Spencer - I brake for yard sales: and flea markets, thrift shops, auctions, and the occasional dumpster

Good Morning America coanchor Lara Spencer is a life-long saleryard saler, that is. She grew up happily following her mom to endless garage sales, auctions, flea markets, and thrift stores, and on the way, learned just what to look for and how to turn those secondhand finds into stylish interior design. For Spencer, a former host of Antiques Roadshow, junque hunting is more than a hobby. She moonlights as an antiques dealer and interior designer, and clients like comedienne Kathy Griffin cant believe the down-and-dirty provenance of each treasure. Its blue-blood style on a blue-collar budget.

At the end of the day, a fine antique and a thrift-store score have one thing in common: Theyre secondhand. In I Brake for Yard Sales, Spencer explains how to rescue, recycle, and reinvent secondhand items and details the simple fixes that turn someone elses trash into your instant heirloom. The book takes a witty and stylish approach to the often cluttered, confusing world of thrift shops, yard sales, auctions, and flea markets, helping you zone in on diamonds in the rough and polish them to gems. Whether youre a seasoned stylista or a newbie on the interior design scene, I Brake for Yard Sales will help you create your dream spacefor next to nothing.

I Brake
for
Yard Sales

SOME OF MY

Favorite Haunts

1. Seattle Antiques Market, Seattle, WA

2. Salvation Army Thrift Shops, Locations Nationwide

3. Rose Bowl Flea Market, Pasadena, CA

4. Revivals Resale Mart, Palm Springs, CA

5. Long Beach Antique Flea Market, Long Beach, CA

6. Goodwill Thrift Shops, Locations Nationwide

7. Treasure City Room Service, Austin, TX

8. Brown Elephant Resale Shops, Chicago, IL

9. Worlds Longest Yard Sale, from Michigan to Alabama

10. Scotts Antique Market, Atlanta, GA

11. Womans Exchange Thrift Shop, Sarasota, FL

12. Church Mouse, Palm Beach, FL

13. Clark Auction Gallery, Larchmont, NY

14. Housing Works, New York, NY

15. Brooklyn Flea, Brooklyn, NY

16. Brimfield, Brimfield, MA

17. Elephants Trunk, New Milford, CT

18. Greenwich Hospital Thrift Shop, Greenwich, CT

19. Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH

Table of Contents

Foreword

BY KATHY GRIFFIN

Here I am showing Kathy and her amazing mom, Maggie, my work for the very first time! (Cameras are there capturing the moment for Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.) I was nervous, but they loved itwhew!

I walked into my friend Laras house, looked around, and said, Can you do this to my house? And guess what? She did it to my house and you can do it to yours. Her taste is impeccable. Im convinced she can re-create any stylefrom her Connecticut colonial-antique coziness to the theme she used for my home, which we jokingly call Palm Springs gay man going through a midlife crisis in his mid-century home who wants to attract the hottest guys to come over.

Lara makes this process wait for it fun! Yes, fun! If she can convince me to go to an estate sale when its still dark outside, and to rummage through hidden treasures that I never would have picked out without her, then youre next. Yes, I was a swap meet/flea market virgin until Lara popped my cherry. I admit, the first time she took me to an estate sale I was convinced that I was going to get crabs or be purchasing chairs covered in old-lady urine, but we ended up just laughing about all that. The next thing I knew, Lara chose several pieces that were perfect for my house and then had them re-covered or, as we call it, repurposed. Repurposed is my new favorite word!

While designing or remodeling your living space can be stressful or confusing, and likely to go over budget, Lara can guide you on how to bring it in on time and on budget. You will learn how to work a garage sale, an estate sale, or clearance sale like a pro. I didnt have to wait sixteen weeks for a chair to be reupholstered or a footstool to be in stock. Oh no, the Spencer style is all about repurposing, researching online, and then combining those treasures and finds with a few new items that arent on the sale rack so youll get a mixture of one-of-a-kind pieces and the latest trend in light fixtures or flooring. When youre redesigning anything from a small powder room to your entire house, you need someone with a good eye, and thats what Lara has.

I learned so much from her. She taught me how to take an idea I saw in a design magazine and find a way to make it happen locally. Lara would find furniture that I like simply based on conversations we had where I gave a vague idea of the type of furniture I responded to. We didnt get anything from overseas nor did we overpay. The whole process was truly a fun adventure. Let this book guide you, and know that you are in good hands with Lara.

Introduction:
To the Bargain Born

So there I was, on a beautiful fall day in 2009, thrilled to have the house I had just completed for my family photographed for the front page of the Los Angeles Times Home section. It was going really well; the writer and photographer were walking from room to room, oohing and aahing, and just really loving the decor.

As we wrapped up the shoot, the writer said, This must have cost a fortune. It was a statement, but she was definitely curious to hear the details, and I know there were a couple of ways I could have handled it.

A true blue blood would, of course, never discuss money. That would be beneath her. I, on the other hand, couldnt help myself! I dragged that poor woman around the house and describedpiece by piecewhat flea market, yard sale, or Dumpster I had found each piece in and what I did to fix it up. My publicist was probably mortified, but I could not have been more proud.

Welcome to my double life. All glammed up interviewing A-list celebs on a red carpet one Sunday, and getting down and dirty at a flea market the next.

I love my career in television and have been at it for a long time. I have worked in local news in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and New York, and on Antiques Roadshow, The Insider