Quirky Thrift Store Finds Give This New Build a Personal Touch

In the early days of the Clarks' relationship, Bianca got Ryan into thrifting and antiquing. “I was one of those kids who would go to Goodwill and get a whole outfit and cut up clothes,” she says. Thrifting and antiquing are hobbies she inherited from her mother, who’s a designer. Bianca helped Ryan decorate his first apartment and he’s been into it ever since. Here, they take us on a tour of their three-bedroom house in the new Trilith community (formerly Pinewood Forest) outside Atlanta, south of the airport. Trilith is adjacent to a movie studio, Trilith Studios (formerly Pinewood Atlanta Studios), where Marvel and other major films have been shot. So the community tends to have its share of creatives and has even hosted an actor or two.

“I just love the traditional feeling of walking into a foyer,” Bianca says, so she asked the developers to turn the home’s staircase to create that space in the entryway. The expandable bench along the wall is one of the couple’s many thrifted finds, and creates a lovely platform for an in-home jungle. “I love the energy plants bring to a space,” Bianca says. Ryan is the house gardener: He’s got the green thumb and is always bringing home more plants.

The couple’s dining room table, a 1938 Conant Ball gem, was a mess when Ryan found it listed for free on Facebook Marketplace. It had been used as a craft table for a woman’s grandchildren. He carefully restored and refinished it into the beauty it is today. The chairs were a steal of a find, as well: They’re Eames DKR for Herman Miller, and can retail for as much as several hundred dollars apiece, but the Clarks found them at thrift store prices.

Bianca typically starts with one beloved piece of furniture and designs the rest of a room around it. This West Elm sectional couch delineates the open living room from the dining area. The rug was sourced from RugsUSA.com, which she loves for its affordability — with two cats and two huskies, it’s safer to save the splurges for less vulnerable décor.

The Clarks bought the antlers on the coffee table — and those decorating other spaces in their house — from an antique store. “I love the texture antlers provide,” Bianca says. The wooden beads and incense burner were also vintage finds.

Bianca selected this HomeGoods-sourced painting because its blue streak perfectly matches the seat cushions on the dining room chairs. The painting provides the perfect dash of color to an otherwise neutral room, and ties together the open plan dining and living spaces.

The Clarks had a lot of say in some of the finer details of the home, including the choice of this exact piece of reclaimed wood for the fireplace mantel. Bianca went to the warehouse to peruse the options and selected it herself.

Bianca calls this guy “Mr. Cow.” She took this photo with her iPhone at the Cliffs of Moher on vacation in Ireland last year. “We were really sad that day because we couldn’t actually see the cliffs because it was too foggy, but I got this really epic picture of this cow and I just loved it so much.” As a gift, her mother had the image printed onto canvas, which adds great texture to the photograph.

Ryan is a radio frequency engineer, and works from this home office created from a flex space. To distinguish this previously open space without totally closing it off, they decided to add a partial glass wall. The glass case holds Ryan’s knickknacks, and is situated on top of a thrifted shoe shipping box Bianca says was once a movie prop.

This iron bedframe from Room & Board was a dream piece for Bianca, who says she’s always wanted a bed like this. She likes how the bedroom feels both dramatic and cozy, with its lofted ceiling and peppercorn walls. “Even though we have so many windows in there, we can make it really dark and cozy,” she says.

The Clarks found this pairs of nightstands at an antique store, and thrifted the lamps. Their midcentury modern style balances out the more contemporary touches of the rest of the room, like the painting Clark found at Target.

The dark colors in this gorgeous half bathroom are a striking difference compared with the light, neutral colors around the rest of the house. “I wanted to be a little more dramatic in [the guest bathroom], because everywhere else in our house was very neutral,” Bianca says. “I wanted our guests, when they opened the door to be like, ‘whoa, this is completely different.’”

Bianca picked out these pendant lights when the home was under construction to give the open kitchen a boho, chic vibe. The stools, which she bought from Home Goods, were selected to match.

The original plan for the kitchen was to have cabinets covering the entire back wall, but Bianca chose to add in two small windows instead, and to build in a pantry instead of stacked cabinets. The concrete island is topped with a marble countertop, and the whole kitchen has a sleek, neutral color scheme that keeps it feeling bright, airy and open.

Bianca says she originally had different plans for this spare bedroom, but since she and Ryan have decided to sell their house and build a bigger one, they’ve kept it simple. Even still, with a huge leather couch that’s super-comfy and perfect for naps, she and Ramos spend most of their downtime in here. The colorful canvas painting that brightens the room was a $15 thrift store find.

Bianca loves this horse statue she found at an antique store for the dramatic flair it brings to the guest room. It's immediately visible when you walk in the door, she says. These beautiful old suitcases were thrifted and make quite a statement as well as a practical storage option.

Bianca designed this guest bedroom around the two yellow chairs to the right. Almost the whole room was pieced together from lucky vintage finds: Ryan built the bedframe by hand and then added a headboard and midcentury legs they thrifted. Bianca matched the plant and the accent pillows to the chairs, then added the framed coffee bean bag and two layered rugs for additional texture. The trunks serve as storage for Bianca's art supplies.

The Clarks found this unique filing cabinet in Senoia, Georgia, the town where The Walking Dead is filmed. It came from an old office building there, but Ryan uses it to store and organize tools. Bianca says they love the industrial feel it lends to the room.

Bianca and Ryan made a project out of designing a living space in their patio area earlier this year when the pandemic hit and they started spending a lot more time at home. They made this white, wooden storage bench, and hung string lights on the wall to give it a cozier vibe for entertaining friends outdoors.