Live Comfortably with Antiques!

If you love antiques but want to live in a home rather than a museum, this antiques enthusiast's guide to finding, buying, and furnishing is for you. In Everyday Antiques, JJ Despain offers helpful hints and creative advice on spotting quality pieces and making deals at yard sales, flea markets, antiques malls, and auctions. She also shares inspiring ideas for comfortably incorporating your found treasures into your life and your home.

Despain helps you decide what you need and where you'll use it. Whatever your style, period and vintage pieces can help you make a personal statement in your home decor. Discover new uses for old pieces as you explore their history and appreciate their unique appeal. Everyday Antiques shows you how to bring timeless treasures into your home, so you too can discover the special joys of living with antiques every day. Special features include:

A room-by-room guide to creatively using collectibles

A gallery of color photos highlighting decorating ideas

Insider's tips on bargaining and authenticating

For the antiques lover, collectibles fanatic, and anyone decorating a home, finally, here is a guide to using those found treasures in and around the house. Despain presents creative, elegant, and ingenious ways to incorporate antiques into home decor and everyday life. Collectibles are not just for collecting dust!

JJ Despain, author of Everyday Antiques, is an antiques dealer in Whittier, California, who specializes in supplying interior designers. She has been a regular contributor to Collectors News as well as having published articles on everything from health and fitness to consumer issues. JJ has authored two previous books, and she is a member of the Romance Writers of America. She teaches at Indiana University and Purdue.

Introduction

1 Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

Who Are the Shoppers?

What's an Antique? What's a Collectible?

When Are We Shopping?

Where Are We Shopping?

Why Are We Shopping?

2 The Most Popular Spots to Shop

Antiques Malls

Antiques Flea Markets

Antiques Shows

Antiques and Collectibles On-Line

3 More Great Shopping Opportunities

Independent Shops

General Flea Markets

Yard Sales

Secondhand Stores

Auctions

Curbside Coups

4 Getting a Feel for What You Need

Start at the Beginning

Make a Wish Book

Finding Your Favorite Style

Check Out Those Price Tags!

Moving On

5 Planning Your Purchases

Inventory What You Have

Comfort versus Aesthetics

More Considerations

6 Going Shopping

Take-Alongs

Check What You Buy

Buying with a Vision

7 Going Room by Room

Kitchen/Dining Room

Living Areas

Hallways and Stairways

Bedrooms

Bathrooms

Architectural Antiques and Collectibles

Odds and Ends

Gallery of Decorating Ideas

8 Finishing Touches

Lighting

Knickknacks

I Bought It but Now I Don't Like It

Buying a Gift

Buying and Buying and Buying

And Finally

Epilogue

Helpful Resources

Glossary

Glossary of Condition Terminology

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