What to Look For at DI and the Free Pile
Okay. Paint's done, or mostly done, and now we're moving into furniture. This is where a lot of people get nervous because they think thrifting means hours of digging through junk to find one good thing. It's not, once you know what you're looking for.
So let's talk about it.
Solid wood, not particleboard
This is the whole ballgame. Flip the piece over, or pull out a drawer, and look at the actual material. If you see a rough, chunky, sort of pressed-sawdust-looking material, that's particleboard, and it's not worth your time no matter how good the shape is. It won't sand well, it won't hold paint the same way, and if it's ever gotten wet it's probably already swelling somewhere you can't see yet.
You want real wood. Doesn't have to be a nice wood. Pine is fine, honestly pine is great for painting because nobody's going to cry if you cover up the grain. Just solid, not pressed.
Tap it, too. Solid wood has a certain sound, kind of a dense knock. Particleboard sounds hollow and cheap, which, it is.
Drawers that actually work
Pull every drawer all the way out before you buy anything. I mean all the way, not just a peek. You're checking that they slide okay, that the bottoms aren't sagging or falling out, that nothing's been reglued badly by a previous owner in a way that's going to fight you later.
This one's personal for me. I bought a dresser that looked perfect in the DI aisle, drawers slid fine in the store, and I got it home, painted the whole thing, and then the drawers wouldn't line back up right. Turned out one of the drawer boxes had been swapped at some point from a slightly different piece, close enough that nobody notices standing in a thrift store, not close enough once you're trying to get it back together at ten at night. I ended up sitting on my kitchen floor at like eleven, house totally quiet, piano untouched, sanding down the inside edge of one drawer with a sanding block so it would actually close. Three hours on a project I told my husband would take one. I still don't know if I'd buy that dresser again.
So: pull every drawer, all the way out, before it goes in your cart.
Structure over style
Ignore the finish completely when you're shopping. Ignore the color, ignore the hardware, ignore whether it's dated. None of that matters because you're going to paint it or you're going to swap the knobs anyway. What matters is:
- Does it wobble when you push on a corner?
- Are the joints actually joined, or is it held together with visible nails going straight through a weak spot?
- Is anything cracked in a structural spot, like a leg or a place where a shelf meets the side?
A piece can be ugly, outdated, covered in a finish you hate, and still be a great flip if the bones are solid. That's actually the best kind of find because nobody else wants it and it's cheap.
The free pile is real, but go in with eyes open
The free pile outside DI, or the stuff people leave at the end of their driveway with a sign, can be genuinely good. I've gotten a two-dollar dining chair that way. But free doesn't mean skip the checks. If anything it means check harder, because nobody's going to stop you and say "actually that one has water damage." Look underneath for staining, smell it if you're unsure (mildew has a smell you'll know when you smell it), and don't take anything upholstered from a free pile unless you're planning to strip the fabric off entirely. You don't know what's in there.
My actual opinion on all this
You almost never need to buy new furniture, and thrifted beats new almost every time anyway. New stuff from a box store is particleboard now, mostly. An old solid dresser, even a rough one, sanded and painted, is going to outlast anything you'd buy off a showroom floor for four times the price. I say this to every class and some people don't believe me until they've flipped their first piece. Then they believe me.
A quick caution
If you're loading something heavy into a car by yourself, don't be a hero. Ask whoever's working the DI loading area for help, that's what they're there for. And check drawers and doors are taped or removed before it goes in the trunk, because dry mountain roads and a dresser door swinging open at a stoplight is not a fun combination.
Before next time
Go look, even if you're not buying yet. Walk through DI or check what's out on driveways in your neighborhood this week, and practice pulling drawers and tapping wood, just to get your eye trained before we actually pick a piece.
Thanks, Stephanie.