Spruce up your spaces with a touch of vintage
A statement decor piece such as this multipurpose table will a unique look. Photo by Edgar R. Batte
Old is gold so the saying goes. You can never go wrong with a touch of timelessness in your home because regardless of how often trends change, some items become better with age, giving your home a beautiful vintage look. There are two main ways one can use the vintage décor; you can choose to use it alone or mix it with modern designs.
During construction
Though we are at a dawn of new and various modern designs in construction, one can still have a mix of vintage therein. You just have to know how to go about it.
Hassan Lubega, a construction engineer says one of the most popular vintage designs in construction is the Victorian architecture which is still appreciated even today.
Having a few elements of this in your modern architecture can give your house the right amount of vintage making it look posh.
“Some of the things we can think about at the construction level are the doors and windows for example. Instead of using the normal windows, you can choose large windows with intricate frames and finishings. Your window and door designs can also be made of wrought iron, to make a vintage statement. When it comes to finishing, either inside or outside, one can choose red bricks, an example of which are half bricks. You can have a part of your interior walls finished with half bricks or the entire exterior of the house outside,” Lubega shares.
For a person building a storeyed house, you can put emphasis on the staircase by making a grand staircase which never loses its appeal.
“Another significant feature is the heavy use of wood. This can be a wooden floor instead of tiles or using wood finishing on the interior walls,” Lubega adds.
Choose outright vintage
Florence Mwebesa, an interior designer, with a passion for antique decor shares that this can start from the way you furnish your house.
“We often like to move with trends, so we end up buying things that we will need to dispose of in just a few years because they no longer make sense. This can include things such as chairs, sofas, beds and other furniture. However, if you are one who cares about a timeless look in your house, choosing vintage might be the way to go,” she notes.
For furniture such as wardrobes, shelves, tables, dining tables, one can be deliberate at choosing old fashioned yet beautiful designs to have the vintage look.
With these, you will never worry about them being off-trend. She, however, cautions that getting vintage is both costly and for some articles, finding them might take longer than those which are readily on the market.
Add timeless articles “Think about putting an old typewriter on your modern drawer in a corner, a vintage rug in the centre of your modern seating room, an old toolbox in the corner of your house, or an ancient clock in a strategic space on your modern walls.
Currently, there are articles that have continued to diminish from our sight, yet they represent an era that our children will probably never see. If you have some of these, do not throw them away, use them as decor,” Murungi advises.
These may include charcoal flat irons made from cast iron, vintage telephones and radios, old desktop computers, vintage music players, among others. The trick is to know where to put what, when integrating the two eras.
She also shares that there are articles that are not necessarily vintage but have a timeless look on them. These can also be employed. The best places to get vintage articles are garage sales, flea markets, or shops that sell second-hand household items.
