The Retro Blog

San Francisco has been pretty good to me the last few years. Pricey, but good. The time is coming for me to move on (more on that later), but before I go I thought I’d do a roundup of San Francisco’s vintage furniture stores.

X21 – This is my favorite store for browsing. In addition to an excellent selection of vintage furniture, it was a lot of fun oddities like movie props, science equipment, and other inexplicable bits of weirdness. Need a rideable bear salvaged from an old carousel? How about a 4 1/2 foot tennis racquet or dilophosaurus head to mount on your wall? Notice I say that I come here to browse. Despite how necessary it is for me to own a naked mermaid coffee table I really can’t afford to shop here.

Thrift Town (2101 Mission St at 17th St) - If I had to use one word to describe Thrift Town it would be dirty. It’s a two story mega thrift store in a slightly seedy section of the Mission District. My most interesting thrift store find ever happened at this place. It was a taxidermy pigeon. Grossness aside, this is the kind of place where you occasionally get really lucky and find a nice piece of vintage furniture for really cheap. It’s a step up from Goodwill but with similar prices. They always seem to have a bunch of nice old steel case desks that I would love to own.

Farnsworth (393 Valencia St at 15th St) – Very good collection of Danish mid-century modern stuff.

Alemany Flea Market (100 Alemany Blvd) – There was a time when I was going to the Alemany flea market every Sunday. It usually has a lot of great vendors selling vintage furniture at prices much lower than you’ll find at most of the stores on the list. Be sure to bring cash!

San Francisco Antique & Design Mall (701 Bayshore Blvd) – A very large building filled with stalls from many different antique dealers, including a lot of nice retro furniture. It’s conveniently located across the street from the Alemany flea market.

Past Perfect (2230 Union St between Fillmore St & Steiner St) – A good sized consignment shop that’s better than its companion shop at 2246 Lombard Street.

Mickeys’ Monkey (218 Pierce St between Haight St & Page St) – Their web site says that this place “specializes in low-priced fine used furniture, antiques, knickknacks, kitsch, and collectibles. Eclectic. Eccentric. Idiosyncratic. Perhaps a little neurotic and just plain weird.” Just my kinds of place.

The Touch (956 Valencia St between 21st St & Liberty St) – I want to sing like Dirk Diggler when I hear the name of this store. It has a lot of mid-century modern stuff of varying quality.