The Interior DIYer
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My five favourite secondhand pieces

For me, there’s something so exciting about finding just the right piece in a secondhand shop vs. looking in a catalogue or branded store. Maybe it’s because you’re finding one-of-a-kind pieces? Or because you have to work so much harder to find something. Or, I find, sometimes secondhand pieces have so much more character. 

There are a handful of secondhand pieces we own that every time I look at I think to myself, I’m so glad I found you // brought you home // loved you like a James Blunt song. So on this lazy and very sunny Friday, I thought I’d share the pieces I’m eternally glad I found …

1. BAR CART, €10 from Debra Ireland charity shop
It wasn’t even for sale the day I went into Debra Ireland charity shop and asked about our bar cart. I love our bar cart. I’m not a particularly outgoing person when it comes to people I don’t know or potentially awkward situations, so asking about buying our bar cart was a big deal at the time. Nowadays I think to myself, what would be worse? Doing something and it being a little awkward for 5 minutes, or not doing that thing and regretting it forever? I’m going for the former more and more these days. If you’d like, you can see my original bar cart blog post here! 
.2. MOZART BUST, €15 from Second Abbey 
He wears a less these days as I find I don’t wear necklaces very often anymore, but my Mozart bust is still one of my favourite pieces in our bedroom. Mozart was also my very first Instagram! If you’d like to see what Mozart looked like before and his little story, check it out here.

3. STOKKE SLEEPI CRIB, €200 on adverts.ie
I know going by the price we paid, it doesn’t seem like we got a good deal. But considering these cribs cost 4-figures brand new, can transform and last for 10+ years and is just straight up a beautiful crib, it was an investment we were happy to make. If you’d like to know more, you can read about our Stokke crib’s longevity here. 

p.s. Cora knows a good deal when she sees it.

4. BEDSIDE TABLES, €16 for the pair on adverts.ie
They were such cheap and rickety bedside tables, but when I took the drawers apart to repaint them, I found they had been put together wrong. A few coats of paint, some faux marble painting on the top and some new handles, I still love our bedside tables. And the paint has held up perfectly even since. You can see their transformation here. 

5. CURIO CABINET, €20 from Mac’s Warehouse 
My curio cabinet was gifted to me by my parents for my 30th birthdayafter they asked and I hinted towards what I’d like. I love my cabinet, but … I’ve never really filled it. Welp + guilt. I’ve tried styling a few things in it, but nothing looks right. I think only a collection of one type of thing will work. I have a healthy collection of feathers and I’d love to display them, but I don’t know how. Tape them up? Put them in little jars? I’m really useless and get stuck with the silliest design problems.  
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Our (temporary) baby toy storage solution

For a long time, I’ve hoped to use an old coal chest to store Cora’s toys and an old coal bucket to store her diapers. They’re not what most people would think or want to use in their home, but they’re what I’ve wanted. 

I found a really well kept coal chest in an Oxfam a few weeks ago, but I was tired and wasn’t in the mood to lug it home [plus, I had Cora and the pram]. I went back a few weeks later and as you can guess, it was gone. 

Until now, we’ve been using a rather elite plastic bag to hold Cora’s diapers. As for her toys, they tend to stay on the living room floor or end up in a paper bag next to her crib. I can’t see either her diaper or toy bags from the hallway, but I know they’re there. Lurking. And they bother me. I know the mess is only going to get worse, so until I find an unobtainably pristine child-friendly secondhand coal chest, we can use my old storage trunk. I bought it years ago from Argos and it’s served us well, but the current colour is too close to the colour of our walls. I’ve kept it for sentimental reasons, but I’d like to update it and make it look a bit more sophisticated – if possible. It’s a basic wooden chest, but I have no idea what to do with it. I was thinking of turning the top into a padded seat [and even adding a buttoned chesterfield-style top], but the rest; clueless. 

I’m still on the lookout for a secondhand chest and bucket, but in the mean time, I really don’t know what to do with this one. The only colour I’m vetoing is WHITE. It can’t be painted white because of those god forsaken dicoloured Ikea shelves. White only magnifies how yellow our landlord’s shelves are [I’ve considered painting them, but that would be more hassle than it’s worth].

I’m kind of thinking painting it black and adding a chesterfield buttoned top, but I really don’t know. Any and all ideas would really be greatly appreciated. What would you do with it if it was yours?
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Our secondhand Stokke crib

When I was putting together ideas for the nursery, one of the main pieces we needed was a crib. Cora’s room is quite small and whatever crib we picked would be a big deal, so I wanted to make sure it was something we really loved before getting one. We went to a lot of stores and looked at a lot of cribs, but my gut feeling was to see if we could find a secondhand crib. I wrote about it more in my Nearly New Wood Challenge a couple of years ago; how for the most part I’m not too keen on buying brand new furniture, especially wood. 
I spent a few days looking through the cribs available on Adverts.ie and that’s when I spotted a secondhand Stokke Sleepi crib in walnut. It was so different to any other crib we had seen that it immediately gave me heart-eye emojis. Before I replied to the ad I looked up more information on the Stokke Sleepi crib and my doubts were drowned out pretty much by how incredible it is. 

A couple of text messages later and a thorough cleaning, Cora’s new [to us] crib was home. We didn’t use the mini crib as it didn’t fit in our equally small bedroom. I don’t know if we’ll end up using the bed until Cora is 10 [though it’s a nice idea to not have to buy her a bed for 10 years], but being able to use the end pieces of the cot as chairs? Game changer. “Look how much use we can get out of it!” Robert didn’t need too much convincing TBH. 

We paid €200 for our secondhand Stokke Sleepi crib which was €20 over our budget. I didn’t have a problem going over budget as I thought it was just too good to pass on. It came with newborn and toddler conversion kits which if bought new, including kits it would altogether cost us over €1,000. That’s not why we bought it though. It’s a gorgeous solid walnut bed [and it looks like Stokke no longer sell it in walnut] with simple lines and a killer shape. And even better, for my conscious at least; it didn’t cost the earth. 

To find out more, you can check out my Nearly New Challenge and Nearly New Wood Challenge.