BY DESIGN : Lost and Found

“Decorating your home is like good sex,” Susan Ashbrook says. It takes a lot of time and patience to get it just right.

The recycled objects throughout her two-bedroom, Craftsman-style bungalow in Venice were found over many years--on routine scouting missions to garage sales, thrift shops and flea markets. They add up to the kind of place where friends and house guests linger.

When Ashbrook, a publicist for the Donahue Group in Beverly Hills, was in her 20s, “Everything was about instant gratification.” Now in her 30s, “I have the patience to wait for something great.”

Among her most memorable finds are a gaggle of American-made green vases with identical glazes from the 1930s, and a vanity plucked from a thrift shop near her home.

Thrift shopping takes a strong commitment, says Ashbrook, who does “drive-bys” of her favorite spots almost daily. But, above all, it requires confidence in your personal style. When she left one shop with a bunch of glass grapes rendered in the form of a lamp, people laughed, pronouncing it exceptionally ugly. If only they could see it now--wired to illuminate her garden.

Sources

* Boys and Girls Club of Venice Thrift Shop, 2304 Lincoln Blvd., Venice; (310) 391-6301.

* Nine Lives, 507 Rose Ave., Venice; (310) 396-1627.

* The Salvation Army Thrift Shop, 11160 Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 836-8344.