3 Keys to Combining Old and New Pieces in Your Home
You have some family heirlooms or some amazing flea market finds, but you aren’t sure they really go with your style…What do you do? We’ll cover that today with 3 tips to combining vintage or antique pieces with new pieces.
We just finished a really incredible project in Penn Valley. It’s a 1929 beautiful classic stone colonial home and the couple had a ton of great antique pieces. She is an artist, so of course they had amazing artwork. I think this project turned out so well because of the combination of new and old pieces. Here are some tips to making this work in your home!
1) Go Old for Wood and New for Fabric
Re-upholstery can be pricey, so unless you know that a piece is really well made and worth reupholstering that is a good place to go new. Feel free to email us for our guide in what to look for in good quality new upholstered furniture. It is so much fun to try out comfy furniture and select fabrics. Plus, you don’t have to worry about exposure to humidity and mold and conditions that wouldn’t be great for cushions.
2) Know Your Overall Style and Stick with Two
You might have taken our design quiz (if not we’ll send you a link). Stay within your top two styles so that your home doesn’t look like a consignment shop or garage sale. For example, for the old pieces from #1: Are you rustic or traditional? If rustic find some antique worn in rustic tables. If traditional find some beautifully elegant Louis XVI chairs (reupholstering just a seat is much more practical than a sofa and they can replace the foam). Then fill in with new pieces from your top two styles.
3) Use New and Old Together in the Same Piece or in Pairings
If it fits your style you can have tables made from 100 year old barn wood. You can take your grandmother’s beautiful napkins and have them framed with a pretty new frame to go in your dining room. You can pair your antique oriental rug with a modern wood table with sleek metal legs. You really want to have a balance so that you don’t have 90% old and 10% new that sticks out and doesn’t feel integrated.
Combining new and old is a wonderful balance of opposites, like a yin yang. If you have old pieces that you don’t love part with them– don’t allow your home to be a storage center, you want to love each and every piece. With older pieces a less is more aesthetic can work because you don’t want a cluttered museum-home look.
Leave a Reply