Flea Market Style: Decorating with a Creative Edge

by Emelie Tolley

From London's legendary Portobello Road to the humble neighborhood tag sale, the flea market is the destination of choice for savvy shoppers.

Part collector's guide, part decorating manual, Flea Market Style celebrates the marriage of two great passions--shopping and home design--and answers the important question that lies behind every purchase, big or small: What will I do with this once I get it home?

Best-selling authors Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead offer exciting new ideas for choosing and decorating with flea market finds, illustrated with lush photographs of a variety of interiors from formal to funky. Beginning with the basics of  "working a flea," the authors offer helpful strategies for indentifying the genuine article and  getting the best prices, ideas for new ways to use collectible items, and hints on caring for them. Chapters are devoted to every major category of flea market merchandise, from old textiles and paper goods to sports memorabilia, garden ornaments, kitchen collectibles, and major pieces of furniture, among others. With a resource section listing major shows and relevant publications, and eight unique projects that will cleverly allow you to transform your purchases into singular home accents, Flea Market Style proves that anyone can use flea market finds to give their home a distinctive, personal style.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 1998

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tolley was a contributing editor at Victoria magazine and it shows in the white-on-white, heavily layered rooms. This guide to the decorative treasures that await at flea markets and antique malls holds up amazingly well for being over a decade old.

[Marcie Lovett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not necessarily about flea markets, the book shows ways to decorate with things purchased outside the typical retail store. Most of the photographed examples are either extremely spartan or extremely cluttered, I didn't see much that appealed to me. There are too many tiny pictures, and several rooms are photographed at different angles for different chapters. Each chapter covers a type of collectible, some chapters include projects, which I found too weird or required too many materials. The short sections about caring for each type of collectible was the most useful for me. It took a long time for me to finish the book because the type is small and I couldn't focus after a few pages. If you don't know anything about collecting or buying used decorative items, you might benefit from this book.

[Libraryassistant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great. Of course I always loved this pair’s work in Victoria magazine, so perhaps I am predisposed to love this…It’s beautiful, full of terrific ideas which might be dated but still appeal to me. My guess is that the price/value indications for shopping are all topsy turvy now, 20 plus years later.
Still, it’s a beautiful book, gorgeously photographed and with tons of good info about almost any collectible category.

[Susannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very little I could either use or relate to in this glimpse into a world of mostly frivolously urbane and snobbishly boring decor. Not recommended.

[Lori Shafer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some interesting photographs, but I wish it had more. I liked what I saw...Just wish there was more ideas and less explanation.