meissen or Hummel figurines or annual Christmas plates.

“They don’t want to polish it or store it,” O’Connor said.

The disconnect between what 70- and 80-year-old donors have and what churches can move has hurt profits, O’Connor said. Add in costs for storage and tents for outdoor display space, and some churches are no longer offering furniture.

But the traditional Old Money look of chinoiserie and blueand-white china – Herend, Blue Willow, Royal Copenhagen, Wedgwood – still has takers among “grandmillenials.” These are people in their mid-20s to late 30s drawn to Laura Ashley prints, ruffles or embroidered linens that the mainstream deems “stuffy.”

These items don’t sell well now at North Shore sales, O’Connor said, except to buyers like Lillian Grey Vintage. Her tagline on Facebook is, “Your grandmother bought it, your mother donated it, and I bought it back.” O’Connor has watched social media and seen North Shore items heading to the South.

Christina Hilton, store manager of Warehouse 55 in Westtown, where Lillian Grey maintains a booth, said that the grandmillennial clientele in Chicago tends to be above 40. Little cloisonne jars and other chinoiserie can still sell to a designer who wants to create a shelf. So do colored plates, for a decorative wall. Mid-Century Modern barware and unpolished brass is hot.

Is the idea to literally look rich on a budget?

“Yes,” Hilton said with a laugh.

Brass and rattan – the unpainted, classic, 1940s and 50s version – as well as bamboo, is a big design trend now, said Hilton, Melissa Alderton and Kaden Maloney.

“I have rented wicker peacock chairs a lot in the past year,” said Alderton, who founded PROPabilities in 1986 and who has worked with Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. “The trends I am seeing are those of my youth in the 60s and 70s: bright colors of orange, red, neon green and blue.”

Maloney, a 26-year-old production designer and set decorator to films, TV and commercials in Chicago, says his demographic has left Mid-Century Modern behind in favor of “exuberant colors and big, bubbly, organic shapes.” It’s a rebellion against the beige, black and grey of late.

Rummage shopping suits his demographic, because this home furnishings look calls for a bold mix of textures, unfinished blonde wood and teak, and organic pieces: clay pots at $300, he said.

“What I see with younger people is, ‘more is more.’ I follow influencers on Instagram playing with colors and textures and pops of things, organic material, although it’s kind of an oxymoron because it’s so expensive.

“This is a really rough time to be in your 20s,” Maloney added. “It’s kind of like the moment when you figure out your career and don’t have finances. It’s a huge reason why people are trying to thrift. Outside of the design, you can find better quality thrifting than you can in a store these days. It’s sort of this generation’s awareness of manufacturing products these days and the resources we have left, even more so than the design.”

by Suzanne Hanney

Two items available at Lillian Grey (shoplilliangrey.com)