WASHINGTON — DIY decorating once was simple: Pick a style (modern, shabby chic, country craft), acquire its key accoutrements (chrome accents, weathered finishes, “Little House on the Prairie” ginghams), repeat until complete. But now savvy nesters no longer want to be defined by one look. Instead, they’re fusing high and low, old and new, classic and oddball for an effect that’s both chic and cheeky.

The trick to this aesthetic is a healthy collection of vintage pieces repurposed in unexpected ways, such as an old classroom map hung as artwork or laboratory beakers used as flower vases. We consulted four experts to learn the secrets to nabbing secondhand scores at a flea market, at a thrift store and online.

Flea market: Courting color

When Janet Morales and Stu Eli decamped from Brooklyn, N.Y., to suburban Washington a few years ago, the married couple realized that the quirky-cool pieces they were collecting for their new house might appeal to other hip homemakers, too. Their Reston, Va.-based Web store, Three Potato Four (www.three potatofourshop.com), soon earned a devoted following for its mom-and-pop feel and well-sourced selection of eclectic vintage objects unearthed at flea markets, antiques malls and other troves easily reached via the duo’s minivan. Sample wares: retro letters that once belonged to 1960s-era storefronts and Fiberglass classroom chairs.

On a recent Sunday, Eli and Morales unpack toddlers Holly, 4, and Otis, 1, and a few totes to tackle the Georgetown Flea Market.

“I start by quickly scanning for anything brightly colored,” says Eli, who within minutes has snagged an oversize red Tonka jeep for $18. “The bold color and retro shape make it a great display piece on a bookshelf,” he says. Working quickly around the market, they add two wooden lanterns ($18) and an antique washboard ($5). “I like that every piece has a story,” Morales says. “This washboard used to clean laundry, but now, it will be hung on someone else’s wall as art.”

Best advice: “Don’t get discouraged. It only takes one really great booth to make it a good day,” Eli says.

Thrift store: Reuse, rethink

As the owner of cozy Old Town Alexandria, Va., decor den Red Barn Mercantil, Amy Rutherford has a reputation for stocking a mix of hard-to-find new items and nifty secondhand finds. Shoppers can find such pieces as Thomas Paul’s vibrant patterned pillows and salvaged library card catalogs.

“I hit up any resource I can: thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls, auctions,” Rutherford says while pawing through piles of housewares at a neighborhood thrift store.

She pauses over a selection of silver serving dishes. “These pieces might be older, but they’re still very classic,” she says. “Stores are making reproductions of them now, but it’s easy to find the originals on the cheap.” Sweet antique teacups (about $5 each) also catch her eye; she’d use them as teensy planters.

“In thrift stores, patience is key,” Rutherford says. “You’ve got to scour the sections, move things around, look underneath them. That’s where you’ll find your treasure.” She pounces on an antique bank safety deposit box ($9) — “They’re great for storing everything from pencils to papers” — and two retro children’s records whose vibrant, illustrated album covers she plans to reframe as art for a kid’s space.

Best advice: “Always think outside the box on how to use an item. In fact, don’t even think about what it was made for; think of what it could be instead.”

Online: Key words are key

“I’m not the kind of person who likes to dig around an antique shop,” says Washington-based interiors maven Sally Steponkus. Instead, she browses for high-quality furnishings and display pieces being sold for little money on Craigslist. It’s where she scored the oversize, gilt-bamboo-framed mirror over her couch for just $25. “I would sell this myself for $4,000,” she says.

Her trick to shopping multi-merchant sites such as Craigslist or eBay is to be as specific as possible. Steponkus favors design-centric search terms such as “bamboo,” “antiqued,” “gilded” or “Greek key.”

“Just looking for something like ‘lighting’ is too vague,” she says. “You’re going to end up clicking through listings of junk. I’d try ‘sconce,’ ‘chandelier’ or ‘pendant lamp’ instead.”

Like all secondhand sources, the selection online is hit-or-miss, so it helps to check often. “No one has the time to stop by a store every day, but it’s easy to go online,” she says. Persistence helped Steponkus recently score a vintage bamboo dining set — six chairs, table, sideboard and bar — for $400, which she relacquered to be spotlighted in a designer show house.

Best advice: “Everything can be redone. A coat of bright paint, new upholstery, or adding trim or gilding can dramatically refresh an older piece.”