The Vintage Nursery
By Christa TerryDoes anyone else remember when eBay was the place to go for vintage home decor and accessories? When I was in college, you could toss forty bucks into the virtual void and end up with accent decor enough to outfit your average New York City apartment. Sure, the streets of Brooklyn were also paved with discarded Depression glass and period furniture, but not everyone has the time or the inclination to go late-night dumpster diving. Nowadays, eBay is packed overfull with crap much like our local variety store… the one without the sign that seems to stock nothing but other people’s garbage.
What? You don’t have one of those in your town?
Good thing there’s Etsy! While that is my go-to source for all things handmade, there are apparently plenty of Janes and Joes selling vintage goods on the site. That’s good news for me, who adores all things old fashioned, especially when it comes to my future offspring’s nursery.
Working on the assumption that someone else will eventually buy The Beard and I a crib and other similar pieces of baby furniture, I personally am obsessed with wooden blocks and mobiles. Then there are the useless things, like colorful prints, decorative items like baby scales, and chic ceramics that will have to be closeted as soon as the baby learns what her legs are for. I know, I know… I ought to be thinking practically, but I can’t help lusting after all the CUTE.
The sellers of the vintage baby gear you see above are:
January 1st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Fantastic idea!!! I frequent Etsy but somehow never think to browse the vintage wares….
As much as I love living in an urban area, the thrift stores get picked over instantaneously and I miss being able to stumble across my own vintage thrift-store finds amidst the jumbled stacks. My one current vintage baby item came that way — a Tommy Tippee sippy cup that I’ve been using to store Q-Tips for many years and that will soon have a use in our actual nursery. (Where we’ll probably use it to … store Q-Tips! Maybe cotton balls….) Best of all, it cost 19 cents. Sigh, those were the days.
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I know just how you feel, Tara. Growing up on Long Island in NY, thrifting was not a popular activity so there was always something really neat to be had. Now frugality has become a lot more chic, and I live in a college town where I’m competing for sweet secondhand stuff against students with apartments. I, too, miss the hunt!