Combining modern furniture with antiques may be hard to pull off, but it’s far from impossible. In fact, it’s quickly becoming a trend. While keeping to a certain era when decorating may be appealing, mixing and matching your beloved antiques with more modern and functional pieces has a way of bringing out your own personality and creating an individualized room.
But just how do you go about combining modern and antique pieces?
Contents
1. Decide if you want your room to be primarily modern or primarily traditional.
You can’t have it both ways, or else, you’ll risk having both eras clash and creating a chaotic outcome rather than a room put together with love and painstaking detail. The first thing to decide is if you’d prefer your room to be primarily traditional with more antiques dominating, or primarily modern, with antique pieces complementing the modern layout of furniture.
Once you’ve established your focus, you can then start to work on layering it with pieces that work with your aesthetic to bring about that perfect combination of old and new.
2. Figure out why you love it.
Determining the reason for your love for the old or for the new can help keep your original intention and keep you on the right path. Is it because of the wood used in your favorite antique furniture, or maybe the finishing that was used?
Is it the texture of the fabric covering your favorite modern seat that drew your attention in the first place, or the fact that its color is appealing to your eyes? Figuring out why you like it can help you keep everything together and serve as the string that ties all your furniture and decorative pieces together.
3. Stability or adventure?
Once you’ve figured out what you wanted, determine if you’d like to create harmony with balance or contrast with sense of adventure. Selecting pieces that are alike or several degrees apart can create a restful look, as opposed to putting together clashing or contrasting pieces to create a bold statement which may be an energetic feast for the eyes instead.
4. Piece them all together.
Now that you have your ideas all concretely laid out, it’s time to piece your furniture pieces together. Stick to the elements that are important to you and start with your focal piece. Next, mix and match other pieces to complete the look that you’ve envisioned. Remember to let one style dominate over the other for a more stable outcome. Finally tie them together by using texture, color, or shape as your guide. Let one style lead, but use the other for accent.
5. Keep it simple.
Too many knick knacks in one room can cause clutter and result in a messy and chaotic outcome. Keep it simple and avoid suffocating your best assets with unnecessary furnishing.
At the end of the day, no one else has the right to tell you how your house should be decorated, so always tap into and consider your own sense of style. Regardless of era, a good piece would always go well with other good pieces of furniture, whether antique or vintage. Happy decorating!
About the author: Angie Cole loves everything vintage and admires the true old-world craftsmanship. She is a fan of Antiques on Old Plank Road, a furniture shop that imports and restores European quality antique and vintage pieces.
