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I’ve been buying on Etsy since the early days. I remember starting to see references to it on Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy around 2007, back when they ran features on “The Best of Etsy”. I haven’t seen those in a while though so I thought I would resurrect the concept here. Maybe once a month, maybe every other week. We’ll just see, shall we?
The thing is, Etsy has become so commonplace for those of us in the design community that we forget that Etsy isn’t even really mainstream yet. When I tell people that’s where I have my vintage shop, they’re like, “What’s that? Did you say ‘eatsy’? ‘itsy’?” I usually have to explain that it’s a website like eBay, in that you’re buying from individuals rather than a store, but that it’s all handmade and vintage goods.
But Etsy is much bigger now than it was in 2007 and it just keeps growing, with great new shops popping up all the time. Here are a few of my recent favorites.
Janet Hill is a painter whose elegant, whimsical style evokes a sense of nostalgia while instantly transporting the viewer into the underlying narrative of the work. Here in The House Guest, the protagonist seems to be debating whether to suggest to the lion who has taken up residence on her sofa that the fine needlepoint pillows currently displayed on the floor might be shown to better advantage on the furniture, but hospitality and good breeding have her frozen. Purchase prints here.
Big City Small Town Vintage is a brand new shop offering vintage clothing hand-picked by Jamie Bollenbacher. She’s got a wonderful eye for vintage clothing and accessories and also makes some of the most creative, attractive treasuries I’ve seen. A lifelong vintage and antique lover, her shop started out of a major score of cute vintage clothes that weren’t in her size. Since she just couldn’t leave them at the garage sale where she found them, an Etsy shop was born. She says that to her, vintage clothing is like artwork. I could say the same thing about her super cute shop.
Cufflinks & Cowboy Boots, based in my ancestral hometown of San Francisco, California (both my parents and all my grandparents were born there), makes many wonderful items, but what particularly captured my notice was their lovely 1:12 scale modern dollhouse furniture. They have tiny reproductions of many modern iconic designs, but also adorably new Jonathan Adler tiny furniture. You will definitely want to check out their Jonathan Adler inspired modern miniature dollhouse.
In my quest to
add pom poms to everything I own, I ran across this teal trim offered by vintage sewing pattern seller
Frisky Scissors. She’s got very little of it left so if you want to try trimming your own lampshade, you should grab this right up. And if you can operate a sewing machine (unlike me), then check out the rest of her stock as well. There’s a tremendous selection of affordable patterns from the 1940s through the 1980s.
The Tilissimo is headquartered in Athens, Greece and makes wonderful handmade ceramic coasters with the most colorful, fun patterns I’ve seen. These “little squares of happiness” run the pattern gamut from modern and vintage inspired, geometric and floral, quirky and classical design. I’ve been eyeing these
Bamboo and Fern coasters, but they’re all very delightful.
PLUS I’m having a huge clearance sale on all the items in
my SALE section, including lots of great mid century modern items. I’m trying out
Etsy On Sale for the first time so the prices are already marked down. Prices will go back up midnight on August 13th.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did picking out my favorite shops and items from my latest Etsy faves. What do you think? Should I do it again some time?
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You should definitely do it again! Love your picks, and your shop. I'm so honored to be featured. Thanks so much. 🙂
You're very welcome! I love your shop. Actually both your shops, but it was that happy trim that caught my eye this week. Thanks so much for stopping by!
I learned about etsy from Martha Stewart, when she had Rob Kalin as a guest on her show, years ago. I remember thinking what a brilliant idea it was. Definitely do this again!
I must have the miniature furniture – unbelievable detail