My Five Favourite Pre-Loved Finds Since We Moved House….

We’ve been in this house for just over six months now and, if you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I’ve bought a LOT of things pre-loved since we moved in. 😂 

Some have been practical, some have been bargains that were just too good to leave behind and some have been things that I spotted and instantly knew exactly where they were going to go.

I’ve always loved buying pre-loved, but I think I love it even more in this house. It’s an old house with so many gorgeous original features and I really want the things we add to feel like they belong here. That doesn’t mean everything needs to actually be old, but I definitely find myself drawn to older furniture and things with a bit more character than I probably would have been in our last house.

So today, I thought I’d have a look back at some of the things that we’ve bought since we moved in and share my five absolute favourites so far.

My yellow bureau

My little yellow writing bureau was from a local vintage shop last year and when we got it, it was definitely in need of some TLC. We gave it a paint job and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t regret the yellow for a little while but now that it’s where it was meant to be, I’m in love with it again.

I’m pretty sure the bureau and the paint together came to about £25 and aside from looking good in the space, it’s great storage too. The paint was actually pre-loved as well, so this one feels like a double pre-loved win.

It’s now in my office and I genuinely can’t imagine anything else in its place. It’s bright, it’s a little bit different and it works perfectly in the room, so I’m very glad I didn’t give in during the phase where I was questioning the yellow. 😂

And while we’re on the subject, pretty much my whole office is pre-loved and I love it! I spent months collecting bits that I loved for that room so it’s very me – even the shelves used to be display shelves in my favourite vintage shop before it closed down and I can picture them with all the beautiful things I’ve seen displayed on them in the shop over the years.

Our fire and fire surround

This one might be my best bargain of the lot.

We paid just £50 for our fire surround, complete with the marble hearth and back, and I still can’t quite believe how lucky we were to find it.

The fireplace is such a big feature in the front room and I really wanted something that looked like it belonged there rather than something brand new that might have felt a bit too modern for the room. This was perfect and once it was in place it looked as though it had always been there.

The fire itself was completely free from Facebook Marketplace as someone just wanted it gone. It needed a bit of TLC, which we gave it using some of the cast iron paint restorer we’d already used on our dining room fireplace, and it looks literally brand new now!

So the whole thing cost us just £50, plus a little bit of something we already had in the house, and I absolutely love how it looks.

It’s probably one of the best examples of why I love looking for things pre-loved for this house. We could have spent so much more buying something new, but I genuinely don’t think I’d have found anything I liked as much.

The storage bench in the dining room

Our dining room has a big bay window and I knew quite early on that I wanted some kind of bench in there. I found a pre-loved storage bench for about £10 which was just the right size for the space, although it definitely needed a bit of work to make it fit in with the room.

We painted it with a tester pot of Farrow & Ball Railings and recovered the top using fabric to match the curtains, which completely transformed it. It went from being a fairly ordinary second-hand storage bench to something that looks like it was made specifically for that spot in the bay window.

Even better, we had some of the fabric left over so I used that to make a matching table runner.

This is exactly the kind of pre-loved project I love because we’ve ended up with something that fits the room perfectly for very little money. We just took what was already there and changed the bits we didn’t like until it worked for us.

My Lladró ornaments

These are probably the least practical things on this list but they’re also the ones that mean the most to me.

I bought two pre-loved Lladró ornaments because they reminded me of my mum.

There wasn’t a particular space in the house that needed filling and I wasn’t looking for Lladró ornaments when I found them. I just saw them and they made me think of her, which was enough of a reason for me to want them.

I think that’s another side of buying pre-loved that I really love. Sometimes you’re looking for something specific for the house and sometimes you just find something that means something to you. These aren’t here because they were a brilliant money-saving buy or because I could give them a makeover. They’re here simply because they make me think of my mum when I look at them.

And that makes them two of my favourite things in the house.

My little vintage lamp table

This one was very nearly the pre-loved find that got away. 😂

I spotted this little table in our local vintage shop and was so drawn to it, but I think it was originally around £45 which felt like a bit much when we were in the middle of moving house and spending money left, right and centre.

Then the shop announced that it was closing and everything was reduced. I was still umming and aahing though because it was quite a dull wood and I couldn’t picture it matching anywhere in the house, so I left it.

The shop closed and I massively regretted not buying it.

Then the lady who owned the shop posted on Facebook to say that she was going to be there for a few more hours because she still had some collections to sort out. I went straight down and bought the table. 😂 I think I paid about £10 for it in the end, although it might have been a little bit more than that. Either way, it was waaaay less than the original £45.

We varnished it in the same colour as the fire surround and suddenly the dull wood that had made me hesitate in the first place wasn’t an issue at all. It now sits in the front room and I absolutely love it.

And it’s actually become a little collection of pre-loved finds because on top of it is my gorgeous pre-loved lamp, which is sitting on another little bargain I found.

The book underneath the lamp is beautifully illustrated and so pretty that I bought it without really knowing anything about it. When I did some research afterwards, with a bit of help from Google Lens, I discovered that it’s actually a 1994 reproduction of an Edwardian gardening journal. I found copies selling online for around the £30 mark, so that turned out to be a pretty good find too.

Once I’d read through it and enjoyed it, I didn’t really know what to do with it. It seemed a shame to hide something so pretty away on the bookshelf with all the other books, so I popped it on the lamp table and sat the lamp on top of it.

I’m sure there’s something much more exciting I could do with it, but for now I love it exactly where it is.

None of the three things were bought together, but somehow the table, the book and the lamp have ended up making this lovely little corner of the room that looks as though they belong together.

We’ve only been here since February so I’m sure this list will change as we find more things for the house, but right now these are definitely my five favourites.

I love that most of them didn’t come into the house looking exactly as they do now. We’ve painted things, varnished things, recovered things and found ways to make them work for us, and I think that’s a big part of what I enjoy about buying pre-loved.

And while the money we’ve saved by not buying everything brand new is obviously a huge bonus, I honestly think we’ve ended up with a much more interesting home because of it. It’s slowly filling up with things that have a bit of history, a bit of character and, now, a bit of our story too.

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