Fleamarket Chic: The Thrifty Way to Create a Stylish Home

Fleamarket Chic is the smart way to decorate now, adding texture, colour and depth to contemporary interiors. In modern rooms, a distressed chair or a vintage mirror adds a perfect finishing touch. And in traditional decorating schemes, fleamarket chic is a key part of the mix: faded textiles, weathered furniture, mis-matched china and the occasional flamboyant lamp or work of art are all part of the charm. Of course, Fleamarket Chic is about saving you money, along with recycling, upcycling and repurposing. Every piece in these interiors has a story: the colourful jug you found at a car boot fair, the vintage telephone you reclaimed when a favourite aunt finally bought a modern handset, the little chair you found in a village junk shop or the old dustbins that have been converted into fashionable zinc planters.

Liz Bauwens and Alexandra Campbell show you how to spot the clever find in a pile of junk, where to look and how to negotiate, how to smarten up (and when not to smarten up) second-hand items, and how to re-discover and re-use things you or your family already have.