A house with an unconventional vintage interior design

Style is decidedly a personal issue and this remarkable house that I’ve chosen to show you proves it beyond the shadow of a doubt. It’s a minimal residence, which strikes the perfect balance combining vintage elements with modern interior design.

The owner, who is artistically inclined, possesses the unique ability to choose items from open air markets and bring them to life adding her own personal touch.

In the living room, the 1955 armchair and the old carved chair were upholstered in a different blue denim fabric and wonderfully paired with the tan leather sofa.

The dining room breaks the rules of decoration with the use of various chairs in a wealth of shapes, colours and materials.

The modern works of art contribute to a skilful fusion of older and newer trends.

The special vintage decorative elements -such as the old rectangular bench, the multi-coloured kettles, the retro cameras, the leather and wooden suitcases giving off the allure of times gone by as well as the wonderful shoe lasts handcrafted by the owner herself- underlay this space with an utterly personal dimension.

The same frame of mind also pervades the bedroom spaces; it is there that precious objects are selected to adorn the surroundings, ones that appeal to her and her nearest and dearest, ones that evoke fond memories or carry a symbolic value of their own. They’re objects which, as she confesses, make her feel comfortable, filling the house with warmth and tranquillity.

Hints

When in search of vintage items at the respective shops, keep in mind that vintage homeware shops regard as antiques any items dated 50 years and above, while the rule at specialised antiques shops is that items need to be 150 years and above to make the same grade.
According to experts, the best shopping items that we can discover at an antiques shop include: carpets and rugs, metal pots and pans, glassware, mirrors, lamps and lights, ceramics, wooden chairs and tables.
In order to verify whether a piece of solid furniture is truly as old as claimed to be, it is crucial to focus both on its general image and on specific details, such as the kind of wood, its surface coating, the hinges, etc.
Of course, there are a lot of details to check; however, two basic characteristics can quickly help us with a potential purchase:

• To begin with, it’s important to look for the connecting screws, usually found at the back of the furniture, in order to find out whether they are straight head screws or Phillips screws (which are, in fact, a 20th century invention). As a result, if a piece of furniture supposedly dates back to the 18th century but has Phillips screws, this means that it’s either been recently modified or that it isn’t genuine.
• Another equally significant feature to check are the interior joints in the furniture drawers (if there are, in fact, drawers). A mere glance is all it takes to be able to tell whether the joints have been mechanically or manually assembled. A machine can easily create many isometric joints, while the human hand a lot fewer, asymmetrical and with a slight surface curvature.

Last but not least, it’s essential to bear in mind that antique furniture was mainly made of mahogany, walnut, oak and pine wood. By no means was it made of teak wood, a rapidly rising kind of wood with which the Asian market abounds.