Thrifting Steampunk Style

I've had a couple of comments recently about budgets and the cost of many of the wonderful hand crafted items that show up on this blog.... While I don't think anyone wants me to stop featuring the wonderful, horrendously expensive works, I do want to make steampunk style available to the rest of us. I've not been adverse to featuring things from Ikea or Target, but the best source for steampunk goodies for the person with more time than money is your friendly neighborhood thrift shop. Although I know my born and bred cheapness doesn't always come through in my writing, I shop thrift stores on a weekly basis and have found a lot of wonderful furniture, accessories, and project materials


Above is a child's wrought iron table that I *didn't* get for the steampunklet and have been kicking myself for ever since. It was $20. Below is a Spanish Gothic looking table I spotted at a local Salvation Army store. The Edison Bar had one just like it tucked into a corner. I didn't need a table, so I passed, but it was a lot of style for just $165. (Looking again, I see that the table is extremely similar to the one in the Minimalist Steampunk post.)







To the left is a gear teal light holder -- my sister scored 8 of these for me for Christmas at a small town junk shop for $1/each. I'm working on converting them from a very chrome bicycle finish to a more brass steampunk finish.

The point to all this is to show that it can be done -- with persistence and a good eye you can find all sorts of neat things for your steampunk home, without blowing a budget.

Goodies for making things. Nothing was over $3. The box on the right became my mad scientist lamp.

p.s. While it would be fun to feature thrifted goodies that you, dear reader, have discovered, I think that might be a bit too frustrating to everyone else to see too many one of the kind, unreplicable finds. If you are interested, though, feel free to post them to the (new!) Steampunk Home flickr group.