Home Decor

Welcome or Well hello out there! The very first thing I want to say It was a fantastic 2025 and as I share all of my finds and DIY ideas with you right here. Thank you so much for joining me. It truly means so much to me to have you following along. Looking back I had so many wonderful finds and projects last year with items from thrift shops, yard sales, and yes of course some retail beauties as well. Naturally I'm hoping for another great year full of finds again in 2026 to share with you. It has certainly been a lot of fun. So that being said let's go ahead and get started with the first thrift finds and projects of 2026. So I hit up several of my favorite thrift shops this past couple of weeks and one of the things I found was this Jacquard woven tapestry style pillow. It has this floral motif and a very rich look to it. And in my 2026 design video I was talking about how heritage style craftsmanship is very in the spotlight right now. Really starting to value those sort of pieces that are a higher quality that take more time to make rather than the quicker just cranked out changing styles. More of those traditional solid pieces that are going to last. And so right after talking about that I found this pillow cover. Now while the floral style may not be for everyone I kind of I think it's a nice different piece from my home in particular and I thought it was very well made. I The only thing I didn't Definitely as you can tell it just has loose polyfill inside which is not going to work for me. So I'm just first of all removing that and I'm going to find myself a nice pillow insert from my stash in my linen closet and swap that out. This makes such a mess when it's not inside of a casing and so I never But it looks to me It just wasn't quite full enough so they stuffed some more inside which I understand. But I'm just going to start over and get a higher quality insert for this. Luckily as I said I have a few of these and so that'll work out for me. I actually found this pillow insert at Goodwill and it is a down insert from Pottery Barn. It only cost me $2 and by the way 99 cents was how much I paid for that pillow cover at a thrift store near me where all the pillows are 99 cents unless otherwise marked. So that was a great deal. I'm just using this one and I did put both of these through the washer when I purchased them. I just put the inserts in the washer as well in case you're wondering and also in the dryer it always works out perfectly fine for me. So that's what I've done here and It just has a much higher quality feel to me. So for the moment I am styling this over here in this corner of my front living area and I'm adding in a little bit more color and a little bit more pattern to my home slowly as I find pieces that I Let me know if you would have purchased this one also for just 99 cents. Now there are always things I come across at the thrift shop that I'm just not sure what they are. This is one of those things. These two kind of cross pieces. I really kind of They were $2. 99 apiece but I could not figure out what they were supposed to be. I tried to brainstorm and come up with some ideas for them and I'm just not sure. So I left them behind. I also found a few pieces with the tags still on It still had the tags on it from World Market for $25 and it was only 99 cents at the thrift store. It wasn't my style so I did leave it behind but thought it was a great deal for someone. I also found this beautiful Scrimshaw style nautical ornament which I did decide to get and put away with my Christmas stuff for next year. I really I'm not totally sure of the material but isn'that such a unique piece. It has a whale. It has the ship. It has a little skiff and some mountains. I just thought that was so beautiful and exactly the sort of ornament that'special that I As always there's plenty of stuff to look at the thrift store that does not mean that I need to bring everything home with me. So there's lots of pieces that I saw and just kept moving. Just enjoyed seeing them and moved right along. I found several sets of glasses though that were really pretty. All of these goblets especially for this mini of a set were a great price and I loved the look of this silver platter as well. I think the combination is really nice. I left that one behind because I already have a similar pewter tray that I love. But this one was handmade in Mexico. It says 1994 and I do Thought that would be a great buy for someone. I also And I saw in particular this one caned chair that I thought was so pretty. Look at that large swoop and the way that the legs sit. It has a little bit of a rock to it when you sit in it and it was only $30. So I thought that was a fantastic piece. It wasn't particularly for my home but wow it was so beautiful. Now in a previous video right before the end of the year I showed you this really pretty braided brass pedestal vase that I found. And I decided I needed to style this with some real flowers. I don't And since I don't have any available right now in winter I mocked that up for you just using one paired back type of flower. And I But I also wanted to show you how doing a more elegant arrangement to match the piece rather than counter it would totally change the look and feel of that. It wouldn't look very transitional anymore. It would look very traditional which probably wouldn't work in my particular home. But I wanted to show you that both ways just to give you an example of my thought process. Another piece that I went ahead and brought home with me was this tiny brass bud vase. This one was only 50 cents from a different shop. I love the look of this. I love these little brass pieces and especially little bud vases that I can group together. It had some patina on it which I didn't mind at all and wanted to leave. But it did feel a little bit grimy so I went ahead and washed it with soap and water just to clean it but leave the patina. I styled it here on my kitchen window beside this pewter bud vase that I found with some dried florals that were gifted from my husband. Now this other piece is a vintage chrome plated cast metal horse and sulky cart hood ornament that I brought home from a yard sale for just $10. And as you can see when I look this up these go for a lot more online. I'm not going to put this on my car but I did think it would be really charming to put it on our mailbox. And I think that was a nice idea just to add some charm to that piece. So I recruited my husband since he's taller than me and had a better angle to be able to drill some holes into the top for me. I made a template first so it would be sized exactly right. Now he started with a smaller drill bit and then went with one that was a little bit bigger just so that he wouldn't end up denting or cracking the middle of the mailbox. And after that it was very simple to put those in the holes, reach through underneath inside the mailbox and put the nuts onto the screws. And that held it nice and tight. I think that it added a lot of charm to the mailbox and just a little bit of interest there as well. Another thing that I found that I thought was a really great deal was this beautiful closed basket. Some people call it a hamper, whatever you want to call it. This is a Litted Sea Grass Woven Style Basket and I'm going to be using it for a closed basket in my daughter's room. I thought it was really nice looking. I could not figure out where it came from. I thought sure it would come up in an image search but it didn't. So if I would be very curious to know. This is just a quick shot of my daughter's room full afternoon sunlight so it looks very bright in here right now. But she does have a lot of other woven pieces which I just wanted to show you and the general color palette with these pinks and taupe colors. And so this is going to go in her room But in any case, I think it's going to be a nice piece. In her room you can also see lots of other thrifted finds that I showed last year Some artwork that was free from a yard sale, the vintage books. It's just a room full of secondhand pieces that are so nice. And just in case you missed it, I also wanted to show again this brass Since not everyone watches the Christmas content. This cost me only $15 from a thrift shop. And as a nice vintage piece, it definitely went for a lot more than that retail. I think it is so special and adds such charm to the front entryway. It has this nice kind of, I don't know, maybe It looks It's just so interesting. It's exactly the sort of piece that I look for. So I know that I showed you that ornament that I grabbed for Christmas, but I also wanted to show you these two woven bells, which I thought were so pretty. I got these not from a thrift store, but from TJ Maxx. And they were on clearance. So all of the Christmas stuff now is 50% off there. So this large one ended up being $8. 50. And then the smaller one, $7. 50. I thought that these were special and really almost about thrift store prices And they remind me of something that you would definitely see somewhere or another high end store with that touch of almost embroidery on them. So I grabbed these to put away for next year. Well, I hope that you've enjoyed seeing the results of my first thrift trips of 2026. Let me know in the comments what you My goal is always to inspire you to slowly curate a home that you love. And of course, second hand is always the most exciting way to do that whenever possible. Thanks so much for watching. If you're listening, have a lovely week and I'll see you at the next video. Bye.