This month’s pre-loved finds {July 2026}….

Welcome to my monthly pre-loved bargain post, which is always one of my favourite posts to write. 😀

There’s something so satisfying about finding something you genuinely need or love second-hand, especially when it costs a fraction of what it would have done new.

This month I thought I’d share just two of my favourite pre-loved finds with you as there’s quite a lot to tell you about them both…

You might have seen me mention this in last week’s five little things post but this month we bought one of my favourite things for the house so far. We found a vintage fireplace at our local vintage shop, complete with the original marble hearth and back panel, for just £50 and as much as we tried to walk away, we just couldn’t leave such a great bargain sitting there.

We’d deliberately decided that the living room was going to stay pretty much untouched for now because we’ve got so many other projects happening around the house. We wanted one room that we could simply shut the door on and escape to when the rest of the house can feel a bit chaotic at times as we have little jobs ongoing all over the place.

That’s not to say we actually liked the room though. 😁

I’m genuinely not sure what I disliked most in there – the wallpaper, the horrible carpet, the old gas fire or the random shelf above it. We were quite prepared to live with all of that for another year so we could concentrate on our bigger priorities in the house, but then we spotted this fireplace and suddenly our carefully thought-out plans went straight out of the window.

It was exactly the right size, in brilliant condition and, at £50 complete with the original marble hearth and back panel, it was such an amazing price that we knew we’d regret leaving it behind.

The funny thing is that, although I absolutely love this fireplace, it’s not actually my style at all.

If I were decorating purely for my own taste, I probably wouldn’t have chosen it at all but what I do love is how perfectly it suits the house. It looks like it belongs here and works beautifully with the character and age of the house.

Since we moved in, I’ve realised that decorating this house is completely different to decorating anywhere else we’ve lived.

Rather than trying to make it fit our style, we’ve tried really hard to work with what’s already here. The original features are a big part of what made us fall in love with the house, so it feels right that we make the most of them rather than cover them up.

So it might not be my style but it’s the house style which is good enough for me right now. 😁

Buying the fireplace did create one unexpected problem though. Our old gas fire had to come out, which wasn’t an issue because we hated that too and had already started the process of removing it by having the gas supply capped off, but it did mean we needed to find an electric fire that would fit the new fireplace pretty quickly as taking it off the wall to fit the surround left a big hole in the chimney breast.

We spent a little while looking around for the perfect one that wasn’t going to cost us a fortune and we actually spotted one on Facebook Marketplace that we thought would go well with the surround and again, suit the house.

It had originally been advertised for £100 before the seller reduced it to £50, so we sent a message to ask whereabouts the man who was selling it lived and he was actually 45 minutes away which was further than we wanted to go. I said we’d think about it as we were so far away and he replied to say that that if we wanted it, we could just have it because he needed the space and he understood that an hour and a half round trip was a bit much. 

We honestly couldn’t believe it.

So our £50 fireplace ended up with a completely free electric fire, which has to be one of the best bargains we’ve had in a long time. 

It does need a bit of a paint with our cast iron restorer paint but it will look even better when that’s all done. I just can’t find the tub right now as it’s somewhere in our garage which is still a mess from when we moved in.  😁

We’re leaving the living room at that for now though, the rest of it can wait as we’d originally planned.

We still have plenty left to do – the carpet is definitely living on borrowed time and the wallpaper is the ugliest shade of cream you’ve ever seen- but the new fire and surround does make a difference and it feels more homely than it did with the old fire and shelf. 

For me, that’s what buying pre-loved is really about. Yes, saving money is a huge bonus, but it’s also about finding pieces that have character and suit your home perfectly. We’d never have bought a brand-new fireplace like this, and I’m so glad we waited until the right one came along instead of buying something just because it filled the space.

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those purchases that we’re still talking about years from now… and I still can’t quite believe it only cost us £50.

I’d love you to follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉

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