Hastings' Suburban Renewal is a find

• "It's not like a traditional retail store where you reorder your general stock"
• Lifrak knows at least 80 percent of her customers by name.
• She draws the line at furs and guns.

People shopping for antique furniture and vintage collectibles that date from the 1800s to the 1960s can find surprises around every corner at Suburban Renewal. And it doesn't matter how often you drop in on the two-story shop in Hastings-on-Hudson, because its merchandise can change as often as the wind.

"It's not like a traditional retail store where you reorder your general stock," says owner and antique lover Fonda Lifrak. "Never knowing what you're going to find is part of the fun. People bring in stuff every day. I love seeing what new and different things come in."

At any given time, Suburban Renewal carries mirrored vanities, lawn furniture, display tables, clocks, jewelry, martini shakers, toys, lamps, and intricately carved hutches and armoires. And there's always an assortment of fair-trade items from all over the world. Though Suburban Renewal is on the main drag of an upscale river town, Lifrak keeps the prices very affordable. "I'm not a high-end store," she says. "That's not who I want to be."

Just as styles in fashion come and go, so do trends in home furnishings and decorations. Lifrak says that mid-century modern (1950s and 1960s), rustic (shabby chic) and primitive (Art & Crafts) are now en vogue.

Forty percent of Suburban Renewal's wares come from dealers and 50 percent comes from consignments from the public. The rest is from what Lifrak has found herself. "I don't purposely go on buying trips," she says. "If I'm on vacation or happen to be in Vermont, I'll go antiquing. But I don't need to get things; things come to me."

To avoid slow-selling items and overflows of particular goods, Lifrak carefully picks and chooses her merchandise. Meanwhile, though, she's always on the hunt for bookcases, desks, mid-century modern furniture, book ends and table-top picture frames.

As with many specialty stores, Suburban Renewal deals in its share of quirky items. A while back, a woman bought its collection of ugly-doll heads to use as Halloween decorations; not long ago, a TV show's prop man snagged a four-foot-tall gumball machine; and a man recently brought in his whole inkwell collection. "I don't necessarily deal in oddities," Lifrak adds, "so I'm not looking for something so bizarre that it would be only a museum piece."

She draws the line at furs and guns.

Lifrak opened Suburban Renewal in 2002, looking for new horizons after 16 years in advertising and then more time in home decorating. "This seemed liked a good marriage between decorating and my love of antiques," she says. Her shop occupies the space that was once a beauty parlor, clothing stores and the locally famous Ben-Sun shoe store.

She initially learned the business as she went along. In those early days of the Internet, she did her research by visiting other antique stores and relying on her experienced eye for décor. It also helped that she lived in Hastings and was familiar with the area's homes and the types of furnishings people were buying.

Twelve years later, Lifrak knows at least 80 percent of her customers by name and is familiar with their tastes and needs. Suburban Renewal is, as Lifrak puts it, "a neighborhood store for neighborhood people," as opposed to weekend antiquers. Nonetheless, customers flock in from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Riverdale, Yonkers, New Jersey and Connecticut thanks to word of mouth, the store's Facebook page and her daily postings on Craigslist (under Westchester antiques).

Lifrak's no-tech method of using paper ledgers to track inventory adds to Suburban Renewal's charm. She's investigated computer programs, but they were overly expensive and wouldn't have saved her enough time enough to invest in them.

In the end, Suburban Renewal is all about fun. "Lots of people come in wanting one thing and leave with something else," says Lifrak. "The best antiquing is when I happen on a shop, poke around, think I know what I'm looking for but end up buying something else. It's a treasure hunt!"

If you go:

Suburban Renewal, 1 Main St., Hastings-on-Hudson. 914-478-9421. 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; call ahead on Sunday.