“I love helping people define themselves in their living spaces and with their clothing.”

Barbara Johnson is the owner of Reveille Rustics and Relics, a vintage home goods, fashion, and furniture business that has booth spaces in four antique malls in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She also participates in local pop up markets including Vintage Market Days and co-hosts a podcast, Dead People’s Things!, about estate sales with her two best friends.

Barbara grew up shopping secondhand as the daughter of Airforce parents, visiting small flea markets in Europe. She still remembers spending Fridays in the summer converting her $5 allowance into English currency so she and her friends could walk to the flea market in the small town where they lived.

Her love of thrift extended into adulthood as the mother of four. Shopping secondhand at thrift stores and garage sales helped keep her kids clothed in an affordably. She worked in the nonprofit/social work field most of her adult life and actually managed a thrift store for a local nonprofit agency for several years.

In 2014, she started Reveille Rustics and Relics with her college-aged daughter to help pay for school. When her daughter graduated college and started her own career, Barbara continued reselling alongside her “day job,” until 2022, when she left it to pursue selling vintage full-time. Her aesthetic combines mid-century, boho, world traveler, rustic, and industrial. She and her husband love combing the highways and byways for furniture projects, vintage home goods and clothing, art, and interesting things to repurpose into something unique for their customers. She sources from local thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales, as well as Facebook Marketplace. When she travels, she maps out thrift stores along the way and she always leaves room in her truck or suitcase to bring back treasures.

Barbara loves meeting her customers at pop-up markets and when she is working in the malls where her booths are located. When someone finds that special piece to add personality to their home or wardrobe, it makes her day!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS & TAKEAWAYS:

  • Her memories of thrifting as a young girl in Europe.
  • How she turned her love of thrifting and repurposing into a full-time business.
  • Creative furniture repurposing and upcycling.
  • How she sources from thrift stores, estate sales, antique malls, garage sales, as well as Facebook Marketplace.
  • How she embraces her eclectic style.
  • All about her podcast, Dead People’s Things.