Vintage shopping with the Altered Abode

Aubrey DeBeittgnies from The Altered Abode took The Lift shopping at one of her favorite vintage stores, the Duluth Antique Marketplace.

“I just think there’s so much to choose from. There’s like two floors of so much stuff,” she said. “You could walk through this place like five times and never see everything. So you’ll always find something here.”

She likes the uniqueness that vintage and antique pieces add to your home.

“You’re going to find one-of-a-kind things that nobody else is going to have,” DeBettignies said. “I think even when you’re sourcing kind of new items and buying new items, just mixing some of those old with it just makes it feel like you didn’t just like take a cart at Target and dump it into your house, right?”

It’s sustainable too. She shops for “whatever catches my eye,” but often looks for storage solutions like baskets, pottery and glassware, and vintage art and books.

“I look a lot for small items that are going to style shelves,” she said. “You know when you always need just something little to fill in? I feel like just these one-of-a-kind things make such a difference on the shelf.”

DeBettignies said it can help to go in with a plan, like looking for items for your kitchen shelf or living room. And it’s affordable to source things this way.

“I’ll say antique stores are usually going to be a little bit more cost than like a thrift store. But it’s nice because these stores, everything’s already kind of curated and gone through. So it’s like what’s here is already pretty good options. So you pay a little bit more but still such a good price versus buying it new,” she said.