I have always loved a weird thing.
When I was young, my grandmother would host sleepovers for all my friends at her home. She’d set up card tables in the living room and lay newspapers over top, placing raw wood bird houses at each chair. Each little girl would get a selection of paints and my grandmother would give us all her old art books.
“Try doing yours in an Art Deco style,” she’d tell one girl.
“Maybe go for a Southwestern motif,” she’d tell another.
Is it weird to hand-paint birdhouses at a sleepover when you’re 7 years old? In hindsight, maybe, but that’s just how life was for me.
I had a playroom in our house and my grandmother hired an artist to hand-paint a mural from floor to ceiling: there was a giraffe, an elephant, a zebra… and deep in the corner, so small you couldn’t see unless you walked behind a couch — my chihuahua, Chelsea.
Everything in my young life was joy- and art-filled. My grandmother saw beauty in everything — an abandoned chair on the side of the road, a strange painting in an art gallery when we were on vacation, in a butterfly’s wing found on the road outside.
I have continued to hunt for the weird and wonderful throughout my life.
And I’ve evangelized about the need to fill our homes with weird things for years — in my book, Big Thrift Energy, I even have a section called “I Like Weird Stuff and I Cannot Lie.”
I love finding valuable pieces of important design at the thrift store and there’s nothing like the feeling of finding something that should have a $5,000 price tag, but you only pay $5.
But I also love the just plain weird. Give me an abandoned art school ceramic over a mass-produced vase any day.
Interestingly, the push for “weird” has consumed my algorithm lately. I see decorators and designers sharing videos in which they urge others to embrace “weird.” Often, what they suggest isn’t so much “weird” as it is “not beige.”
Stripes and checkerboard print aren’t so much weird to me, someone who has always championed those things, but they do look unique in a sea of Amazon sameness.
I think we should all be gravitating towards the unique interior moments that make our lives exciting and fun.
I posted an Instagram Reels about this recently and was blown away by the response — so many others saying they embraced the weird, too. This comment, in particular, really resonated:
One of the big draws of thrifting is that it forces creativity. It forces you to view things in interesting ways — you might look at a belt buckle and envision how it would look stuck to your shirt collar, or pick up a necklace and think you’d like to hang it from a painting’s frame rather than around your neck.
Yes, it is so nice to walk in to an IKEA and all the work is done for you — the coffee table is styled, the bed is made with matching dressers beside it… you could buy the entire room if you wanted and would only have to worry about building the furniture once it arrives.
But the real fun, for me, is walking in a thrift store with no idea what you’re going to see.
I love to ask myself, “Who am I going to be today?” when I’m thrifting.
Am I someone who needs a large papier-mâché frog? My grandmother thought so, when she bought me the above folk art piece, which we later discovered was signed by the Savannah artist who made it.
Am I someone who would carry this made-in-1989 armadillo purse? Yes, today I am and for $10, I’ll take it.
Am I someone who would hang this black and white photo of a half-naked man on my bedroom wall? Indeed, I think I am. So, I gently removed it from the nail on the wall at an estate sale and proudly marched it to the checkout desk, where all the elderly ladies working oohed and aahed over it. Some blushed and offered me a sly wink.
Did I plan on finding this half-naked man when I set out on my estate sale journey that morning? Of course not. But true love comes when you least expect it.
Long live weird.
ODDS & ENDS
If you’re looking for a great gift for the animal-lover in your life, this is it: a candle custom printed with a photo of your pet. I’m currently getting one made with my girl, Holly, on it.
I talk about this brand a lot because I use so many of their products — the sleep gummies are my fave and the GLP-1 support capsules are incredibly popular. They sent me a code so you can use code 10VIRGINIA for 10% off.
Roxanne Assoulin is back with another fun necklace — this one a vibrant string of colorful beads. It’s en route to me now.
OTHER READING
Frivolity is the Whole Entire Ballgame
I have a tweet saved that I reference constantly. When I’m having a bad day, or feeling like I’m not getting where I want to be fast enough… this tweet shifts my perspective.
I love that you still have the frog!
Im inspired, now I need a half naked man photo for my house stat!