If you have been here a while or seen our home here or on Instagram, you might not believe me if I told you 6 years ago I was all about the mid-century modern design aesthetic. I wanted Eames and Herman Miller everywhere. I was 100% into it. But, just as fashion and hairstyles change and evolve along with our tastes, so does interior design.
We moved into our home in December of 2019 and it was a completely new slate for us. We sold every bit of our furniture from our first home to start fresh. My dream was always to decorate and design our home that was perfect for us. I wasn’t comfortable enough in our former home yet to tackle it completely. I’m not sure what it was. For one, I hadn’t researched, read and delved into the interior design world a whole lot yet. But the more I watched HGTV —yes I gained inspiration and motivation from HGTV!—and once I joined the ranks of Instagram in 2019, the more I learned and jumped in feet first. I read books, followed designers and read blogs from professionals. And so my passion and desire for home design grew.
With that, I had decided I wasn’t as big a fan—for our home—of mid-century modern. I wanted more bold colors and rich woods. I wanted brushed golds and painted vanities. But over the last year I have started to appreciate the timelessness of antique and vintage pieces, mixing old and new. I have always been an art lover (especially since I have an art background) and vintage art just evokes storytelling and nostalgia like modern and mass produced art cannot. The same can be said for vintage and antique furniture.
At the same time, I don’t want to change my entire house from modern to vintage, but to mesh old with new into a home that tells our story. The great thing about timeless pieces is that they can work well with almost any design style, especially modern.
The most livable interiors are those that can’t be pinned to a specific era or decade, but integrate elements from the history of home design. The desire to mix old and new can be sparked by the architecture (or lack thereof) of your home, an heirloom, or a thrift store or Facebook Marketplace crush.
Here are some tips for mixing modern and antique furniture to create a layered interior that transcends time.
Find balance
“A home should be a collection of things you love and find meaningful, not a catalog of coordinated furniture. That said, it helps to spread the patina throughout a space so that the juxtaposition between old and new feels fresh and surprising rather than shabby,” says interior designer Erin Williamson of Erin Williamson Design.
If you stick around and follow my Instagram, you’ll know that this is my philosophy: Always, always design and decorate thoughtfully. Only use things you love and that bring you joy. Have pieces that tell a story, if not your story. That being said, it is important to keep in mind scale in a space. This means that no element should overpower or clash with other ones in the room’s layout. For example, most dark, heavy wood pieces don’t float comfortably and would be happiest on or near a wall.
Light and leggy pieces should be placed next to items that are heavier so that the room doesn’t feel nervy and uncomfortable. A balance of proportion across a space offers a lot of leeway to go bold with prints, colors, finishes, and styles.
Form & Function
When considering whether to integrate an older piece into a modern design, consider both form and function. Antiques often display fine craftsmanship that is harder to come by today and feature intricate wood carving or decorative flourishes that you won’t find in run-of-the-mill modern-day furniture.
Make sure you are all about playing with your lines, making sure you have a healthy mix of streamlined and curves. In our dining room I integrated this vintage buffet with intricate design elements, scrolls and curves with our streamlined modern walnut dining table and chairs.
Cohesive elements
Creating a cohesive space involves several things starting with wood tones. To pair different wood pieces together seamlessly use woods in the same tone. Warms with warms, cools with cools. Also similar hues. You probably don’t want to mix walnut and cherry.
If you already have a color scheme in your modern decor, consider adding muted colors in vintage tones such as antique brass or patina silvers.
Use accessories to tie everything together. Vintage vases, modern art prints, and an antique rug can coexist beautifully when you find a common color palette or theme.
Play with textures and patterns to create depth. Pair a modern leather sofa with vintage velvet pillows. Drape a geometric, modern throw over an antique wooden chair. In our office we used a vintage Chesterfield sofa with a modern rug and table.
Finding vintage decor
The easiest and most cost effective way to find vintage and antique pieces is Facebook Marketplace, antique stores, estate sales and thrift stores. Handsdown. Obviously another great way is to inherit pieces.
I recently gave my tween son’s room a makeover and turned it from modern and more child-like to vintage and timeless—per his request. As you can see, his furniture before was very modern and new. I sold every piece of furniture in the room—including that big modern table lamp—and bought all the vintage furniture on FBMP. Since his previous furniture was newer, I was able to sell it for more than many of the pieces I bought to replace it and ended up making a $400 profit! WIN! So adding vintage also has it’s advantages. You can read here about best tips and practices to buy and sell on FBMP.
You can see how I also integrated his modern bed into the space and used the same wood tones. I honestly didn’t want to hassle with selling this bed and taking it apart to move out of the room so I decided it would work seamlessly with the design. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!
Vintage & collected art
Vintage art is one of the easiest and most impactful ways to add vintage to any space. As you already know, I am an artist and have loved art all my life. When I got married I learned that Andy’s grandmother was a very good artist and when she passed in 2020 we inherited so many wonderful pieces of hers. They are truly pieces that embody my philosophy of telling a story.
On our gallery wall in the dining room I have this tree that she colored in pastels. The edges of the piece looked burnt. Because they are. Her house was struck by lightning in 2014 and burned to the ground. This piece survived that horrific fire. What a story, right?! I did not want it restored because of it’s amazing story of survival.
For all the other pieces on this wall and the wall next to it (above in the dining room photo), I have thrifted, bought at estate sales, inherited or been gifted. If you want the story on them here is a brief overview:
The Lord’s Supper was a FBMP find. I love it’s vintage color. The pinball art(top right) was an estate sale find on the the last day of the sale for $20. The birds next to it was a gift. The butterfly plate was my step-grandfather’s. The other 2 were from estate sales and the oval one from an antique store. I think on this wall I have only spent $120. Don’t sleep on etsy for great vintage art either! They are sometimes pricier than other sources, but some of the pieces on there are really one-of-a-kind!
How will you add vintage to your home?
