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There is a new trend emerging in home decorating – it’s a mix of old world European antique and mid-century modern. Since many of us live in modern new homes, the question is how to incorporate artifacts and heirlooms easily into our interior design schemes. When your home is decorated with modern pieces, add a touch of antique furnishings or accessories. If, however, your home is already decorated with Old World European pieces, you can also add a simple, clean lined modern furniture piece. Mixing antique pieces adds quality and with contemporary or modern, is more interesting and affordable. Decorating with antiques adds a uniqueness to your home.
Antique Furnishings
Antiques offer style, history, and practicality to any room. Antiques evoke amazement and great interest in people, with questions like who made the furnishings, what great craftsmanship went into its creation, and what historical events have these pieces been through. Just their sheer beauty is enough to decorate with different styles in allowing the past to come to present day life.
Adding antique pieces to an existing interior style, even one that is contemporary, adds a decorating statement that transforms any design scheme into a practical accentuation. Every piece of antique furnishings has a story to tell, especially if they were inherited or you purchased them from an auction dealer. For instance, a French baroque designed chair can stimulate the imagination as to who sat on it and what were they doing at the time, this makes it a great conversational piece.
European Antiques
Where are the best locations for achieving that antique look – why Europe of course. If you are planning a trip or a vacation to Europe, plan on visiting antique dealers or going off the beaten path of French, English, Belgium, or Italian shops, flea markets, curio shops, estate sales, and boutiques. Each country has their own unique offerings in exquisite antiques.
French cities like Paris and Provence offers some of the best selections anywhere in the world; London, England offers the best prices, offers an eclectic and diverse selections; Belgium will provide unique antique pieces that can’t be found anywhere else; and Italy birthed the Renaissance era with styles that can be found around the world. Remember, when you visit these great places, in addition to Googling your antique whereabouts, what better option to find those perfect antique pieces to complement your home, then to ask the natives where to go and once you get there, ask for discounts, because if you want something, you have to ask for it.
Antique Arrangements
Knowing what to look for in antiques, is to also use your imagination. When looking to incorporate an antique design into the art of designing with antiques, is to see what isn’t there, but what can be. This includes looking at an old door and seeing a table or a headboard. An old window can be turned into a vintage picture frame, a wall shelf, a cabinet frame, etc. When choosing initial antique furniture to decorate with, is adding pieces that are extremely well made and that are durable enough to withstand the test of time.
Antique pieces, from furnishings to accessories, were always well made with high quality materials, like precious woods that today are hard to get, such as walnut, oak, and mahogany. Original antique furnishings were handmade with the utmost delicacy in their design. Not only are antique furniture pieces, beautiful to behold, but they are a well priced investment that will spice up any décor. The art of designing with antiques, is to stick with the room’s theme. Don’t decorate one part of a room with Baroque furnishings and because of your love of antiques overall, you want to add Elizabethan furnishings to the other side. This mixture would only disrupt the decorating flow, as well as the look and feel of your rooms.
The 80/20 Rule
Decorating with antiques is easy to get into, but it requires a little mastering. Another antique interior décor idea is not to overly decorate with just one style. Add a little yin to the yang, by adding a classic Italian sofa with a baroque side table. Antique interior decorating ideas also includes colors – Victorian era furnishings chose earth tones paired with moss greens, purples, mulberry reds, and gingery yellows.
Elizabethan furniture and accessory colors were actually used because of a law that passed. Elizabethan colors included blue, indigo, gold, brown, orange, red, pink, crimson, black, purple, white, yellow, green, and gray, all signifying a class structure. When we mix antique interior décor, remember the 80/20 rule. Victorian décor works very well with Edwardian, formal English, and French furniture, while Queen Anne works well with Chippendale era pieces.
Using Antique Pieces
Add certain antique interior décor pieces that will greatly enhance your rooms:
Chests and Trunks
Trunks and chests are antique items that are made from natural wood. They add the perfect centerpiece to a bedroom, when it is situated at the foot of a bed or it can be used to divide a room. Antique chests and trunks may require a little renovation, but they accent any room with style and classic beauty.
Nightly Side Tables
Choosing a side table as a nightstand adds a symmetry to a bedroom, especially when layering is added. A pair of antique side tables with just the right low-wattage lamp height or an antique vase, or a stack of books, gives an antique interior décor that right texture, height, and shape.
Vases and Porcelain
Accenting rooms with vases and porcelain sets is the fun part of antique interior decorating ideas. These items add texture, color, elegance, and shape into any home décor design. In earlier times, every home was decorated with functional and decorative vases and porcelain sets, many of which were made of marble, onyx, and malachite. Vases and porcelain sets add charm to wall shelves and table decorations, especially in varying designs and sizes.
Library Bookcases
Try a timeless English bookcase that contains antique accessories on its shelves, as an art of designing with antiques. To add dimension, try an antique library ladder to lean against the bookcase.
Summary
Beginners and savvy decorating individuals can incorporate antiques into practically any decorating style, including modern and contemporary. Each antique treasure that you find will have a conversational history which adds to its appeal. When using budget friendly antique furniture and accessories into your life, in a new way, is the best in decorating ideas