How to Incorporate Vintage Pieces into your Home

Vintage pieces help to tell a story in your homes. They may have been passed down or found unexpectedly. Each piece comes with a story, and I love that. Of course you don’t want your home to look like a museum, so today I’m going to share a few tips on how to incorporate vintage pieces into your home without looking to “museumy”. Yep…I just made up that word. I’m just going to go with it. Why not?!

Mixing Old and New

The cabinet in our kitchen houses a lot of my Rae Dunn pieces that I’ve been collecting over the years, but I wanted to mix in a few vintage pieces to give it a different overall look. A few years ago I inherited my grandparents pewter collection, so I wanted to showcase it in a way that made sense in our kitchen. I brought in a mixture of candle sticks, cups and a sugar and cream set and mixed it in with my Rae Dunn collection. I think the mixture of the old with the new gives these shelves a balanced feel.

I also have my grandmother’s antique Standard scale that has been in our family for many generations. A fun way to showcase vintage or antique items is under a cloche. For example, I stuck one of the pewter candle sticks under a more modern looking cloche from Ikea. It helps to balance out the gold accents in the frame above it and the gold on the scale. So don’t be afraid to mix metals when you’re decorating.

Did you Know?

Just a little note when it comes to vintage versus antique. To be considered an antique it has to be at least 100 years old. To be vintage it has to be anywhere from 20-99 years old. So in this case anything made in 1921 or earlier is now considered an antique.

Useful Features

Moving on to our foyer. I showcased this little area last week on my Instagram, and I wanted to give it a little moment here on the blog as well. Last Summer Chris and I were out antiquing in Charlotte and we found this cool vintage GE rotary telephone from the 40’s that actually works! I knew the perfect spot for it too. I can just picture many phone calls being taken under these stairs back in the day.

What do I mean by useful features? Well in this case, the phone is a useful tool if we actually had a landline still. Showcasing a vintage piece like an old telephone or an old record player are perfect ways to give your home a touch of nostalgia. A vintage piano would be another way to incorporate a vintage “useful feature” in your home.

Jewelry for Your Home

Another easy way to bring in vintage items to your home is what I like to call jewelry for your home. Fixtures like door handles, light switch plates, or even light fixtures are all considered “jewelry for your home”. It’s those finishing touches that really make a space personal. Like the icing on the cake. Because our home was built in 1876 we have plenty of antique and vintage jewelry all over our home. Over the Summer we were down in our basement and I just happened to find some vintage Federal mirror style light switch plates on a dusty old shelf and I immediately grabbed them. We had a few swithc plates that I wanted to “switch” them out for. A detail as simple as this will give your home that added touch that not every home has.

Here’s a look at the Federal mirror switch plates I found in our basement. From my research it looks like they were popular in the 50’s. This one I put in our hall bathroom upstairs. I really like the mix of toile wallpaper with the brass plates.

This one below is just inside the alcove between the dining room and kitchen door.

Vintage Art

Art is an easy way to bring in character along with personalization into your home. A few weeks ago I found these vintage art pieces at a local antique/consignment store. They weren’t necessarily meant to be a set but I thought they would look perfect stacked like this. At first I just brought home the lithograph, but then after I hung it up I knew I needed to go back and get the other watercolor to hang underneath it. The soft colors and the unique frames give this corner the life it needed in our formal sitting room.

Art is a very personal thing I think. You want to be sure you’re buying pieces that make you feel a certain way or inspire you in someway. We have many walls I can’t wait to fill up with art, but I think those pieces will take years to find. It’s definitely not something you rush to find in my opinion.

I love when decor has a story. If you’re out antiquing or thrifting see if you can get a better understanding of the history of the item your purchasing. Knowing that that item was used in a different space and a different time is so cool to me. Giving items a new life that you can later pass down to be appreciated is such an amazing feeling.

Where to Shop

Other than finding your local antique stores or taking a road trip to find fun shopping spots, remember you can always shop on Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Etsy, and even Mercari. Just be sure to do some research before purchasing something online to be sure the price is right compared to similar items you’ve seen. Also, do be afraid to negotiate either. If an item has been sitting for awhile the seller is most likely open for negotiation. It never hurts to ask.

In the off chance sometimes you can score vintage items at Goodwill. For example, I found this vintage sewting table and brass and marble lamp that I have in our powder room alcove. I really love chippy pieces, but you can certainly refinish them and restore them to their former glory as well.

I am still on the hunt for a matte black shade for this lamp. Don’t worry…I know this one is too small for it’s base.

Thank you so much for flying by today friend. I’d love to know if you’re a collector or if you love vintage & antiquing as well. Let me know what your latest find is!

xoxo,

Robyn