Vintage: Junk Picking,
A Family Story
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By the time I came around, I was a year
out of college, shackled to student loan debt
and moving in with the man I’d come to
marry. My college housing was an assemble-
it-yourself nightmare. Accidents happen,
and particle board never forgives. A newly
minted adult, I hoped to do things differently
in our first apartment. Alas: Champagne
taste, beer budget.
Thankfully — a stroke of luck or some-
thing…Freudian? — I’d chosen a mate with
a sharp eye and very little shame. My guy
would stroll our neighborhood and return
with treasures: a complete picnic basket with
utensils still in plastic, a sea-green vase for
forsythia, bizarre pottery, a patinaed desk
with no drawers. (I’ve finally banished that
one to our basement.) His favorite day of the
year was the last Sunday in May, when the
college kids would clear out before summer
break. Apartments-worth of cool furniture,
art supplies and tchotchkes — either from
art students or Ivy Leaguers — would mate-
rialize on the curb for trash night. We’d glee-
fully claim their good taste as our own.
Our bond was propped by other people’s
junk. So, naturally, when we wed, we set our
reception tables with plates and cloth nap-
kins from local estate sales (thanks, Estate
Ladies!) and flea markets. I’ll never forget
the look on my mom’s face when she un-
earthed a trove of pretty vintage tableware,
all $1 or less, in an ominous corner of the
Bargain City flea market in Cumberland.
Buried treasure! A couple of years after
the wedding, we sold the lot to another grate-
ful bride-to-be. But my mom saved a com-
plete set for us — an appropriate take on
wedding china.
A year ago, my husband and I moved back
to the neighborhood where our love grew.
We still sleep on the painted brass bedframe
from an antiques shop down the street — a
wedding gift to ourselves that felt very
grown-up at the time. The slats slide around
and we never quite figured out the side rails,
but we can’t give it up. Both love and vintage
sometimes require sacrifice.
Our house, a 1930 cottage, is a proper junk-
pick itself. It has a lot to love (happy 1960s
wallpaper in the laundry room; wide-plank
pine floors in the bedrooms) but it also has a
lot to leave (the entire kitchen). Over the
years, its character had been covered in vinyl
and composite and — you guessed it — yellow
98 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l
MARCH 2020
Formica. I hoped our renovations would
honor the truth of the place, not bend it to
our will.
So that meant a deep cast iron kitchen
sink with a right-aligned drainboard, right?
Of course it did. A-hunting I went on Craigs-
list, Facebook Marketplace and LetGo — i.e.
virtual junk-picking — to find the great white
whale of vintage fixtures. When I did, my
husband brought it home to me where it will
be loved, morning, noon and night, for as
long as we all make dishes.
And the tradition of picking continues.
Last May, our daughter got her first taste of
moving day in the city. On a walk with her
dad, they spotted a made-in-the-U.S.A.
dresser with delicate hand-painted flowers
and green velvet lining. It was just sitting on
the sidewalk, condemned to bulky pickup.
And it matched her four-poster canopy bed,
a family heirloom.
Like all objects good and old, the dresser
was too heavy to lift. So father and daughter
grabbed a furniture dolly and, together — in
broad daylight, in our neighborhood, glee-
fully aware of the junk-picking providence
at play — they wheeled their treasure all the
way home.
Culture Vulture
Read all about boy wonder
Travis Landry, a pop culture expert
and appraiser for “Antiques Road-
show,” at rimonthly.com/travis-landry.
Vintage: Daytrip, Wickford
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3 p.m. Swing out of the village and head up
Route 1A to Re Antiques and Interiors. Re,
as in re-use, re-hab, re-store, now works both
sides of the street with two buildings boasting
12,000 square feet of inventory. This is where
high-end designer decor from tony enclaves
in Connecticut and Massachusetts goes to
find its next owner. The eye-catching stock
includes a 1970s fire-engine red Shagreen
console and a pair of 1960s Mastercraft brass
lounge chairs with Greek key details. 7511 and
7512 Post Rd., North Kingstown, 667-5996,
rerhodeisland.com
3:30 p.m. Cushy club chairs, dressers and
vanities: you will find the sleek forms and
the French-polished veneers of furniture’s
Art Deco period of furniture at Lafayette
Antiques. There are rooms for lovers of
Victorian and country, too. 810 Ten Rod Rd.,
North Kingstown, 295-2504
4 p.m. With your pockets lighter, but still
energized, end your afternoon at the Corner
Cupboard, where dealers go in search of
bargains. This is a consignment store with
reasonable prices and an emphasis on coun-
try-style vintage. 835 Tower Hill Rd., North
Kingstown, 294-4720
Vintage: Karli Hendrickson’s
Favorite Vintage Finds
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durable vintage goods, and is available for
hire if you need someone to find the perfect
thing for you home.
I spotted these Staffordshire dog lamps
at the Velvet Mill in Stonington, Connecticut,
when I used to rent a studio there. There are
tons of creative shops, artist studios and
antique vendors there, along with food and
beer too. It’s definitely worth an afternoon
trip from Rhode Island. Anyway, I checked
out the lamps a few times and they were so
appealing because both my mom and my
grandmother had sets of Staffordshire dog
figurines on their mantle, but I had never seen
them as lamps before! They were kind of over
the top but in the perfect way. They also
looked like they could be in a Wes Anderson
movie set (perhaps The Royal Tenenbaums?)
and I loved that. I hinted (not so subtly) to
my boyfriend, Kevin, that they would make
a great Christmas gift, and then I found them
under the tree! karlihendrickson.com
Vintage: Kayla Coburn’s
Favorite Vintage Finds
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sure each ingredient in the soup has integrity
for the best combined results in the end.
I grew up as the daughter of an artist and
antique dealer and many of my best memo-
ries are of picking through piles at yard sales,
having hot dogs for dinner at farm auctions,
import-traveling, and, of course, the annual
hajj to Brimfield (brimfieldshow.com) or
Madison Bouckville (madison-bouckville.
com) summer markets. I still look forward
to foraging in those same sources as well as
the local spots. Visiting POP (Providence,
emporiumofpopularculture.com) is as good
as hitting a museum. The antique mall in
Pawtucket (riantiquesmall.com) is great