It’s Vintage Baby!

Old seems to be the new “new”. It seems like everyone wants to jump on the vintage bandwagon. I’m seeing tons of truly vintage items in cute little shops, tons of vintage reproductions, and tons of people on Craigslist calling their items “vintage” in hopes that one little word makes them more desirable.

Ok, I’ll admit that I, too, love a good vintage find.  I do prefer an original piece rather than a reproduction; mainly because I love the thought that a piece has a story to tell.  Our house has unique pieces scattered throughout, and I’ve put a lot of effort into mixing old and new so the house doesn’t just look like a junk store!

One of my favorite auction finds is this vintage soda crate. It was full of the original bottles and buried in the back of a barn – dirty, grimy, and probably full of spiders! But, now that it’s cleaned up, it’s one of my favorite things to pull out for spring and summer.  I can add a few flowers from the garden, put it out on the sideboard or coffee table, and it’s a great conversation piece.

Part of my decorating style is trying to make the house look like pieces were collected over time – mixing old, new, and everything in between.  Sometimes that takes getting a little dirty and looking past the dead bugs and grime that have built up, but when you come across something you can clean up and treasure forever, it’s totally worth it!

Living Room Built-ins

I love a good DIY project, and usually I’m up for at least attempting something, but I also know my limits.  That’s why we hired a professional when it came to our new built-ins in the living room.

We were so lucky when we moved into our house a couple of years ago that there were no immediate projects that needed to be done.  That being said, I knew I eventually wanted to add built-in book cases with a bench seat along one wall in our living room. I’ve always had an affinity for window seats, bench seats, and reading nooks. I love the coziness they add, and in our house, it really finished the living room. (Plus it’s the perfect place to display my collection of cake stands and Fostoria pitchers!)

I had to show off everything we did (or asked the professional to do!), so here ya go!

Before…

After!

After!

I love going back to look at the before and after! You’ll have to excuse the fact that the before picture is from the Little Man’s first birthday party; it’s the only one I could find, but it does show the big empty corner of the living room.  In the after picture you’ll see we wrapped the built-ins around the whole corner going with a half wall under the window on the right side. We kept the same table, but changed the chairs.  (The “new” chairs are actually a deal from the Salvation Army that my awesome Mom made new covers for in a beautiful linen fabric.)

My original plan was to pull the table in close to the bench and use it like a banquette, but it looked so off center with the window I couldn’t do it.  So we centered it back up, put all the chairs back around, and just pull it in like a banquette when we need the extra seating. I still need to find some kind of art for that big open space over the bench…

I fell in love with the fabric on the seat cushion and knew I had to have it! The gray and yellow combination is so bright and cheery.  It’s such a difference from the gray and red we had going on before.  Mom and I made the seat cushion, and I actually did most of the work this time! The pillows were a steal at Marshalls and the blanket is from overstock.com.

This has become my favorite spot in our house; I just can’t help but smile every time I see it. For us, it was worth having a professional do the building for us, and then I could add in my touches afterwards. Unfortunately for the Hubby, the perfectness of this space is making me look at other areas of the house wondering where the next project should be…