Best Places in Philly to Shop for the Home (Part II)

(map of Philadelphia by Grace Lee for Anthology Mag)

Today in Part II of my round-up of the best places in Philadelphia for home décor, I’ll share my recommendations for estate sales, antique shops and fabric stores. I hope it helps readers now and in the future to find good, reasonably-priced pieces for their home, which isn't always easy.

Some may question why I’m sharing resources—as if they were family secrets or bank account PINs—but I firmly believe that sharing is caring. These two posts are sort of like the blogging version of ‘take a penny, leave a penny’. Here are my pennies. Feel free to contribute your own in the comments below and we'll all be a little wealthier for it.

While I focused on secondhand/antique goods primarily in this 2-part series, there are a million and one additional home décor stores and shops in the Greater Philadelphia. I encourage anyone reading to explore the area and support local businesses, small and large!

Estate Sales/Consignment Stores:

The first place to start when searching for estate sale listings is EstateSales.net, which allows you to search for upcoming sales by date or location (much like AuctionZip.com) and to preview some of the contents of each sale. I've also found Craigslist is a good resource for estate sale listings under the ‘Garage and Moving Sales’ category.

If you’re more interested in searching through an already-culled selection of furniture and décor, I recommended checking out Serle and Karr Antiques (formerly The Great Antique and Estate Contends Warehouse) in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. We found the extra-large abstract painting in our living room there for practically a song.

Farther from the city, you will find two large consignment shops specializing in antiques and high-end furniture. The first, Home Furnishing Consignment, is located in Devon and I pop in every month or so to see what's new. In the past I've seen upholstered pieces from Cisco Brothers and Baker.

Another Main Line consignment shop, Resellers Consignment, boasts a great deal of inventory. I've been three times and while I haven't purchased anything yet, there is a lot to look at!

My estate sale/consignment store recommendations:
EstateSales.net

Serle and Karr Antiques (formerly The Great Antique and Estate Contents Warehouse)
48 W. Queen Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19144

Home Furnishing Consignment
139 E. Swedesford Road (in the Gateway Shopping Center)
Wayne, PA 19087

Resellers Consignment Gallery
480 Lancaster Avenue
Frazer, PA 19355

Antique Shops:
Antique shops can be a tricky lot. For one, if you’re new to the world of antiquing it can be difficult to know if you’re getting a fair price on an item. Secondly, shops aren't the best advertised or easiest to find on the internet because—I’m convinced—their owners are often living in the past with their antiques! All that said: here are a few antique shops worth checking out.

Phantastic Phinds is one antique shop with an owner aware of the power of the internet. Listings for items from PP regularly appear on Craigslist here in Philadelphia, which is how I found this shop. I visited for the first time in October and came home with a very cool wicker trunk and a few glass pieces.

Another tip I've picked up along the way when it comes to shopping antique stores is to find an area or a stretch of road where many shops are located. That way, you have more selection and can stop at many shops in one trip. The antique shops along Rt. 1 in Maine come to mind, as do the multiple shops in the Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania (such as the Pennsbury Chadds Ford Antique Mall, BrandywineView Antiques, and the Brandywine River Antiques Market).

My antique shop recommendations:

Phantasic Phinds
631 Bethlehem Pike
Erdenheim, PA 19038

Pennsbury Chadds Ford Antique Mall
640 E. Baltimore Pike
Chadds Ford, PA  19317

Brandywine View Antiques
1301 Brintons Bridge Road & Baltimore Pike (Rt 1)
Chadds Ford, PA 19317

Brandywine River Antiques Market
878 Baltimore Pike
Chadds Ford, PA 19317

Fabric Stores:

A few blocks south of our former apartment is Philadelphia’s Fabric Row, a series of independently-owned fabric shops that are stocked to the gills with fabric, trim and notions at reasonable prices. You’re not necessarily going to find high-end designer fabrics here (for that, work with a decorator at the Marketplace Design Center in Center City), but you may stumble upon vintage fabric deadstock at Paul’s Draperies or the Pennsylvania Fabric Outlet. I've had luck at Adler’s Fabrics (where I purchased cotton velvet for my box cushion bench) as well as B. Wilk. I encourage local readers to support small shops like these!

My fabric store recommendations:
Philadelphia's Fabric Row (visit website for full listing of shops)

Marketplace Design Center
2400 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Paul's Draperies
737 S. 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

Pennsylvania Fabric Outlet
758 S. 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

Adler's Fabrics
742 S. 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147

B. Wilk Fabrics
618 & 714 S. 4th Street
Philadelphia PA 19147

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Over the past two days, I've offered some of my favorite local places to shop for unique vintage and secondhand finds for my home. I hope you've enjoyed these posts and find them a resource! I enjoyed compiling these, and really want to thank my readers for encouraging me to share my recommendations.

Please feel free to contribute any great recommendations you have, too!