Mike Wolfe's Top 8 Secrets for Smart Vintage Shopping
The star of American Pickers shares his best tricks for scoring good finds and working them into your decor.
The star of American Pickers shares his best tricks for scoring good finds and working them into your decor.
Secrets From an American Picker
As the co-host of American Pickers on the HISTORY channel, Mike Wolfe has made a living doing what he loves most: Following dirt roads through sleepy towns across America in search of cobweb-covered gems from bygone eras. For Mike, these finds aren't things; they're stories. Some he sells at his shop, Antique Archaeology (with locations in Nashville and LeClaire, Iowa), a few he sets aside for design clients, and many find their way to his Leiper's Fork, Tennessee, home, where every room is filled with country character.
In this photo: Mike, his wife Jodi, and their daughter Charlie pose in front of their home. Mike bought the gas pump for $800 on a picking trip in Virginia. It had been locked in a semi trailer for more than 20 years.
1. Old barns have the all-time best picks...
"Like this light fixture, which came from an Ohio barn. I got my start as a picker by combing through farms for old bicycles. When the antiques dealers found out barns were my top source, they asked me to buy other items too."
2. ...but old factories are also cool.
"My batteries get charged by looking at old things in new ways. Take these lockers from a factory. I imagine a worker clocking in: The last thing he wanted to see was this locker. Now I'm happy to see them when I come home. That's cool to me."
3.Hit the back roads.
"Pennsylvania is my favorite state for picking. It's town after town and dirt road after dirt road. Plus, everything is so much older. That weather vane came out of an attic in a sixth-generation-owned house. It blew off the barn in 1938. I've found my best picks by driving to the middle of nowhere, then taking the first gravel road I see."
In this photo: On a pick in Minnesota, Mike bought this 1915 Excelsior from the great-great-grandson of the original owner.
4. Turn trash into treasure.
"These 1920s oilcans obviously aren't living in a space they were made for. You would've found them on the floor of a service station garage. Put them on a living room shelf with other auto memorabilia, though, and suddenly they take on prized-possession status."
5. Build a room around a great find.
"I've always loved old phones. When I found this one, I decided to turn this closet into a phone booth. I'm still on the search for the perfect phone. This one's vintage, but I want an even older one. Sometimes you have to wait for the right thing to come along."
6. Listen to fate.
"Before Charlie was born, I always had a thing for vintage kids' cowboy boots. I once found a pair, but I sold them and immediately regretted doing so. When Jodi was pregnant, I found a second pair. It felt like fate, so I started collecting them."
7. A little "old" goes a long way.
"Most of the bathroom is new, so I brought in a vintage Stetson cowboy hat ad and displayed Jodi's hats on antique millinery stands to incorporate found objects. Just one layer of vintage accessories is all it takes to give a new room old soul."
8. Look for multiples.
"They can be really cool when done right. I like to display objects with similar textures, time periods, and genres for visual continuity. In my office, each shelf has a theme: bikes, motorcycles, aviation, and cars. It's easy to go overboard, though, so I like to stick to just one spot."
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