Libby Alexander is the co-founder of The Vintage Bazaar a modern pop-up flea market based in Chicago, Illinois. She covers vintage trends, small business, budget-friendly decor, and design dilemmas on thevintagebazaar.com. Her writing has also been featured on TheHairpin.com.
We profiled The Vintage Bazaar, a pop-up market in Chicago started by Libby Alexander and Katherine Raz, as our October 2011 Design Finder. Here, Libby welcomes us into her home where she shares the story behind some of her favorite furnishings.
What happens when you’re inspired by vintage interiors and decor, but your budget is more on the frugal side? My house happens. A couple of my secrets to style on a dime are, number one, spend time equity instead of dollars and hunt for treasures at estate sales, thrift shops, and flea markets. Second tip is to make it yourself. Click through the slideshow to get a glimpse of a couple of my more successful DIY projects like the rustic sconce that I wired myself and my marble coffee table with concrete column legs that I mixed up in one afternoon for a cool 65 bucks. Enjoy!
We recently featured The Vintage Bazaar as the Design Finder in our October Made in the USA issue. Here, founders Libby Alexander and Katherine Raz take us on a tour of their most recent event in May. Chicagoland folks, take note: the next pop-up will take place on Sunday, September 18th!
Libby and I came up with the idea for the Vintage Bazaar over drinks one afternoon—actually, it was the first day we met! I had come to Libby’s home to take photos for a home tour post on my blog, Backgarage.com. We hit it off immediately and ended up chatting for about four hours post-shoot and afterward Libby mixed me a cocktail. It was then that we discussed how it seemed like most of the flea markets in Chicago were either too pricey, too collectibles-focused (antique advertisi— what? I fell asleep), or all about overstock socks and stale nachos. Where, we wondered, was an affordable, curated flea market in the city that combined shopping, beer, and good tunes?
We determined it didn't exist, so we set out to create it.
