I love vintage stuff. It’s been quite recently that I moved into a new apartment and started on a complete re-modeling process. While searching for new furniture pieces, decorations and similar stuff, I realised that my attention is constantly caught by vintage pieces. Whether it’s a sofa, chair, a picture frame, or a decoration in the form of a very old flower vase, I seem to pick the things with an older scent. However, it’s impossible to have an entire apartment smelling like old stuff; there’s technology, and there are conveniences that simply ask for a dose of modernism. So, why not meet the two styles?
Starting with the walls
The easiest way to add a dose of retro charm to your home is by covering your walls with retro house wallpapers. Retro house wallpapers are usually in pastels or in darker nuances of colour and mainly are patterned with various playful designs. Geometrical figures, fancy pictures of music instruments, famous evergreen music and movie stars and all similar motives. Everything that reminds of the past is a good choice for your walls. Don’t cover all 4 walls with wallpaper. What you want are accent walls, or just one wall that will provide the style direction, not a box. Once your room gets the style direction, everything else is a lot easier for choosing.
Furniture choice
Go with modern furniture. There are pieces of very simple design that can easily be altered into looking vintage or retro. This way you’ll have both the convenience and durability of modern beds and sofas, and the looks and charm of vintage style. You can achieve this by using blankets, pillows and bed coverings that will go with the boldest colour of your wallpapers.
The decorations
Everything that screams old will pass in your retro home. Concentrate on beautyfying decorations like vases, photo frames, picture wall frames and even dry flowers. All these things add up to the identity of a room. Keep the colour scheme though. You want a whole, not a colour mess and definitely not a room without meaning. You’d keep pieces like the lighters modern, since you want high functionality of course.
Colours
Colours play a huge role here, especially in the choice of fabrics and wallpaper combinations. Avoid anything bold, like bold pinks, bold blues or greens. You want pastels, warmer tones and a lot of browns, creams and peachy tones. Although vintage doesn’t necessarily mean a certain colour palette, these colours add more to the entire picture. And most importantly, make sure you mix and match colours very carefully. If you don’t know how to choose the right one, ask an expert, or do a little research according to your desires and ideas.
Bottom line, as long as you keep the functioning part of your home modern, you can achieve the retro looks by manipulating with decorations and colours. That way you’ll have the best of both styles.
