I'm at a vintage shop or an estate sale at least once a week — not always because I need something, just because that's how I operate. I search estate sales and go when something looks worth the trip. I stop into shops regularly because you never know what's just come in. But something shifts this time of year. The floors change. The sidewalks outside the shops fill up. What's flooding in right now, in May, is outdoor and porch furniture. Wicker. Rattan. Scrolled iron. Bar carts. The pieces that spent the winter in someone's basement or storage unit are suddenly everywhere, and if you know what you're looking at, this is one of the best times of year to shop it.
My back porch is full. Between the back porch and the pergola, I can seat twelve people outside comfortably — eight on the porch, four at the pergola table, two more at the concrete bench. I am genuinely not in the market for any of this. But I'm still photographing things every time I walk past something good, because I can't help it and because some of it is too good not to talk about.
Here's what I'm seeing, what I'd grab, and what I already have enough of.
Wicker and Rattan: Buy It Every Time
Vintage wicker and rattan are everywhere right now, and the quality of older pieces almost always beats what you'd find new at twice the price. Shops like Retro Wanderlust, Carousel and Folk, Clarabel, and Style Society are well stocked with it right now — chairs, planters, mirrors, bar carts — and estate sales are producing it constantly as people clear out garages and sunrooms for the season.
What to look for: solid construction, tight weave, frames that aren't soft or crumbling. A little paint wear is fine. Peeling or broken wicker is usually not worth the repair unless the piece is truly exceptional. White painted wicker is having a major moment and works beautifully on a porch — I have two white rattan chairs from Style Society on my back porch that I reach for constantly. The natural rattan chairs are from Retro Wanderlust. Neither set matches the other, and that's exactly the point.
My Victorian wicker wingback chair on the front porch came from an estate sale. It has a heart cutout in the back, scroll details everywhere, and absolutely no business being as perfect as it is. That's the kind of piece you don't find new. You find it at an estate sale and you put it in your car before you talk yourself out of it.
Find Furnish had a rattan bar cart recently — big spoked wheels, looped detail work, the whole thing — that was one of the best things I'd seen in months. It sold fast, which is exactly what happens with the good stuff. If you see a well-made vintage bar cart at a shop or estate sale, don't overthink it.
The wicker corner shelf in my sunroom came from a Style Society estate sale for $25. It arrived filthy — a toothbrush and dish soap situation — but underneath the grime was a perfectly intact piece that now holds geodes and a verdigris urn and looks like it's always been there. That's the thing about vintage wicker: it cleans up. Don't let a little dirt talk you out of a good find.
Iron: Underrated and Worth Hunting
Scrolled iron outdoor furniture doesn't get talked about enough. It's durable, it develops a patina that only gets better over time, and it mixes beautifully with wicker and rattan without competing. Retro Wanderlust has had a great iron bistro set out front recently — round white table, ladder-back chairs with brass finials — that illustrates exactly what I mean. These sets show up constantly at estate sales and shops this time of year and work on any porch or patio.
My pergola dining set is iron — glass top table, scrolled chairs — and it came from Facebook Marketplace. Which brings me to a sourcing tip people overlook: Facebook Marketplace is genuinely excellent for outdoor furniture. People move, they downsize, they want it gone before summer. Search it regularly. The iron dining set under my pergola cost a fraction of what it would have new and looks like it's been there for decades, which is exactly what I wanted.
Speaking of Facebook Marketplace — the two bentwood cane rocking chairs in my sunroom came from there too. Two different sellers, opposite ends of the city, under fifty dollars for the set. That's the kind of find that makes the whole thing worth it.
What to look for with iron: check the welds, make sure the table surface isn't warped, wiggle the chairs to test for stability. Surface rust is fine and treatable. Rust at the joints is a harder conversation.
What I Already Have Enough Of
The metal mushrooms. I have them and I think they're charming — the ones in my front yard are pathway lights, and I have a ceramic pair tucked next to the peonies that I love. But I know my number. A few weeks ago I had a day in Northeast that started at Find Furnish for pottery and ended at Antiquified, where I picked up three mushrooms for the bamboo table on the back porch and called it good. There is a shop near me with an entire yard of painted metal creatures — giraffes, roosters, carousel horses, mushrooms in every size — and I walk through it regularly without buying anything, which is its own kind of discipline.
If you love yard art, there is genuinely no shortage of it right now. Go forth. But know your number.
It Takes Time, Not Money
My back porch has been four years in the making and I'd call it done now, which is not something I say lightly. The wicker planter came from an estate sale. The bamboo tray table came from an estate sale. The rocking chair is from Goodwill. The natural rattan chairs are from Retro Wanderlust. The white chairs are from Style Society. The sofa and a few other pieces are new. It's a mix — it always is — and it came together one good find at a time over four years of showing up and paying attention.
Nothing out there matches in the traditional sense. It just works because the pieces are good and the instincts behind choosing them are consistent.
If you're starting from scratch, start with one thing. A great vintage chair changes a porch. You don't need to overhaul everything at once. You just need to show up, know what you're looking at, and move reasonably fast when something good is in front of you.
The good stuff doesn't wait around. I've watched it happen.
