How to freshen up your second-hand buys

If you like your homewares pre-loved, you’ll know how expensive secondhand stuff can be when a stylish shop-owner has already done the sifting and buffing. 

So flea markets and charity shops are worth the effort – but how to do a Cinderella on scabby, shabby or stinky secondhand finds? I asked the pros…*

And here's some they prepared earlier... pre-spruced seconds, from top left, clockwise: 1960s Whitefriars glass vases, in dark blue and olive, £35 the pair, Pip's Trip; green 50s tub chair, newly reupholstered, £375, The Peanut Vendor; 1950s modular Cado storage unit in teak, £225, The Peanut Vendor; turquoise rose vintage fabric cushion, £20 each, Eclectic Chair; coffee table footstool reupholstered in vintage Welsh tapestry fabric, £250, Eclectic Chair

Hit the balls Pip Harris's secondhand homewares shop, Pips-trip.co.uk, specialises in glass and pottery. Her tip for cleaning hard-to-reach spots in, say, the bottom of a thin-necked glass vase or decanter is Magic Balls (try Lakeland): “You just pop a few into the vase with a drop of water and swirl them round – they're brilliant.”

Inners peace "In terms of fabric," says Becky Nolan of vintage furniture shop, thepeanutvendor.co.uk, "if there is a whiff factor, we look out for anything detachable that can be put in the wash. But with cushions it’s usually the inners carrying the smell; new inners are really cheap from online haberdashers. Failing that, vacuum upholstered furniture, then lightly spritz with 1 part lemon juice, 9 parts soda. Repeat a few times if necessary.”

Fairy nice “We find that the best way to freshen musty furniture a freshen is good old Fairy Liquid," continues Becky. "Diluted and with a damp cloth it removes grime and will freshen a bit. And after that, if it’s wood, nothing beats the smell of beeswax.”

Musty try harder, clockwise from top left: crochet cushion with multi coloured pompoms, £40, Eclectic Chair; vintage Welsh tapestry pegbag, £15, Eclectic Chair; blanket, £25, The Peanut Vendor; vintage kimono cushion with multi-coloured pompoms, £30, Eclectic Chair

Nice one sun "For wood that’s faded in the sun, use a scratch cover from a DIY store," Becky adds, "it’s an oil with a stain in it but is great for faded furniture too, really warms it up - especially the likes of teak. Leave it to set for a while and then wax over it."

Burning issue Becky also suggests unsticking sticky drawers by rubbing a candle on them. "And very fine wire wool and wax is great for bringing weathered metal furniture and cast iron back to life.” 

Staining manual  Heather Linnitt, who makes and sells cushions made from antique fabric at eclectic-chair.com, says: “For spot stains I use a little diluted biological washing liquid. It works on my vintage kimonos, which I don't like to launder; it gets rid of stubborn stains and gives it a nice scent. For heavier, all-over soiling, put a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda in a pint of water in a spray bottle. Apply to the fabric and leave it to dry. Follow with a vacuum.”

Going for smoke "Remove the smell of smoke in upholstered furniture using undiluted white vinegar in a spray bottle, which destroys it on a molecular level rather than just covering it up like air fresheners do,” Heather continues. “Yes, vinegar stinks, too, but unlike cigarette smell, it dissipates within hours. And once it does, the cigarette smell will be gone, too. This also works on smells in wooden furniture like drawers or cupboards.”

If you like the goodies on sale from the Peanut Vendor, here, you'll love Becky Nolan's lovely flat, done up beautifully but rented and with everything spruced on a super tight budget.

* a shorter version of this post appeared as one of my weekly columns in the Independent on Sunday

At home with... The Peanut Vendors

Becky Nolan is one half of the couple behind one of my favourite shops, The Peanut Vendor. It is based in north London but the online version is just as exciting. And you can imagine that running such a stylish shop would equal a pretty special home.

So I asked Becky to share some snaps, which you can see below. It is a testament to how much you can do on a shoestring, and in a rented flat. Very inspiring indeed. Over to you, Becky…

Tell us a bit about yourself and your shop… I set up the vintage furniture shop The Peanut Vendor in 2008, with my partner Barnaby Read and we live together in Stoke Newington. We started the shop because we wanted to do something creative together and we've always loved finding old gems, whether it be furniture, records or clothes.  The whole idea about The Peanut Vendor is that we don't focus on a particular period of design, so our tastes are constantly changing. We love seeing how items from the past can become so interesting looking really set the scene for a room. 

Where do you live? We rented this flat back in 2009. We'd only been trading for about six months, so money was tight and we had to be "creative" with finding a place we could live in for a while. It's a second floor flat above an old Victorian shop, at the end of the road, on a nice street with a window in every room. It's always lovely and light. But the flat was pretty disgusting when we viewed it: stained brown carpet, fitted 80s cupboards and brown walls. We negotiated the rent down in exchange for ripping everything out ourselves, re-painting and laying down flooring throughout. We also knocked down the stud wall in between the very small living room and the useless spare room, giving us a normal sized living room.

Describe your decorating style... We are constantly bringing interesting things home, some stay permanently and some go back to the shop. I definitely want our flat to feel lived in and cosy. We want there to be a mid-century sort of feel, which I think is reflected in the chairs we've chosen and our sofa (we're still searching for the perfect arm chair). But we don't want to live in a house that is entirely dedicated to one period.

Show us some of your favourite things... 

We adore these chairs that this very cool elderly couple came in to the shop and sold us. When we told them that we were going to keep them for ourselves, they were over the moon.  The leather on the seat is very worn now, but when it finally goes, it'll be fun to restore them again.

The little blue lamp! It is tiny but so perfect in every way. The base is polished marble and the enamel, turquoise blue, champagne-style shade is so dainty. I haven't seen anything like it since we got it.

It's hard to see, but we replaced every single brass door handle with 1930s Bakelite door knobs and all the ceiling lights with traditional fabric covered cable. It's the little things that matter.

Where do you like shopping to find all this lovely stuff – and what else inspires you? Love the Historic Lighting company. We got large bulbs from here and brass fittings for our living room. When we went to Paris, we were so excited to visit Deyrolle, an amazing Taxidermy shop. The entomology room is incredible. You can choose a box and spend hours deciding what to put in it. The Geffreye Museum is down the road from us in Dalston. Every room has a different set up, going through the periods. It's fantastic inspiration and we like to copy their Christmas decorations too. 

GET THE PEANUT VENDOR LOOK

Taxidermy bird £125; 50s floral bolster cushion £25; Travel blankets (underneath), £25 each; WW1 first aid poster £100; Stackable vintage stools £65 each; Industrial-style hook rack £85

Buy filament light bulbs, £13 and fabric electrical cable, in various colours, £3.75 per metre from Historic Lighting