Junk junkies and thrift sifters descend on Farm Chicks Vintage Fair

At Farm Chicks Vintage and Handmade Fair, one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure.

In fact, for the thousands of women – and handfuls of men – who perused the more than 100 shops selling all manner of antiques, handmade signs, jewelry, knickknacks, furniture and anything else worth a price tag at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center on Sunday, trash and treasure went hand in hand. Literally.

“We’re building a mantle,” said Gloria Larson, who was hauling along a cart full of old wooden newel posts, their paint chipped and peeling. “I come here for ideas.”

Larson and her daughter Gretchen make the trip every year from Missoula. Larson purposefully tracks down broken items to repurpose and sell.

“I’m a dumpster diver,” she admitted.

Before heading back home, the pair were looking to fill up an entire truck bed with “ideas.”

“It will be full by the end of today,” Larson remarked.

It’s a common theme at the fair: treasure hunting through trash. And especially so for the hundreds of curators who lugged their wares in large trailers or rented U-Hauls and put them on display in a showroom-style setup akin to an Ikea furniture warehouse.

Renee Cebula and her vintage teardrop trailer sporting the sign “Bring happy hour home” drew a large crowd of curious onlookers as they stopped to gawk at the ornate display of vintage barware.

Her business, Raising the Bar, specializes in finding old cocktail glasses, bar memorabilia and other drinking-related items.

“I think of myself as the barware rescue person,” she said. “I will find a new and loving home.”

As people looked through their wares, shopkeepers were happy to field questions about how they got into collecting and why. But when the line of inquiry drifted too close to where exactly the items were found, they’d offer a generality instead.

“Everyone has their secrets,” explained Jane Wood, the curator of Boulevard Mercantile on North Monroe Street.

Jennifer Massie, the owner of Atomic Aqua – a storefront selling midcentury home goods that look straight out of an episode of “I Love Lucy” – finds her items “from a circuit of thrift stores” she visits.

She sells all of her items on Etsy, where she finds that millennials have taken a liking to the “simplicity” of that era’s design.

But it’s Farm Chicks she looks forward to each year, especially since it gives her a chance to show off her interior design chops.

“Most of us do this because we love collecting” she said. “But we also love styling. It’s fun to take what we love and put it together in a way that people appreciate.”