- today
Today, AD is following interior designer Ross Cassidy through Brimfield Antique Flea Market as he shares expert tips on how to spot hidden gems and vintage treasures like a seasoned pro. Navigating antique and flea markets can feel overwhelming–with countless items for sale, how do you know what’s truly worth taking home? Ross breaks down how to identify quality pieces and even score some unique designer finds.Shop furniture and decor inspired by the famed vintage market: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/shopping/brimfield-antique-vintage
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I love when everything used to be beautiful. This is a lawn sprinkler, so
00:04water comes out of there. Shove your garden hose up the duck's butt. Why don't
00:10we make beautiful functional things anymore? This is so cute. It just makes me
00:14so happy. Today I'm at Broomfield Market, one of the oldest and largest outdoor
00:19antique fairs in the country, and I'm here to find treasure. As an interior
00:23designer, these are the places I like to come to find hidden gems for my projects.
00:27Furniture, art, and accessories have all come from markets like these and ended
00:31up in my clients' homes. Broomfield is overwhelming. It's crowded, it's a lot of
00:35walking, and there's more to see than you can possibly process. But today I'm gonna
00:40show you how I make sense of and shop in a place like this. I guarantee there's
00:44something for everyone, if you know how and where to look. What Broomfield is is a
00:49series of fields along a street in the town of Broomfield in Massachusetts. It's
00:54just fields filled, as you can see all around me, with tents. And every tent is
00:58just jam-packed with stuff. You name it, they have it. Totally different colors,
01:06different textures. I mean, so much good stuff. I love fussy things. Fussy, fussy, fussy.
01:13Not fussy, fussy, fussy. That's something else. Given how massive this market is, there are a few
01:18things I do to stay organized. The most important of which is to make a clear
01:22shopping list. Today I'm looking for collectible furniture, distinctive chairs,
01:26very rustic benches, coffee tables, and big farm tables. Plus, I'm always on the
01:32lookout for styling accessories. Things to style tabletops, to fill out bookshelves,
01:36and I'm on the hunt for unique vases too.
01:39The rustic bench. I feel like this is always having a moment. They're fantastic at the foot
01:47of a bed. Guests can come in and dump their like weekender bag on the top of these, and you're not
01:51going to screw it up because the top is already screwed up. This one's particularly nicely crafted.
01:55I love the faceted legs, and then it turns into a circle as it pierces the slab at the top. And then
02:01there's this beautiful little wedge that they've hammered into the top to make the pegs stay. So
02:07it's pretty sturdy. I also, I love the price. And here's the irony of Brimfield on this very rustic
02:14$65 bench. There's like some little Wedgewood. I guess you'd say they're coasters. Wedgewood is
02:20very, very fine china from England that was started in like 1759. Very collectible. Not everybody's cup
02:27of tea, but I think it's beautiful. Also, six bucks. Moving on. Thanks, guys. I love your stuff.
02:36That's my painting. God, you're really talented.
02:43Oh my God. Look how cute this chair is.
02:47I have a feeling about uncomfortable chairs that are beautiful. You're never going to sit in that
02:52because it's, well, I mean, what sort of body shape would you have? But it's such a beautiful
02:57thing. It's great if you've got like a skinny little space in a wall, pop it against the wall
03:03as sculpture, put it in an entry. If you don't have room for a console, you could pop your purse on
03:09there, hang a coat over the back. I think chairs often work better when they're not being used as
03:14chairs. And like, because this is so tall and thin, it gives you like height and volume in a room,
03:20which is great. And that's an amazing little thing. Great shelf. It's really pretty.
03:26I'm shopping here. We've crossed the street, which was treacherous. Look, there's a painting
03:34of me as a child, a little fancy boy. Yep. No, this is not for sitting. This is for looking.
03:40Ooh, yes. More of my favorite, Charles Dudois. French piece, Deco. So probably like nearly 100
03:50years old. Great example of his work. He was big into mixing natural wovens with wood. It'd be great
03:57in a bathroom. I think a chair is way better than a towel rack. Take off your clothes, dump them on the
04:03chair, get in the bath. Like a chair in a bathroom. I'm telling you people, it's the future. Great
04:10sculpture, weird ass chairs that would be amazing either side of a console in a dining room. Yeah,
04:18you know what? You're familiar with it. You've seen it a million times. Vuitton trunk. Is it played
04:23out? Maybe. But think outside the box. This could work if you just have like an empty wall that's a bit
04:28of a dead space or a dark corner. Pop it up against the wall, put a lamp on it, couple books,
04:34a bowl. Use it as like an unexpected piece of furniture. You don't have to put it at the foot
04:38of a bed. You don't have to use it as a coffee table. In fact, I would say please don't do either
04:42of those things. Try and reinvent it. And if your initials are ACW, this is the one for you. This
04:48one's really beaten up, which I like more. Moving on. You know I love these. This one's 375. I think
04:58I scored in Round Top. Nice big lamp. Good big lamps are hard to find. This is a really nice
05:03big lamp. Put a monster shade on it. Put it on a high table in the living room. That'd be really
05:08fun. I love that. I like the glaze. What's up, bear? Oh, hello. I love a folding screen. Rooms need
05:16height. I keep saying this. It's true. Rooms need height. So if everything in the room is that height,
05:20it's boring. This instantly like draws your eye up and adds layering. Also, amazing color, amazing
05:26texture. Doesn't take up a lot of space. I would put these in just about any room. They're great for
05:31privacy. If you want to divide a space, you can. Me furnishing bathrooms. I would love this in a
05:36bathroom. I want to toss a towel over it. If you've got a budget, buy both because I like the undulation
05:42and the difference in height. I like this layering of the shorter and the taller. That's probably a
05:47splurge to bike too. But hey, if you got it, spend it. Now I feel, excuse me, I'm going to slip into
05:54something a little more comfortable. That's a hard note. If The Last of Us was a chair, this would be
06:00it. Wow. Truck. Guillermo Chambran. And it's a set. A settee, a coffee table and a pair of chairs. It's
06:15like a king and a queen. He's taller than she is. Wait, the reason I say that. Look, it's like a crown.
06:22I love the coffee table with the inlaid tile. It adds a little personality. Well, we really are
06:27in a field out here. But look at the color on that. Also, what I love about a tile top,
06:33you don't need coasters. You're not going to have watermarks. It's pretty sturdy and you can put your
06:38feet up on it. Good tip. Make sure your coffee tables are like roughly the same size as your seat
06:44height. There's nothing worse than a coffee table that's too high and you sit like an idiot. And too low
06:50is not good either. This is sort of perfection. Wow. Lots of really good tables. Another great table.
07:01So this is an Austrian taxpayer's table from the 1700s. It's like mind-blowingly good. Check this out.
07:08There's a drawer on the bottom and it slides all the way through. So I would put my money in here
07:13and you could take it out on your side. But I don't want to put my money in there. I want to keep it.
07:19This table's so insane. The detailing underneath, the way the wood is like kind of pieced together,
07:25it's so crazy. There's so much personality and detail to it. And in a world of like clean, beige,
07:32boring, detail-less furniture, there are things like this that exist that make me so happy.
07:40But of course, it's already sold. So maybe you do need to get here early.
07:45RP. I wonder who RP was. You could easily use this in the center of a kitchen instead of an island or
07:51in addition to if you've got a hell of a lot of space. Pile it up with books and bowls and plants
07:56and like really like lean into it and make it like a Dutch still life where it's like layered with stuff
08:03and life and energy. Also, I'd like I'd use it for baking and like I'd actually use this table that
08:09should be used. You could put a big rustic like slate piece of slate on the top. So you don't
08:15mess up the wood because I want to make sure that it's protected and taken care of. So it lasts
08:20another 300 years. But yeah, like a big chunky piece of slate on top of this. Oh, amazing.
08:29That can actually work. I like that it's got like a little bit of green schmutz on it.
08:33Flea markets are fantastic resources for smaller styling accessories. One thing I adore are rustic
08:42wooden boards. They're a great foundation piece to start styling a kitchen. A simple grouping of
08:46vessels and mixed materials look so pulled together when you use a board as a kind of a frame. I also
08:52stumbled on this vendor selling these amazing hand-painted plates. Mismatched plates hung on a
08:57wall look great instead of art and they can be used to break up the monotony of book spines on a bookcase.
09:03These were all around $20 and there were even a few rare vintage gems from Tiffany mixed in.
09:08There's sort of a point in the day when your brain stops working and you've seen too much and you're
09:13at like, I don't know, just like overload, which is where I am now. I tend to bring my iPad with me
09:18and I have a folder with my favorite rooms on it. So I'll flip through and look at what I've got here.
09:22And then I'm like, oh yeah, I needed to find a great sofa or an interesting piece of art. Okay,
09:27I know what I'm looking for again because I was starting to feel like a little tired and a little
09:30overwhelmed. There's a car behind you.
09:37If you don't know about these, you need to. It's called the flower frog. You put it in the bottom
09:41of a vase and you spike your branches and your little flowers into the spikes so they can stand
09:47up straight and they don't fall to one side because like a limp flower arrangement, a limp anything is
09:53not good. But they have like the craziest collection because they have not just the sort of like heavy
09:58utilitarian ones that are kind of ugly. But they have all of these really beautiful ones. There's
10:03these little like turtles in here. Oh my god, look at that. That's a flower frog. That's so beautiful.
10:07You could put that in like a shallow dish of water so this sticks out and is visible. Minimal. It's not
10:13like a maximalist situation. But that's so exquisite. Thanks guys. Thank you. I mean, I'm very into this sort of like
10:20terracotta. Super cute too. Oh my god, that's bronze. Holy shit. Okay, I have a thing for footed bowls.
10:29They're amazing in a kitchen because they add a sense of height. They're very elegant. They look
10:33super refined. Pile this up with fruit. It'll look amazing. The color of this is very pretty and it's 30 bucks.
10:41Oh, hello. Wow. Mojitos. And this. And out you go. So cute. $69. I love it. I'm taking it. I like the
10:53little jingly sound. Oh, love. Find Murano glass. Pop this on a side table. You're set. It's also a nice
11:00soak dish in a bathroom. I like the really intense color. The blue is happy. I guess you gotta put your
11:06cigarette there. It's okay to buy ashtrays if you don't smoke. Ashtrays are beautiful. I'm not
11:12encouraging smoking. But if you do, have a pretty ashtray. There is so much to see. I also find that
11:18on my first glance, I tend to miss a lot. So you kind of want to do it twice. This is a simple sort of
11:29wooden bowl. But it's got a lot of character. And like, how pretty is that? Just like a little extra
11:33detail. These rusted nails are so cute. Kitchen island. Dining room table. Even on a coffee table.
11:39Stuff like this works. It's good to bring like age and patina into your house. Even in a super
11:44contemporary environment, a thing like this can work. And if you just pile this up with artichokes,
11:51it would look amazing. You don't have to buy artichokes and fill it from the base. Like,
11:55put a piece of cardboard in, fill it up, and then just pile it on the top. I'm cheap that way. But it
12:00would look really good. And I love the idea of putting all of your kitchen utensils in a good
12:05vessel. I mean, I hope your kitchen utensils don't look like this because that looks like salmonella.
12:09But if you take your nice Williams-Sonoma home kitchen utensils and put them in something like
12:15this in a kitchen, it's a really great way to make a space feel more lived in. Sort of signs of life,
12:21which is important. Sad sailor. I love sad sailors. That's cute. Great little brutalist sculpture. I love
12:28things like this. They make me think of J.Crew stores in the 90s at their sort of peak. J.Crew
12:34sponsored me. Adorable. I love that. Really, really good for a bookshelf. Really attractive
12:41ceramic. And buy the whole shelf. They've, like, done the work for you. You could just buy all of
12:45this stuff. When you're buying small accessories, watch out that not everything is the same height.
12:50I've made this mistake a thousand times. Like, everything I graduate to is, like, the same height.
12:55Then I bring it home. I'm like, this is going to be amazing. And then I have a row of things that are
12:58all exactly the same size. So when you're shopping, make sure you're looking for things that are taller,
13:03shorter, wider, thinner, fatter. And buy that because that's a great vase. Great vase.
13:11I love buying small little glasses and collecting them, keeping them in, like, a pantry for friends' gifts.
13:26This guy's 25 bucks. You can get just, like, a small little bunch of flowers from Trader Joe's or, like,
13:32your local grocery store. And that makes a really cute little nightstand vase or something in a powder room.
13:37And it's so much nicer than the plain, clear, generic white glass vase that you get from a florist.
13:44So my trick is become your own florist. Don't be afraid of going big. This is really beautiful.
13:51I think people are afraid of big statement vases, but this in, like, a plain room will make a lot of
13:57impact. You could put this on a dining room table on its own with a couple of big branches,
14:01and it would be amazing. But it doesn't even need anything in it to look good. It's very beautiful.
14:09Actually, I think I want this. I love small skinny vases. In a small bathroom, it's great to still
14:15have flowers. And something like that takes up no counter space. You put one pretty little branch
14:20or one tall flower, like an allium, would be good. And that, it would be amazing. It adds some life to
14:25a bathroom and gives it some energy. That's really pretty. I mean, I picked an expensive one. That's
14:29250. But on this table, there are a bunch of tall vases. Like, find the one that works for you. And then,
14:37context is important. Like, I kind of think that's gross, but you lose the stopper.
14:42Suddenly, it's really good. $59. Truck. Starting to get really busy here. Great, great,
14:52great vase for $59. The color is amazing. Kill the stopper. That's really beautiful.
15:00Would they call it a beaker or a boiler flask? I love stuff like this because just on its own,
15:05sitting on a shelf, it's very, very beautiful. And what's cool is, like, you don't need a lot
15:09of flowers to fill it up. Like, one or two things is all you need. That's sort of a theme for me.
15:13It's really, really beautiful. This was a special find for me. I was immediately drawn to the
15:18restrained design and the obvious quality. Even from a distance, I could tell it was special.
15:23I flipped it over and it had the Baccarat maker's mark etched on the base. Baccarat is the most famous
15:28French crystal producer. They've been around since the late 1700s. And get this, this vase was being sold
15:34for 80 bucks, which is an absolute steal. What's so beautiful about a shape like this is how it
15:40distorts what's behind it. It's almost like looking through a crystal ball. You'd see these in old
15:44Dutch master paintings because they play with the light in such a beautiful way. And for $80, it's mine.
15:52One of the things I love about Brimfield is it covers a lot of ground, from affordable vases in
15:58the $20 range to pretty extravagant furniture in the thousands of dollar range. But they have everything in
16:03between. And if you're looking for an affordable day of shopping, Brimfield is the place for you.
16:08In my opinion, Brimfield is probably the best of the American antique flea markets. There's something
16:13for absolutely everybody. Oh, and one more thing. If you like what you saw, but you can't get to Brimfield,
16:19a lot of the vendors have online stores. So click the link below to find out more. God, that's so
16:24brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?
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