Sometimes you’re looking for it, sometimes it just finds you

Treasures of home décor abound at flea markets, thrift shops, and garage sales. But how do you know a find when you find it?

In The Find , Stan Williams and some of today’s most clever style makers, including Simon Doonan, John Derian, and Real Simple’s Kristin van Ogtrop–all diehard devotees of New York City’s Housing Works–show not just what to look for, but also how to look at an object to identify a great piece. The trick is to see beyond nicks and wobbles, color and intended purpose and to focus on potential. For example, a vintage leather trunk encased in Lucite works as a stunning coffee table. Pages from old books wallpaper a foyer. A cushion fashioned from a baseball diamond’s home plate makes a garden chair comfortable.

The Find includes chapters on furniture, accessories, small spaces, and entertaining. From a suburban ranch to an East Village studio in New York, each abode illustrates unexpected ways that secondhand items can make statements (or space) throughout a home.

Elegantly photographed, filled with practical sidebars about refurbishing, styling, and treasure-hunting, and replete with the quirky sensibility that has made Housing Works one of the most popular destinations for great things, The Find is at once a handbook and inspiration for vintage decorating. Secondhand does not mean second rate when there’s always something special to be found.