Expert Tips for Buying Used and Vintage Furniture

It's smart to buy used furniture. It helps you stretch your buck to buy better-quality pieces and make your space and style your own. There's something about finally spotting the perfect coffee table and schlepping it up three flights of stairs that cultivates a bond.

It's also better for the planet. When buying a secondhand chair or table, the environmental costs of making, warehousing, and (if you shop local) shipping it are already sunk.

But buying good used furniture requires patience and savvy. For tips to jump-start your search, I spoke with an interior designer, a high-end furniture expert, and more than a dozen of Wirecutter's expert thrifters. Here's what you need to find your next great treasure.

The thrifters we spoke with agree that it's key to browse in multiple places, and it pays to get a little obsessed.

Try shopping in-person in local stores as well as across online platforms. Compare prices and quality of pieces. Here are some places to start:

If you want a genuine designer piece such as, say, a Saarinen tulip chair, places like 1stDibs, brand sales, brick-and-mortar shops that specialize in a specific era, and furniture auctions tend to be trustworthy but also significantly more expensive. You can find authentic pieces on Craigslist, too—but be wary of overpaying for a knockoff or copycat. Research what to look for and request plenty of detail photos.

Searching for that dream table on the secondhand market requires more time and effort than buying brand new, but a few strategies can help make the search worth your time.

Be patient and think long term. Tackle your space one piece at a time, prioritizing the pieces that will make the most impact in your life. You won't be able to revamp everything all at once when you shop secondhand—but you’ll be happier with your space (and save money) in the long run. Given that furniture and furnishings account for millions of tons of solid waste that go to landfills annually, your patience is also nicer for the planet.

Define what's nonnegotiable to you, but keep an open mind. As we cover in our guide to buying used office chairs, it's helpful to define hard constraints like budget, size, and use. You may also have nonnegotiables, like style and material. From there, stay open to possibilities. If you do want a specific model, research what it goes for at full retail and on various resale sites, so you know when to hop on a good deal.

Test different search terms online. Search by materials or styles you want as well as brand or design names. If your search keeps turning up tables that you don't love, look at design publications, social media accounts, and furniture sellers to help tune your terms by brand, designer, material, or popular descriptor. You can also try reverse image searching to find more precise keywords.

Act fast once you find something. Adopting a slower shopping mindset pays off in the end: It means you’ll be more confident in moving fast on the item you want.

This article was edited by Christine Cyr Clisset and Ben Frumin.

Amy Auscherman, director of archives and brand heritage at MillerKnoll, phone interview, March 22, 2023

Abigail Marcelo Horace, interior designer and founder of Casa Marcelo, phone interview, March 27, 2023

Debra Kamin, ‘Fast Furniture’ Is Cheap. And Americans Are Throwing It in the Trash, New York Times, October 31, 2022

Durable Goods: Product-Specific Data, Environmental Protection Agency

Katie Okamoto

Katie Okamoto is the lead editor of sustainability at Wirecutter. She's been studying, working in, and writing about the complexities of sustainability since 2005. Among other things, she's been an editor at Metropolis, where she focused on the intersection of environment and design; a manager at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection; a designer; and a freelance writer. She holds a bachelor's degree in environmental studies, as well as a master's in architecture, and has covered the overlaps between sustainability and other topics for publications including The Atlantic, Newsweek, and Catapult.

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