How to Incorporate Antiques Into Your Home Decor

As someone that loves antiquing and loves decorating with vintage finds, I’m excited to share my tips and ideas for styling your home with antique decor and vintage treasures.

Decorating with Antique Decor and Vintage Finds:

Whether you’re new here or a lifelong IBC reader, my name is Michael and I love antiques and vintage finds. Not only do I love the process of hunting down these unique treasures, but I love bringing them home and incorporating them into my spaces. Recently, I’ve heard from several of you that you want to do more antiquing, but are still a little unsure or apprehensive on how to incorporate your finds into your home.

Since I think there are probably endless ways to do this and thus this post could go on forever, I’ve decided to put together a list of some of my favorite and approachable ways that anyone can use to begin decorating with antiques. Let’s get to it.

Styling Your Home with Antique Decor:

Unique Artwork

One thing I always look for when I’m hunting items for antique decor is artwork. Even though you’ll most likely find your best deals at thrift stores, I’ve amassed a beautiful collection of vintage artwork from all of my antiquing adventures.

What I love about purchasing art from antique and thrift stores is that you’re guaranteed to find something unique that not everyone has hanging in their home. Also, I appreciate the vintage frames. In my opinion, they are far superior to anything you can find that’s new.

While I have vintage art scattered all around my home, I thought that in this post I would share two notable collections as inspiration. First, the paint-by-number grouping I have in my family room and then the gallery wall going up my staircase that I started more recently.

It’s also worth mentioning that you don’t need all vintage art. I personally love mixing new with old to create a diversely beautiful collection.

Try Functional Items

Another suggestion is to incorporate vintage decor you can actually use.

Think about things like:

• glassware and dinnerware
• baskets for decor and storage
• furniture, including chairs, tables, dressers, etc.
• a coat rack, hooks, or peg rails

This can be a great place to start because you’re not wandering around aimlessly. Instead, you’re actually looking to find something that will serve a purpose in your home.

If you are looking for larger pieces, I always recommend jotting down notes and measurements in advance to aid you in your decision making. It’s also helpful to keep in mind some of the other colors, wood tones, etc. in your room so that you can have an idea of how the piece will look in your space.

Adding items like these to your existing decor should be a breeze as you already have a need for them. This will help to build up your comfort level for adding more throughout your space.

Here is another idea. I love collection vintage tins so I’m always thinking of creative ways to use them. Here I used a larger candy tin to hide away my remote colors.

Start A Collection.

Another great way to add vintage finds to your home is by starting a collection.

In fact, I recommend this idea so much that I wrote an entire blog series about it. The series is still in progress, but you can find the post on “How to Start a Home Decor Collection” HERE and the post on “How to Display a Home Decor Collection” HERE.

I think that decorating with a collection is a really unique, fun, and an easy way to add personality to your home. Doing it with antiques takes it to the next level of awesomeness.

I personally like to use collections to decorate shelves, bookcases, coffee tables, etc. A grouping of similar items is an easy way to make a big statement in your decor.

Embrace Quirky.

Speaking of blog posts about vintage decor, I also started a series about embracing quirky decor. (You can find that HERE.)  I am not saying that all antiques are or need to be quirky. This isn’t the case at all, but it’s definitely something you can and should consider when you’re looking to add vintage finds to your home.

Adding one quirky item to your dresser or on the center of your dining room table can really let your personality shine through your decor.

Just Do It!

Okay, I realize this may not sound very helpful, but at the end of the day, this is the best advice I can give you. Often times we get wrapped up in our own heads and think we “need” the exact antique that we saw someone on Instagram have/use and then want to duplicate the effect. Either that or we need someone else to tell us what antique find looks good in our home. However, that’s not what it’s about at all. In fact, I think that defeats the purpose.

When I’m shopping for antiques, I look for things that I find beautiful, things that speak to me. This is when the magic happens.

Antique Decor: Final Thought

The final thing I want to mention is that shopping for vintage decor requires time and patience. If you’re looking to completely transform a room in a weekend, vintage decor and furnishings may not be the way to go.

For example, I spent over a year looking for a sideboard for my dining room. My paint-by-number art grouping took months to complete. These special treasures are hard to come by and the more specific your needs/wants, the harder it will be. Go into the process with patience.

Other Helpful Links:

As I mentioned above, I have a passion and love for antiquing and using my finds in my home decor. I’ve written several posts on the topic, so if you want to dive a little deeper or are looking for more information, here are a few posts that you may find both interesting and helpful.

• My Tips for Antiquing: My advice for finding and purchasing the best antique treasures.
• My Favorite Pittsburgh Antique Stores: If you’re local to or visiting Pittsburgh, check out this list of my favorite shops.
• New Vintage Finds: I often chronicle my latest finds. Here are a few posts to check out some of the interesting things I’ve found and how I styled them in my home.

That’s all for now! Get out there, have fun antiquing, and enjoy the process of styling these treasures in your home.