Vintage Home Decorating

Do you know the differance between Antique and Vintage. I had no clue until I did my research. Both of them mean "old" to me, however, there is a huge difference between the two.

Antiques are 100+ years old. They depict the date an object was made.

Vintage items are between 50-100 years old in most cases. They can be made as recently as 5-10 years ago but are specifically of that time period. They represent a specific year because of a unique design.

To decorate a house in a vintage style, here are a few tips you might be able to use for your own home.

• Vintage furniture is always a great focal point of a room. If you are on a budget you can always do your own vintage looking furniture with a bit of paint and some sand paper. After you paint just distress the wood a little to make it look older.
• Use a vintage quilt or throw to put on the back of a couch or chair or loveseat. This will help bring attention to the furniture and also works for those cold/chilly nights.
• Old road signs, store advertisements, etc would be great for wall decorations.
• When using pictures with the vintage era, use black and white or sepia pictures. It's also good to change these out once a year (or more) to help keep your home from being the same for many years.
• For the little spaces in your home, window ledges, book shelves, empty corners, etc., try using vintage toys, school books, glasses or tin cans to help fill the empty spaces.

• Use vintage fabric and fabric glue to make new lamp shades. This you can do once a year to change the look of the room where the lamp is.
• Cover a table top in old post cards or pages from vintage books and then cover them with a clear lacquer. This will add a lot to an area.
• You can also use some vintage fabric and wrap it around bulletin board to help add to the walls in your rooms.

In my home I use vintage items from my mom. She crochets alot and I love her doilies and things she makes. I use them everywhere in my home. Even though they are only a few years old, they are still considered vintage because the patterns and stitches she uses are from the early 1900's. Here are some pictures of her crochet work in my house.

In downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina, we have a lot of antique and vintage stores. I went into one called Diane's Vintage Market and talked to her about all the items in her store. She told me what the difference between vintage and antique was and allowed me to take pictures of furniture and other goodies in her store. In case you are interested in stopping by to check her out here is a copy of her business card and a link to her face book page. She was wonderful with all the help she gave me and was more than willing to have her information shared with everyone.

Our fellow hubber Song-Bird has also written a great Hub about vintage decorating ideas. With her permission I have added her links to her Hub and her blog as well.

mary615 (another fellow hubber) has done a lot to her house with antiques and vintage decorating. I love so much about her house that there isn't just one thing I can point out. Her Hubs below show all about it!

There are many different ways to use vintage in your home decorating. It could be used for an old Victorian home or a brand new home. You could do whole rooms in a home or just add the little bits and pieces that make the room come together. The limit of possibilities is endless. Some say these things will never go out of style and that history always repeats itself. Wouldn't it be nice to see the old cars, dresses (clothes), town shops, etc back? I don't think the world could handle it.