Do you love things with a past? If you’ve been stuck in a thrift shop for hours examining old cups and found items that speak to your sentimental soul, you’ll love incorporating a vintage aesthetic in your home — plus, it’s easy and cost-effective to create.
What Is Vintage Charm?
Vintage objects are “old” but not always antique, meaning something older than a hundred years. You can think of vintage as a feel or aesthetic based on the history of anything you add to your home.
For the right look, you want to add things that look like they have a story to tell, as if you went on a great adventure to find each item. While you can find such items at yard sales and thrift stores, you don’t need an elaborate story about where you found them. You’re building a visual feel in your home that says you love honoring things that have lived.
6 Ways to Achieve a Vintage Aesthetic at Home
Try these tips for achieving vintage-inspired interior design.
1. Turn Vintage Frames into Vertical Planters
Secondhand shops, markets and charity stores often have unusual items at great prices. Scoop up some mismatched frames, remove the glass and backing, and apply a clear varnish or paint them all in a single color. Replace the frame’s glass with a mesh screen to grow some succulents through, and mount your new vertical planters on your porch wall.
Your outdoor gallery wall does not need to be linear and formal. Have fun with some jaunty angles and a few yellowed mirrors to reflect light and love to all who visit your home.
2. Maximize Your Foyer
Create a stunning space in your home’s entryway by adding a large brass mirror from a yard sale and some family photos framed opposite it. Alternatively, you can mount an old ornamental gate to the wall. Apply a clear sealant and hang some candles from it with a few air ferns to invite nature to your home.
3. Repurpose Building Materials in Your Kitchen
Revive a tired ceiling with repurposed steel beams by mounting them on a wall or running them across the ceiling. You can also change them into table legs for your breakfast nook. Put out some matching brass kettles and pots to complete the look.
Building sites are a treasure trove where you can find aged materials that contractors strip out to renovate a building. You might find classic tiles for a backsplash, hardwood beams, or stair railings that you can include in the kitchen as a backdrop or butcher block counter.
Brass fittings can also add some elegance to your kitchen as cupboard hardware. Even if these aren’t matching sets for all your cupboards, they’ll work if they follow a common theme, and a little mismatching can add a fun quirky touch.
4. Light Up Your Living Room
The living room area has so much potential. You can include vintage furniture items and even upholster them. Bold antique-looking mirrors are always a winner but don’t neglect that unique artwork at the local thrift shop or the anchor rope you salvaged from the harbor.
Light up the space with beautiful lamps to add some moodiness to your space. Lamps are considered vintage if they’re 20-100 years old, making them easier to find than rare antique lamps.
5. Reclaim Bathroom Hardware
Why buy expensive bathroom fittings when you can add personality with brass taps and spouts? If you’re handy, a quick inspection at the architectural salvage store will tell you whether a unique plumbing item will fit your current setup.
Reclamation sites and organizations like Habitat for Humanity are excellent places to look. You’re in luck if you can find a cast iron bathtub at a salvage site, but make sure the enamel isn’t chipped or stained, as re-enameling is costly.
6. Go on a Treasure Hunt for Wooden Flooring
Wood flooring is popular and for good reason — it’s beautiful and durable. Advertise in your local classifieds or community groups for wooden flooring. Repurposed flooring is a vintage must-have. Whether you install it as a floor or turn the wood into a large tabletop, it’s a special item. Do remember that the rarer the wood, the more you’re likely to pay for it.
Considerations for Vintage Home Lovers
Before you purchase an item, consider the following:
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How much will refinishing costs be?
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Does it fit with your overall aesthetic?
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Can you display it to its full potential, or do you have space to store it for a later project?
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Is it a safe item, and did you inspect it carefully for bug infestation, rot and mold?
Vintage Value for a Home With Many Stories
The unique hunt for items that carry a history is thrilling, and repurposing or upcycling items is a great way to reduce waste. Give vintage items a new life while adding elegance and mystery to your home.
