Big Thrift Energy: The Art and Thrill of Finding Vintage Treasures-Plus Tips for Making Old Feel New

by Virginia Chamlee

Learn to find affordable vintage home decor and how to style it in a modern home.

From a Goyard trunk worth upwards of $10,000 (scored for $90) to a floor-length vintage Christian Dior cape (a $10 Goodwill find), Virginia knows how to find deals.

Danielle from Apartment Therapy says "Virginia has total sage sister vibes, helping you score pieces for a song with tips that are so good, I kind of can't believe she's letting us in on these trade secrets.”

Picked as a “Best New Book” by People Magazine , Big Thrift Energy will teach you everything you need to know about shopping for affordable vintage home decor and styling it in a modern home. Antiquing can be how do you know if a piece is worth salvaging? How do you navigate the piles of merchandise at a thrift store or estate sale? Part resource, part inspiration, Big Thrift Energy is a comprehensive guide that offers tips for thrifting that you never knew you How to shop for the good stuff, how to upcycle and style vintage treasures in your home, and even advice for flipping your most-coveted items to turn a profit. 

Big Thrift Energy will teach
• Where to shop for antique and vintage treasures you'll love
• The best things to buy used, and which items to pass on
• How to upcycle something old into something "you" and make it fit beautifully in your home
• How to tell when something is valuable, and tips for reselling it to make a profit

Author Virginia Chamlee has spent more than a decade collecting and selling vintage wares. Her home has been featured on Apartment Therapy and Design*Sponge and her original artwork is available via Chairish, Anthropologie, and Artfully Walls.

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design, Adult

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 13, 2022

About the author

Author Virginia Chamlee is a writer with bylines in People magazine, Buzzfeed, The Washington Post, and dozens of other outlets. Her real passion, though, is vintage and she's spent more than a decade finding amazing, valuable pieces of high-end design (like Goyard trunks for $90, Christian Dior capes for $10...) Her home has been featured on Apartment Therapy and Design*Sponge and her original artwork is available via Chairish, Anthroplogie, and Artfully Walls. Her debut book, Big Thrift Energy, is all about finding, styling and selling vintage.

Reviews

[April Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough book to review; it's not a bad book, but it's not great either. If you're a beginner to thrifting, this will be a helpful book. It goes over things like what to look for on a piece, how to tell if it's worth the price, how to clean vintage items, and a variety of tips and tricks for different little things throughout. Chamlee also tells her story of how she got into thrifting and how she eventually got into reselling the pieces she finds (I have mixed feelings about this; more later). There are lots of fabulous pics of Chamlee's home and finds, and she includes ideas for how to incorporate your finds into your decor with styling and upcycling. I do like her aesthetic, and she's made some great finds over the years. She also lists some of her favorite websites and flea markets so you know where to look. But.
There's not a lot of meat to this, it's fairly light on useful information, especially if you have some experience in thrifting, there's just enough to get you started and you'll likely end up googling to find more info to add to what's included. The inspo pics of Chamlee's home are gorgeous, but they get repetitive, and I feel including a few examples of different interiors would've been more interesting and helpful, and could show how other people have used thrifted pieces. Then there's the "flipping" thing: I appreciate that one can't keep everything, though one might enjoy the hunt (the hunt is seriously addictive, not gonna lie), but stalking thrift stores, estate sales, flea markets, etc, means that prices are gonna go up and up and up, and us regular folks are gonna get screwed out of our own fabulous finds, plus there's the aspect where you're essentially hoping sellers are clueless about the worth of their items so you can get them cheap. This leaves an icky feeling in my brain. Note: I don't feel bad for the sellers, really, anyone should research what they're selling to find out it's worth. The part where you're hoping to catch an unsavvy seller so you can basically rip them off is the part that bugs me. YMMV.
So, overall, a good book for beginners, not so much a decorating book as a "how to shop" book, though there's plenty of decor tips and inspiration, lovely to sit and look at, but you'll likely outgrow the information before long. Still, I would read more books from this author in the future.

[kendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

i check out most home decor books i see bc it feels like high stakes pinterest and i thought this one would be especially good since i do most of my own shopping secondhand but i would agree with fellow reviewers on this one.

-i already frequent a lot of thrift stores, vintage malls, auctions, and estate sales so maybe that’s why there were hardly any tips in here i hadn’t figured out myself (could be better for a beginner? hard to say)

-i don’t love the overarching push for reselling finds aka turning a profit by marking up things you got for cheap that people who can actually only afford cheap things could have used

-the one thing i really did enjoy was the fact that this was actually a display of maximalism for once (most decor books lean minimalist so i felt seen style-wise a bit)

[Sadie Borkowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a series of selfies of the author standing in front of thrift shop finds, but nothing much of the actual items or any good project ideas.

[Two Readers in Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid tips on places to thrift, like Renninger's Antique & Collectors Extravaganza in Kutztown plus a bonus list of places to sell and ship.

[Maya Vansuch Wurth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok book. The author’s vintage styling and home were fun (but not revolutionary) and I thought some of the information was helpful. It might be especially good if you are just dipping your toe into shopping for vintage! However, as a seasoned and avid thrifter, this offered nothing new. Additionally, the tone of the text was frankly a bit annoying. I can’t stand “offbeat, quippy, quirky, I’m-not-like-other-girls” styles of narration and this was exactly that. So many funny little jokes, trendy references, etc etc. that it was not enjoyable. Not a terrible book but I probably wouldn’t read it again.

Edit: I suppose I should have guessed the “quirky” textual tone from the title of the book alone haha

[Brittney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like a lot of this book went over my head 😅 it was told from a “maximalist” point of view, with lessons about what makes something timeless. There was also some thrifting lessons, but less than I expected. Maybe I would’ve liked it more if my decor tastes were more similar to that of the author’s? Oh well, it’s always good to learn about different things!

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what I expected. But I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Ok information if you are brand new to thrifting.

[Meredith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big Thrift Disappointment. I was so excited to get my hands on this book and I was just as excited to give it back! I guess there was a bit of good information in there, if you could get past all the ugly, mishmash, thrown together junk. Selfies of the author thrifting and so many animal heads/faces/busts I wanted to scream!!! The ONE piece that caught my eye?? That robin’s egg blue coffee table/seat on the cover. I think it was also put at the end of a bed in another photo. It was gorgeous, but I cannot bear to look back through the book to find it!

[Wallis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad to say I was unimpressed with this book. I wanted fewer photographs of the author at flea markets, and more showing brilliant new ways that a "find" could be used as part of home decor. This book seems to just be a photogallery of Chamlee's own home and style. While she obviously has taste, it could have been a better book to show the same items as several others would have styled them. It's hard for me to find "My Style" while just admiring Chamlee's.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I don't care for the author's style, the tips she provides are good for those who are new to buying used home decor. However, most of this information can probably be found online for free and in a much easier-to-read typeface.

Sections:

Know Before You Go
How to Shop
How to Style
How to Sell

The target audience for this book is those who are young or under 40 and new to home decor and thrifting.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

BORING. Smiling blond lady brags about thrifting scores from “people who don’t know what they have,” promotes flipping/reselling, shares repetitive photos of the same handful of items decorating her living space, poses for staged photos at a flea market while dressed all in white, and plugs her artwork available at Anthropologie.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the heck, other reviewers? First of all, I’m majorly convinced Virginia and I are distantly related somehow. I loved this book. Some really interesting styling tips, coupled with some cool brands to look out for as you thrift. And the eye candy that is Virginia’s space. I loved it. Great inspiration.

[Vicky R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was tastefully written and helpful! The author reminds me of my mom but with a little more control! I can see how thrifting can get carried away and the author explains how to do it with style for both spectrums, maximalism and minimalism decorating. I didn’t know that the author sold her art through Anthropology until the very end chapter. What a talented hustler!

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the book has a whole chapter on various decorating styles, the photos only shows one type. The photos go all in on the author's personal style and not much else. It would have been nice to get photos specific to the various things the book mentions instead of being illustrations of one thing that was pulled from the author's home.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Save your $$ and do your own online research. I felt duped when I realized how much of this book is collages from images from Chairish and the internet. This is a fad book and the reason antique and estate sale prices are insanely out of reach.

[kerrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title should have been “Thrifting for Dummies.” A cute little compendium of thrifting knowledge - knowledge already gained from years of thrifted, but I love to see someone else’s thrift haul in book form nonetheless. Very bright, mid-century modern millennial aesthetic.

[Kayla Hollatz · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who already love thrifting and the thrill of the hunt, this book won't offer any new advice. However, it would be a great gift for those who are just starting to thrift and look for secondhand treasures.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great! Helpful information coupled with beautiful pictures of the authors thrifted treasures. I’m an avid thrifter and I still learned new things!!!! Very enjoyable read.

[Ann-Marie DeStefano · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few new tips but nothing earth shattering or especially helpful.

[MKLM · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures are pretty, that’s about it.

[Mary Lynn]

For people new to thrifting. I enjoyed the photos. Nothing new for moderate ly knowledgeable or experienced thrifters.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

She has some super fun finds in this book but otherwise, it’s a lot of pretty entry-level information.

[Tracee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a hard copy of her instagram.
and either the thrift stores where she lives are a lot different than the ones where I live, or these are not really thrift store finds.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has lots of resources listed in the book.

[Tera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very art-focused and American-focused, but also gives some helpful information about resale if anyone is interested in that.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Dani Shimpa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 , Good for beginners wanting to get into thrifting and vintage

[Elizabeth Kirsteatter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't have enough pictures, which is the main reason I read interior design books. A lot of the pictures were of the author and not of interiors.

[Nicole Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable read!

[Molli927 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not cool enough for most of the tips in this book, but I can appreciate her style and savvy.