Thrifting for your Art Room

Who doesn't love a good thrifting session?! I've thrifted for many items in my art rooms over the years so thought I'd share some of the main things I look for.

Firstly, you need to know the regular price of items you're thrifting for. Sometimes (not very often) thrifted items are priced higher than brand new in stores, so just be aware. 

Secondly, I prefer to thrift exclusively at non-profit thrift stores: places like Goodwill (supports people with disabilities and barriers to employment). In my city we also have a wonderful award winning organization called 'Women in Need" and they operate a bunch of thrift stores. Proceeds go towards providing basic needs resources and support to low income women and their families. There's also a thrift store run by a local cat shelter, so proceeds from that go towards care for the rescue kitties. So I prefer to shop at these types of thrift stores. 

So, at the risk of creating more competition for my thrifting needs, here are my top items I like to hunt for! (All prices in Canadian dollars 🍁)

1. Artificial Flowers

Have you even shopped for these in a store- dang!! They are super pricey. I'm not talking about the cheap-o fake looking ones. I mean the good quality ones you see at Michaels or Winners/Homesense/TJ Maxx. Once in a while, I will find these thrifting and snap them up.

They are great for observational drawing with all ages. 

Sunflowers for a Van Gogh lesson!

I found these lovely roses for $3.50 and snapped them up!

                              

Here is my collection. The peach poppies are DIVINE. My kids love using them.

Some gorgeous tulips I found- great for a spring lesson. 

2. Pottery

If you've ever been to a pottery sale, then you know how expensive (and rightly so) hand made pottery is. The thrift store tends to have lots of variety of pottery. I like to buy plant pots for my classroom plants, as well as narrow cups to hold brushes/pens. I can also use these for samples when I teach pottery. These are usually between $1 - $3 which is a steal. 

3. Hair Dryers

Perfect to speed up paint drying process. Be sure to test them out in store to 

make sure they work. I usually google the brand as well. 

4. Ribbon

Check the prices on these- I'll only pick these up if it's a really cheap price. Try to see how much ribbon is left on the roll, as well. At Christmas, you can find pretty plaid ribbon to use in art projects. 

5. Fake Fruit

These are great for still life drawings. These were heavy and great quality/realistic 

but I passed on them. These are very easy to find at thrift stores. 

7. Still life Objects

The thrift store is a treasure trove of beautiful vases and jugs, perfect for a traditional still life composition. I keep an eye out for beautiful objects at great prices. 

8. Wooden spoons and spatulas

Perfect for lino printing. Check the prices because you can get them

brand new at Dollar stores as well. 

9. Vases/pots to hold paintbrushes.

If you like to have aesthetically pleasing colour schemes in your classroom, picking up a bunch of similarly coloured narrow ceramic plant pots is a cheap way to store brushes. 

Similarly, these metal plant pots are lightweight and unbreakable, so they are also great for storing brushes, etc. These are usually from IKEA and very common to find at thrift stores. 

10. YARN

So yarn isn't that expensive to begin with. But I do like to keep an eye out for fancier or more unique yarns at a great price. I've found some gorgeous hand dyed pure wool yarn over the years. 

11. Art Books

If you want to grow your art classroom library for cheap, check our the thrift stores! 

Books are usually no more than $1. You usually have to hunt because a lot of thrift stores don't categorize their books. 

I hope these were some helpful tips and ideas! 

Do you thrift for your classroom? What do you buy?