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How to create a vintage look room
Vintage Living
These days there are plenty of adverts and displays about modern and contemporary styles in our homes and spaces. By focusing on this, the traditional and vintage look is often overlooked. Vintage rooms have regained in popularity, in part because of being simple to create and achieve. Actually at times, the vintage look can provide a better platform for showcasing your space. Vintage looks are often ‘toned down’ making them generally neutral and accepted by all. There are some vintage looks which have their own bold characteristics however (e.g. the style from the 1960s/1970s) so there is still a range to suit all. In our guide we will give you tips on how to create a vintage looking room.
The colour
The main point to remember here is to keep the colour light (as you will notice from the picture above.) Dark colours would be very dull while bright yellows and oranges would create a far too modern look. A pure white colour is not recommended, but offsets of this generally work well (such as creams for example.)
Create the weathered (known as distressing) look
This is essentially the main point to creating the vintage style. Simply put this technique involves making furniture or items look older and more worn than they actually are, thus helping to create the classic look. It is actually an ironic style since most items are judged on the quality of their finish, yet distressing is all about removing this finish! Distressing can be applied to many surfaces making it easy to do on most items. Sanding and scraping are some of the techniques which can be used to create this look.
It is important to remember the difference between making items look weathered and damaging them – the latter creates no design style at all!
Think about the furniture.
Furniture makes the room and if you are trying to create a vintage look, the right objects are important. Similar to looking for colours, don’t go for anything bold or big and stick more on the side of plain and neutral. There are many places to visit which would cater for this type of style. Most well-known retailers will have furniture to suit these specifications, but don’t discount charity shops and antique fares either.
In terms of pattern and design for the furniture, go for traditional objects with basic patterns like flowered and airy looking cushions. It is pretty much a case of using your common sense and seeing what looks or feels right. With respect to technology around the room, this is often unavoidable but try to limit / conceal it as much as possible, since it detracts from the vintage look. Getting these items as ‘white goods’ (rather than dark colours) again will help.
You can give your bedroom a different feel by investing in some signature furniture pieces, a good place to find stylish furniture is essex interiors
The wallpaper.
Your choice of wallpaper can really set the room off and allow you to create that ‘downton abbey’ look.
As you can see from our photo example, the wallpaper helps to add to that mid twentieth century expression. You will also notice how the plain style and light colours also complement the room.
Creating a vintage look is not difficult and is one of the easier styling jobs. There is generally a set list of criteria to adopt to create the look, and as long as you stick to this you will be sorted!