The Delights of Antiquing on Telegraph

As a little kid, I hated anything and everything that was “old”- from black and white movies to old toys and old styled clothes. How naïve I was.

Antiques are items that are unique, beautiful (mostly), and valuable. They acquire value naturally because they’ve survived the destructive forces of time. They are unlike today’s things and often of a much better quality too, especially when it comes to furniture.

So, though I love visiting Ikea as much as the next golden bear, and though I stalk the Free & For Sale page religiously, I absolutely love venturing out into the dusty, musty, and occasionally lopsided hidey-holes that are antique stores.

After two years at Berkeley, I finally set out last week to see a bit of what the antique stores of Telegraph Avenue have to offer.

South on Telegraph towards Oakland, I came across the Antique Center at Telegraph and 66th. If you’ve ever ventured into the attic of a very old house, then you’ll well understand the style of this Telegraph curiosity shop. The barn-red house is almost always overflowing with merchandise that is displayed from the sidewalk all the way through the front door. Inside the jumble of lamps, furniture, and knick-knacks teeter haphazardly all around and customers have to wind their way through tiny trails of open space. You’re constantly in danger of toppling one of the towers of stuff, but it’s wonderful. A bit like the room of requirement.

Three blocks south of here, there are three less obtrusive antique stores located side by side in a strip mall. The first was Mixed Pickles Antiques. This shop has a rather adorable window display, but it’s a bit too neat and has a few too many new items to feel like a true antique store. Still, it’s a very quaint little shop – a good intro point if you’re new to antiquing and don’t want to get swallowed by stuff.

Next door is the aptly named Little House of Hoarders. Besides winning the award for awesome-est store name, this shop also features a cornucopia of collectibles. Anyone may hoard to their heart’s content. Finally, Antiques & Vintage Treasures (Total Estate Liquidation), left of Little House, is an estate liquidation store with a large volume of furniture. Unfortunately these three shops were closed mid-afternoon on a Tuesday!

The next store on my list was called The East Bay Depot for Creative Refuse. Maybe its name gives it away, but this store certainly wouldn’t classify itself as antique store in most ways. In fact, its goal is to conserve resources by diverting goods (that would otherwise be thrown away) to the store where they can be resold as art supplies. It’s more like a cross between a massive garage sale and dump site, in the very best sense, featuring the old, obscure, odd, and often tossed out. It’s excellent for crafting or artistic projects as well as finding interesting gadgets that can used for their original purposes – things like books and kitchenware or other peoples’ family photographs.

Right across the street from that is the Temescal Community Thrift Store, which recently left behind its humble beginnings in an old office building to take on a grander future in a neighboring, cape-cod style building. It’s hard to miss as it very closely resembles a princess-pink toy house. The front of the store features nicer more “antique-like” items, including gilded furniture and a giant, classic Mickey Mouse. But for those of us (me included) who can’t quite afford nicer items, there is also a massive thrift store around back which has everything from furniture to books and clothes (my thrift store weakness). It’s basic thrift-fare, to be sure, but on a larger scale than most stores in Berkeley.

I only made it as far as 47th Street, so there are a great many stores and awesome finds left unexplored. Antique shopping is the closest ordinary thing to real-life treasure hunting. Whether you are just browsing or are scouting out something very particular, you’re bound to stumble across apartment/dorm decor, gifts for friends (or yourself), and useful odds and ends you never even knew existed.