Treasure Hunting

In the world of estate sales, there are different types of people.

There are early birds who’ve been waiting in line for the doors to open since dark, hobbyists who leisurely wander with coffee in hand on a Saturday morning, competitive and/or frantic shoppers who rush room to room, and occasional browser who stumbled upon a sign at the entrance of the neighborhood, and those on a mission to complete a project.

I fall into the last category, those on a mission. You know the television shows where chefs are given random ingredients and must create a delicious dish using only those ingredients? Picture that, but swap the food for furniture.

I had a crazy idea to furnish my entire guest house using only what I could find at estate sales and on Facebook Marketplace. To help, I needed someone with a creative vision and an eye for a good find. They also had to be as crazy as I was to take on the challenge. I had worked with Lauren of Lauren Storms Styling to design our entire home, and I knew she was up for the challenge of estate sales and scouring Marketplace with me to create the perfect space.

As she helped design our home, Lauren never batted an eye at my crazy texts at all hours as I sent her a photo of an estate sale find. “Will this old rug work?” “How’s this couch for the living room?” “What if we base the bedroom’s colors off this random pillow that I just got off Marketplace?” Her quick responses of “Love it” or “Hate it” were vital in sourcing furniture and accent pieces that perfectly fit us and our home.

The biggest score of all my estate sale searches for my house are the Ralph Lauren granite end tables that we used in my living room. I bought them for $350, but they retail for almost $8,000 a piece! Another find is the gorgeous buffet I purchased at an estate sale for $175, which highlights the entryway and rarely goes without a compliment. If you added up the retail value of the estate sale pieces in my house, I actually made money furnishing our home. Or that’s what I tell my husband.

When I found out my long-term tenant was moving out of my guest house in Mistletoe Heights, I knew this was the perfect project for Lauren. Together, we sourced everything we needed to complete an entire guest house in just three weeks. The hunt for furnishings is thrilling, and you never know what you are looking for until it screams your name from the corner where it’s hiding. Finding the perfect piece is exhilarating, knowing it will find a new home and be loved again. Lauren’s eye for design, cohesion, color, balance, and beauty (and the patience of a saint) combined with all my crazy ideas to create a unique and charming space with just the right amount of Fort Worth flair to finish this formerly drab and hopeless space.

Once we acquired all the pieces we needed, Lauren sent me out to purchase specific paint colors. The walls were freshly painted, the furniture was moved in, the chandelier was hung, and the television was mounted. Then Lauren and I went to finish the space in a day. We arranged furniture, styled accessories, and hung estate sale finds on the walls, and I wound up with the prettiest little guest house ready to host weekend stays right in the heart of our perfect little city.

Some of the pieces I love are the James Dean framed poster we scored for $20, the $15 woven basket on the dining room wall, and the cowboy artwork in the bedroom that I dug out of a pile at the home of an artist, which cost me all of $4. The big splurge was the Restoration Hardware coffee table, which I got for $100; the bigger splurge was the living room rug, which cost me $200.

All in all, I spent a total of $1,493 to decorate an entire guest house. That includes everything in the house, from the couch to the bed, the television to the books and artwork, the dining table and chairs to the knickknacks on the shelves. I shopped and sourced most pieces, but Lauren made the space a cohesive and charming home.

I can’t wait to get back to some estate sales to see what other treasures are out there.