Welcome to Good Vintage, a series that goes behind the scenes with furniture resellers and dealers to find out how they got their start, where they get their stuff, and what inspires them to keep it up. Know of someone we should talk to? Reach out.

Last November, Chyelle Milgrom, the 27-year-old vintage furniture obsessee behind the popular Instagram account @fbmarketslut, opened a 1,700-square-foot storefront in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to fill with secondhand housewares from estate sales, thrift stores, and, of course, Facebook Marketplace. She named the shop Chyelle.

“If you had talked to me a year ago, I would’ve never thought that I’d be opening my own store, because I was unemployed [at the time],” says Milgrom, who was figuring out her next move after a layoff from her UI/UX design role. But with her sizable and engaged following as Facebook Market Slut, where she surfaces finds from the platform, and after a brief stint working at a different neighborhood vintage furniture shop, Milgrom felt compelled to bet on herself. “I know that I have a good intuition for design. Why don’t I start my own business?” she remembers saying to herself. In February 2025, after a little less than two months working in retail, Milgrom put together a meticulously detailed 40-page pitch deck to take to potential investors—“friends’ parents who are really wealthy,” she says.

Even though her business plan was initially met with skepticism, Milgrom stayed true in her belief that a vintage furniture shop could have a lot of value, especially for young people. For Milgrom, buying vintage furniture is more than bringing a beautiful piece into the home; it’s about acquiring objects that will monetarily appreciate in the long run. “One way to start building wealth is by investing in really high-quality vintage furniture that will either stay the same or increase in value,” she says. “It’s kind of like investing in art.”

Milgrom also envisioned her shop as a community space and cafe, where she can host figure drawing classes, book clubs, dinner parties, house music listening sessions, and other events. Pieces wouldn’t be haphazardly stacked on top of each other as they are at many other vintage furniture stores. Everything in Chyelle would be staged like a showroom so shoppers can interact with the furniture like it’s in their own apartment. Milgrom would encourage customers to grab coffee, walk around, take a seat, and get comfortable. “My friend’s parents, who share those sensibilities of community, took that seriously and they helped me get started,” she says.

After putting a deposit down on the space she found—a former tattoo parlor—Milgrom began crunching numbers. “Outside of the five-year budget, I had a blueprint of the store and made a layout that displayed how much furniture I could fit inside, and the rate it’d have to flip in order for the space to self-sustain,” she says. “So far it’s been really good, but totally inaccurate. My calculations were so wrong. For instance, I didn’t realize, especially in the winter, that couches would be flying off the shelves and I cannot keep up with it. I thought sofas would be the slowest to move.”

Throughout the week, Milgrom messages sellers she’s interested in buying from, and on weekends she drives out in the cargo van she bought for vintage furniture shopping. She maps complex routes for pick ups and drop offs, mainly around the tristate area. Her friend and roommate Maddie joins to help navigate and keep Milgrom company on long drives. Milgrom isn’t so strict on eras—she’ll collect anything that intrigues her, from midcentury-modern furniture to ’90s decor.

As she heads into the half-year mark of her shop, Milgrom reflects on what she’s learned, and shares advice for shoppers interested in their own vintage furniture hunt.

Invest in quality secondhand products

For the in-store cafe, Milgrom partnered with her friend and barista Minji Um. It was Um who recommended that Milgrom buy a La Marzocco espresso machine, as it’s the industry standard and built to last. Milgrom swiftly learned that, for her, the brand was prohibitively expensive. “Realistically, even if you want to open a small cafe, it’s going to cost at minimum $200 to $300,000,” says Milgrom, “so I said, okay, let’s see if I can get all of my appliances used, which is what I did.” It’s a fitting move, as Chyelle is entirely stocked with secondhand gems, so sourcing a pre-owned espresso machine from a fellow seller felt very much in the spirit.

Couches are always in demand

For such a large and cumbersome piece of furniture, Milgrom is surprised at how quickly couches get scooped. “I now hold off on not posting sofas immediately so that I have more clearance to find a new one [to replace the sofa that sells],” she says. (To give readers an idea of how in demand they are, in January, a couch she posted on Instagram sold within three hours.) Milgrom says modular and sectional sofas in particular are gold because of their versatility. “I think they work in any space, they bring a lot of warmth, and they’re a really chic shape,” she says. Milgrom says that the “massive, eight-seater modular sofas have been flying off the shelves more so than any of my three-seaters,” even in New York City, where apartment space tends to be limited. It’s all to say: If you see a vintage couch you’re remotely intrigued by, you may want to buy it sooner than later—because someone else will if you don’t act fast.

Don’t do pick ups in commercial vehicles

If you’re going to drive a van to pick up furniture, make sure it’s not a commercial vehicle. Milgrom learned the hard way—by way of $400 fines—that commercial vehicles are not allowed on many parkways, like FDR Drive and Belt Parkway in New York City. It’s not like the car rental company Milgrom used to book vans from were asking questions about where she was going, so “I had no idea,” she says. “There’s no app that shows you the route you need to take to avoid parkways. And when you’re driving a big van, there’s so many blind spots.” The latter issue is why Milgrom has since bought her passenger cargo van. So if you’re planning to buy vintage furniture across state lines, make sure you’ve got the right set of wheels.

Shop at thrift stores for small decor

“In the biz, we call any of the decorative objects ‘smalls,’” says Milgrom. Objects like kitchenware, vases, frames, and table lamps in the smalls category—many of which are priced under $50 at Chyelle—are mainly sourced at thrift stores rather than estate sales. (The latter are generally better for large furniture.) Places like Goodwill and Savers are where shoppers can get the best deals on decor. “I go in looking at things that catch my eye. It’s when I start pricing things is when I research since I don’t really know the value of the objects,” she says. But Milgrom is big on affordability, which is why she thrifts for smalls. For example, there’s a four-piece silver tea set for under $100 at Chyelle, even though Milgrom knows it could be sold for more. “Honestly, it might be more valuable if you melt this down,” she says, “but I want to keep prices accessible.”

Interact with the furniture as much as possible

It’s easy to impulsively buy things that are posted on the internet or social media, especially if they’re one of a kind, but Milgrom encourages local shoppers to come into Chyelle and experience the pieces firsthand. “I really want to promote slow consumption. I want you to sit down with your coffee or your work, really experience a sofa or an armchair or a coffee table. And if the design resonates with you, that’s when you make the purchase,” she says. It’s difficult to tell from photos alone how a piece feels, what the condition is like, or how large it is. Luckily, Chyelle’s showroom setup allows for immersion, as do her in-store community events, like the dinner parties and art classes she hosts. Participants are welcome to get comfy in the space.

Embrace the flaws, embrace natural wear

Milgrom has found that wear and tear usually doesn’t deter customers, and many shoppers even prefer things that have intentionally aged. “Furniture stores can’t add patina or wear,” she says. “Carvings and chips—it’s all character. These vintage pieces, especially vintage wood pieces, if it’s stood this long at twenty, thirty, forty years, it’s going to stand another few decades. These were built during a time when we appreciated craftsmanship.” She goes on to explain that a solid hardwood piece, even if imperfect, is a safe and long-term investment because you can likely resell it at the same price, “if not more than what you bought it for when the time comes you need to swap it out.”

Think outside the midcentury box

“There are two trends that I think are becoming more and more prevalent,” muses Milgrom. “People love a space-age item, so funky plastic Formica design, and Spanish and French revival, the more antique and more crafty work.” She’s been noticing a slight shift away from the minimalism and sleek lines of MCM and a “move toward the more ornate, which is really exciting, and it’s way less competitive than midcentury.” Whether shoppers are feeling an MCM fatigue or curious about much older works, vintage furniture enthusiasts may want to explore pieces of the early 1900s as interest for older antiques is on the rise.

Related Reading:

How TikTok-Famous Chefs Hailee Catalano and Chuck Cruz Designed Their Dream Kitchens—Yes, Plural

I Defied the “Landlord Special” and Replaced My Electrical Outlets

How This Vintage Furniture Seller Went From Trolling Facebook Marketplace to Opening a Storefront

The Vintage Furniture Seller Whose Brooklyn Store Cycles Through Aesthetics Every Six Weeks

Topics