Designer Vintage Decor Tips | How To Decorate with Vintage Treasures

Hello, design lovers. I'm Ashley Childers and today I'm sharing my very best tips on how to shop for and style vintage and antique treasures like a designer. I'll take you along with me to a few of my very favorite local antique shops and show you exactly what you need to be looking for when you are shopping vintage for your home. I know you're going to love today's video, so be sure to hit the subscribe button so you can get more weekly design goodness as we drop a new video every week. Hunting for and decorating with vintage and antique finds is one of my favorite ways to bring character and personality and soul to a space. Now before we head out to our local vintage shops, I want to demystify the difference between antique and vintage pieces. A vintage item is anywhere between 20 and 99 years old and oftentimes its design style embodies the decade that it was made. An antique piece is older than 100 years old. So let me show you the difference right here. I have this little brass candle snuffer. It's one of my favorite vintage pieces. And then I've got this antique lock. So now that we know the difference between vintage and antique pieces, let's head out to the shop to find some vintage and antique treasures. We are at one of my favorite local shops, Sweet Home Furnishings, and I love this one because it's so well curated. They have a really great mix of vintage and antiques, and it's all beautifully displayed. So let's go find some wonderful vintage treasures. I've taken a spin through the shop and chosen some of my favorite pieces that they have, and I just wanted to talk through a couple of them with you to hopefully help spark your creativity when you are vintage shopping. So first of all, I always look for unique things. I love sculptural pieces. I love pottery with hand glazing and just unique things that have a great patina. So when you are vintage or antique shopping, oftentimes the dealers will put a little description on the tag about what it is or what, you know, what the year is or that it was created or the artist or any all these different types of things, and it's so helpful because so many times when I'm shopping, I don't necessarily know what a piece is, and I love getting the history behind the piece. It just makes it even more special when you bring it into your home. So that being said, the first thing that I chose was this really unique wooden sculptural piece, and it probably was a baluster or something like that, but on the tag it says old baluster, lamp base, you choose. So you could go and create a lamp out of this beautiful piece, you could put it on a sideboard as a sculpture, sculptural piece in your dining room or your entry hall, in the garden would be great, put a planter on top of it. It's just really unique, and I love the patina of it. Secondly, I had to choose this fun, I think, walking stick is what it says. It's a folk art bird stick. So this is a little hand-carved bird and hand-painted, and it's on this really unique stick, and it's on a base, so it's perfect for just like a little added whimsy outside in the garden, or you could once again put it on a table. It's unique and fun and very different. You just wouldn't normally go to a shop and find something like this, so I love finding unique pieces when I'm antiquing. Okay, down here, let's go over a couple of these fun little accessories. First of all, any time that I find alabaster grapes, I buy them. I have a whole collection of them. They're beautiful. I love just the weight and sculptural quality of them, and of course, if you've seen some of my other videos, you know that alabaster is one of my very favorite materials to design in. So they always have a special place in my heart, and these are great because they have two different sizes, but the alabaster is a similar color. So they're just really, really pretty to display on a coffee table, to add some interest in a little table setting. You could honestly, you know, if you had a collection of them, you could put them down at the center of a dining table. That would be a really fun tablescape. So if you ever find any of these, they're just a great addition to your decor. Also, over here, we're thinking about spring, and we're thinking about flower arrangements and adding unique interest outside in our garden area and in our covered patio, and I love finding unique planters. So this is a wire basket. You could use it as a catch-all. You could use it as a waste paper basket, but I think it would be beautiful lined in moss and have a floral arrangement inside of it. You could do orchids or hellebore or any type of spring plant, so it'd just be really pretty. Okay, lastly, I had to show you these fun little pieces. A lot of times when I'm vintage shopping, I gravitate towards sculptural things. I love, love ceramics, and I probably have honestly too many vintage ceramic pieces, but they just bring me so much joy because so many times they will have the artist's signature on the back, and a lot of times if you find a vintage ceramic plate, they'll already have a little hole in the back that you can use to string a wire through it and hang it on the wall. So this is a beautiful one. It's a little bit more of a modern statement, but I absolutely love it. Then here we have this funny little sculpture. These are just the oddities that you can only find at antique and vintage stores. So this one has this little squirrel kind of encased in all of these leaves. It has really beautiful patina, and it's a great value and just a fun little addition to maybe a stack of books on your bedside chest or cocktail table. It's really cute. And then lastly, this piece of pottery is so unique and beautiful. I love the detail. It's handmade, and it's got great patina. It's a really great color to add. I love adding black or dark charcoal in to a lighter, more airy environment. Just injecting that pop of darkness really adds some dimension to a space. A pro tip for when you are vintage and antique shopping, and honestly just any type of shopping for your home, is always carry a measuring tape with you. So this is one stays in my purse at all times. It's six feet, which is about what you need. Six to ten feet is plenty. You don't have to haul around a 25-foot tape measure, but you're going to need it when you're shopping. I have a list on my phone of all of the places in my house that I'm looking for, you know, vintage treasures for. Maybe it's a piece of art for a wall, or I want a mirror, or a lamp, or even decorative accessories for a table. You don't want to buy something that you absolutely love and then get it home, and it doesn't fit the space. So always carry a measuring tape with you. Okay, we have finished up at our first awesome shop. Now we are going to head to a second store to see what other vintage treasures we can find. We have made it to our second stop of the day, and this is one of my favorite local vintage stores. So I wanted to bring you here to show you the difference in the shop that we went to first, which was very curated, and then this shop, which is also awesome, but it is filled to the brim with all manner of things. Now when you come into a place like this, you have to have an open mind. You have to be willing to do some digging, but if you are, you can find some great treasures at value prices. So let's get to shopping, pick out some of our favorite things of the day, and take it all home and style it like a pro. Our treasure hunting is over. I've picked out some great pieces that I can't wait to style. So let's head back to the house, and I'm going to teach you how to incorporate beautiful vintage finds into your home decor. We are back at the house, and it's time to start styling with our vintage treasures that we found today. The first thing we're going to do is style this entry table. I love styling it, making a beautiful statement in my entry, and I'm just going to show you how by adding a couple of vintage pieces, we just inject so much personality into this tablescape. The first thing that we're going to do is remove this alabaster bowl and make a place for our vintage treasures. I'm going to add in the handmade ceramic plate with that really unique glaze, and then also the little ceramic pot that picks up the color of the glaze and also has a fun little iridescent sheen. Lastly, I'm going to accent it with the brass candle snuffer, and as you can see, it creates just a really fun personality-filled statement right in our entry. Now before we head to style a couple more tables in my home with our vintage treasures, I want to share with you a few of the things that I look for every single time I'm antique shopping. Welcome to my treasure trove of vintage and antique pieces. I want to talk about a couple of the categories that I always look for every time I'm vintage shopping. First and foremost, always handmade ceramic pieces. I love vintage crocks, also really beautiful hand-thrown pottery that I know is handmade, and the way that I can always tell if something is handmade is just simply by turning the piece over. If it's a handmade piece, oftentimes the artist will have carved their signature into the bottom of the piece. Next, I always look for brass plate stands. I know that that sounds a little odd, but I love the patina on little small antique brass plate stands, and they are so helpful when styling coffee table vignettes and shelving. Next, marble and wood risers. These are pieces that you can get from, you know, your local shop, but if you find one that is antique or vintage, a lot of times the patina will just be absolutely fabulous, and they're more often than not a really good value. Brass bowls and catchalls, always and forever. I love adding a pop of really beautiful brass to a table vignette, and solid brass pieces, oftentimes if they are contemporary, they're a little bit more expensive, so finding them vintage is the way to go. Patinated sculptures. Now these are a little bit more difficult to find, especially if you're looking for a bargain, but if you come across a beautiful patinated sculpture, whether it's made out of ceramic or terracotta or even stone, snag it. Adds so much personality to a styled vignette. Next, candlesticks. Now, of course, there's a lot of candlesticks when we are shopping for vintage and antique pieces. We see them all the time, but be really, really picky when you are choosing your candlesticks, and don't fall into the trap of having to have a pair of candlesticks. Some of my very favorite pieces are metal candlesticks that are very sculptural, and they're just single pieces. Add them to the edge of a tablescape, and they add so much height and beautiful, beautiful wow factor. All right, next on our list, of course, is candle snuffers. These are just fun. I grab them anytime I see them. They can be brass. They can be metal. You know, maybe they're patinated. I just love candle snuffers and love adding them to a tablescape next to a candle. Lastly, unique oddities. I just absolutely adore finding these very unique and sometimes peculiar pieces when I'm antique shopping. Things like this fun chemistry beaker stand. This is one of my very favorite pieces in my entire home. It's antique, and I absolutely love displaying flowers in it. The little opera binoculars that I have, they're inlay with mother-of-pearl. I love perching those on top a stack of books. And then also, don't forget that when you're shopping, look for art. Sometimes artwork is more difficult to find, especially for a reasonable price, but I always look for original artwork when I'm antique and vintage shopping. And it doesn't always have to be large scale. Sometimes you can find smaller pieces that are perfect for a tablescape on top of an easel. Another thing to always keep your eye out for is solid silver and pewter pieces. I personally love collecting pewter pitchers to display flowers in during the summer, and anytime I see one when I'm antique shopping, I snag it. Also, solid silver. It's so beautiful. It's very valuable. You can always tell a solid silver piece by the markings on the underside. If you come across one of these beauties when antique shopping, you must grab it. A beautiful tablescape on a cocktail table is one of my favorite places to incorporate vintage treasures. And on this cocktail table, all we had to do was add a few key pieces. So we have a beautiful handmade ceramic bowl, a fun little butterfly sculpture that's also a box. It's brass. It has this beautiful verdigris patina, and then just a little marble catchall. And that's all we needed to inject personality, depth, and character to the cocktail table. Now, when I'm styling vintage pieces with contemporary pieces, I like to make sure that I always include a material mix. So on this table, we have leather, glass, alabaster, marble, ceramic, and metal. And of course, the cocktail table itself has this beautiful burnished brass finish on the table. So you've got a really beautiful layered material mix. And whether you're styling vintage pieces or new pieces, always look for material mixes and also different scales as you're styling. You can see that we've got varying heights. One of my favorite ways to create varying heights in a tablescape or a vignette is by adding beautiful coffee table books. Great, wonderful way to elevate a piece off of the table surface. I have linked my very favorite coffee table books below. They're a great investment. Not only do they bring beauty to your tablescapes, but they're so inspirational as well. We've moved over to this beautiful buffet, and I want to share with you a couple of my designer tricks and tips for styling a piece like this with your vintage accessories. So first of all, this buffet has this beautiful ellipse shape, but it can create a little bit more of a tricky situation when you're creating a tablescape or a vignette. So what I like to do is think about putting pieces at the end that anchor the entire vignette. So of course, we have this gorgeous glass lamp that's from my collection, and then the vintage candlestick on the other side. And this is one of those instances where we don't need a pair of candlesticks. Just that singular candlestick is so sculptural. It adds height to the entire vignette, and the patina is absolutely gorgeous, and it picks up on the colors that are in the mural behind it. We added, of course, in next to it is this really beautiful ceramic plate. I've got it on a pedestal. Remember, I said pedestals are so important. And then a little brass catchall and this really beautiful ceramic vase on top of a reclaimed wood pedestal. So let me just tell you something, guys. Anytime that you put something on top of a riser or pedestal, it instantly becomes more important. And I love how a pedestal elevates a piece off of the tabletop surface and just gives it more room to breathe. It's a beautiful statement, and as you can see, all of these pieces work wonderfully together to create character and harmony on this buffet. We've moved to the very last vignette that we're creating with our vintage treasures, and I want to touch on a couple of pro tips here. First of all, if you happen to come up on a beautiful large-scale box, snag it. I absolutely adore this burl piece. It's actually a cigar box, but it just adds so much charm and depth to any tablescape I add it to. So if you're vintage shopping and you find anything like this or any box at all, honestly, just a really great addition to have in your styling repertoire. Okay, so what did we add to this beautiful tablescape? First of all, of course, the vintage box. Secondly, this really beautiful handmade ceramic bowl that has this super cool glaze. I love the character that it adds to the space. And then I've got a potted plant inside of it. Now, some of you may recognize this is really beautiful. It is poisonous if you have cats or any type of animal that can get to it inside your home. Don't bring it inside. Keep it outside. But it's beautiful. Our little pups can't get up on the table, so we're fine to keep it right here on the cocktail table. Next, I added in this really gorgeous statue. Now, this is one of those pieces that was a find of a lifetime. I absolutely love all of the patina that it has, and it just adds this beautiful historical quality to our tablescape. Lastly, we've added in this burnished brass bowl and this funny little metal candle snuffer that just adds so much personality and character to the tablescape. As you can see, we've got an entire mix of materials on this tablescape. And if you've noticed, every single area that we've styled with our vintage treasures today also included either beautiful flowers or potted plants or maybe even some stems or branches. I love bringing that organic material into all of my styling, regardless if it's with vintage or not. So keep that in mind when you're styling your surfaces. There you have it, friends. My very best designer tips for shopping for and styling vintage decor. Now, I hope that you enjoyed today's video. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up and let me know in the comments if you had a favorite vintage piece from today and if there's a specific designer styling tip that you are excited to try in your home. Now, if you love all things design like I do, follow us over on Instagram at Ashley Childers Home and check us out on Pinterest to get a little peek into all of our daily design adventures and become a part of our design-loving community. And if you want even more designer styling tips and tricks right now, you're going to want to watch this playlist next. As always, I'm Ashley Childers. Thank you so much for watching. And remember, good design is for everyone. So create a home that inspires you, have fun styling with your vintage and antique treasures, and fall in love with where you live one room at a time.