Making the Most of Your Quality Vintage Furniture

Anyone who has spent time planning decorating schemes for his home will discover the large amount of work that is involved in the process. You have to select the right type of color scheme, figure out whether you'll be using wallpaper or paint on your walls, and how you want the exterior of your home to look.

Naturally, part of decorating the home is picking out the style of furniture you will use. Having a consistent style with the furniture that you choose is one of the most important things to do. One of the most exciting styles you can choose for furniture will be inspired by some of the older designs that we have had for years. The following post is designed to teach you about how to select the right kind of quality vintage furniture for your house. As you begin putting your furniture collection together, this advice can help you out.

If you are looking for one of the most common furniture styles of the last hundred years, you're going to want to look for art deco furniture. If you are trying to make a great arrangement for your living room, you'll find that adding a few art deco chairs can help. If art deco furniture works well in your living room, you might also want to purchase some art deco chests to put up in your bedroom for storage and for beauty. No matter what you would like to achieve in your home aesthetic, you should be sure to consider art deco furniture.

Naturally, it's also possible to find all kinds of great antique furniture that you can choose from. A lot of people are of the opinion that mid century furniture is one of the other top styles from the older eras. You will find that mid century chairs and tables are going to be one of the best ways to make your dining room look wonderful in a very classic way. In almost any type of house, you'll find that mid century furniture can achieve looks that are not found in any other type of era. This makes mid century chests some of the best ideas to use when you want to get some sort of extra flair in your house.

You'll see that one of the best ways to make your home look much more elegant is to invest in some fine furniture. When you get the opportunity to visit a nearby Mid century furniture store, you will be able to pick and choose exactly what type of look you want to achieve.

Searching for Quality Vintage Furniture?

Finding mid century tables and art deco chests might sound like it requires the expertise of a professional antique dealer. Antique collectors who aren't big fans of driving around to personally visit each location will find plenty of web outlets where they can begin finding various pieces. Not only do they have pictures to share, but you can see the dealer, where it's located and comparable prices for the same type of piece.

As you start to look for art deco furniture, you'll also come up with references of other online antique dealers online. These are usually a great place to start in terms of finding out the retail value of art deco antique chairs, antique chests and other beautiful pieces that will add to your home. As you look at the various pieces, you'll see that antiques are sold in a variety of conditions.

If you're willing to drive around a bit, you can find some great deals in person through antique stores. The more you search through these stores, the more you find treasures hidden away in the little corners. When you talk to these dealers directly, they can use their connections to help you find certain pieces of furniture.

Consider that you can also use social media to find vintage furniture for sale. Many times, people will advertise estate sales or pieces of furniture that have been in their families for many years. The deals you can buy through deals like this will often be at lower prices and oftentimes, can't even be found in local antique stores.

Remember when you're looking at antique sideboards and more antiques like this that there could be some small scratches or dings. These can be easily restored and there are plenty of professionals around to give you an estimate on the work. Use this price information to negotiate with the dealer and bring the price down a bit.

Obviously, not every antique is going to be a great deal, but by doing some careful searching and not falling for anything that looks "old," you'll get just the right piece for your home or office. It's nice working with antiques in your decorating because there is no need to match everything up exactly. Decorating with antiques means you get to mix and match however you like, all the while making an investment into the future.

Ask family and friends if they have a certain dealer they prefer to buy Mid century tables from. These referrals can reduce the amount of time you have to spend shopping around and let you get a great deal faster.

Guidelines to Buying Antique Furniture for your Home

There are those among us with expensive tastes and bologna budgets. Not being able to afford the finer things in life doesn't mean we don't know what the finer things look like. Eating generic groceries and driving an economy car are fine, but looking around at a barren and depressing home every day can have negative effects in all areas of life. If home is just a reminder of our financial problems it isn't the sanctuary we need to feel protected and whole in life.

The answer is simple but that doesn't mean it's easy. It's no secret that money goes farther if the one spending it is willing to do more work. A whole room can feel new with less than twenty dollars when simple curtain panels are made out of discount solid color sheets. There are artistic painting techniques that can stretch a single can of paint and add texture to the walls, and selectively choosing an "accent wall" can cut costs even farther. Furniture shopping tends to be the hardest place for most people to save money and still furnish the room effectively.

While it seems like a good idea to start the search for a couch and art deco sideboards at a furniture store, that's actually a big mistake. Modern manufacturing and low quality materials come together to produce shoddy pieces that won't last and still cost far more than they should. The ten dollar couch at the thrift store isn't the answer--it usually smells and wasn't pretty before the large stains. The solution lies between the two extremes in vintage furniture.

Vintage--at least 30 years old but less than 100--includes all sorts of styles and designs. Regardless of how old a piece already is, anything that was handcrafted out of quality materials will last longer than the furniture that's being manufactured today. It's a long but rewarding process to search for all the right pieces because antique stores having antique chairs constantly change their inventory but gently used items that look high-end can be purchased even on a meager budget.

Covering a smelly garage sale couch with an old bedspread isn't the answer. Limited funds don't have to mean that life is limited if careful hunting and a selective eye can bring a well-decorated home into anyone's reach. Some-assemble-required furniture won't last--quality Art Deco or Mid century chairs can give a budget home a beautiful theme and a comfortable feel. Everyone deserves to feel rich at home.

Buying Antique Furniture

Antique furniture can create just the right atmosphere for the right home. However, it can be challenging to find and coordinate all the pieces you may have in your vision. The best part about antiques is that they can be one-of-a-kind, but that also makes them more difficult to find, especially when they're sold through auctions. You will have the best luck finding the pieces you want by knowing exactly what you are looking for before you even begin shopping.

1. Understand the Purpose

Before you buy any piece of antique furniture, you need to first identify why you are making that purchase. Does it have a specific function, such as replacing your art deco tables? Will you use it as a more decorative piece for a specific room? Identify its purpose so that you have a specific idea in mind.

2. Set a Budget

It's important to set a budget before you start looking for antique furniture. Antiques can get expensive quickly and it's easy to get carried away, particularly at auctions. It's also a good idea to research any items you plan on looking at ahead of time so you know what they're worth.

3. Size

Measurements are essential when buying antique tables. It's an awful feeling to bring home a beautiful antique chest or chair and realize that it doesn't fit the way you had hoped it would. Three things need to be measured: the piece of furniture, the space you're putting it in, and the doorway you're bringing it through.

4. Consider the Style

While antique is a style of furniture, it's more beneficial to think of it as a category and focus on the specific styles within that category of furniture. When making the decision to purchase antique furniture, it's important to consider the design of the room and which styles of antique furniture will complement that design. Some things to consider are hardware, wood type, and when the furniture was built.

5. Learn the Story

One of the greatest things about antique furniture is that it has a long history. Sometimes when people pass on these pieces, they also pass on information about historical trends pertaining to its style and design, when and where it was made, as well as the people who have previously owned it. Sometimes knowing the story behind a piece makes it that much more remarkable, so look carefully when making your purchase.

Mid century sideboards and more furniture works great as a focal point, decoration, or any other use you may have in mind. It can be overwhelming trying to choose the right furniture for your home, but if you follow even just a few of these tips, you will find relief in how much simpler the search will become. Start looking now!

Shopping for Quality Vintage Furniture

From solid wood to modern sawdust and glue, comparisons made between the furniture of the past and the items for sale to day can be depressing. Very little of what's made today will be around in a hundred years given the some-assembly-required pre-fabricated factory pieces in most homes. Craftsmanship and quality materials have been replaced by higher profit margins and faster manufacturing practices. The trend to look for vintage pieces rather than buying something new is merely common sense in practice.

Defining what the terms mean is a good place to start, as "vintage" is not merely a synonym for "used" no matter what the thrift stores might advertise. Collectable pieces can be anything older than 25 while vintage starts at 30 to 40 years old. The hard line to earn the title "antique" is a hundred years old. For furniture, vintage is best--it's not merely the used cast-offs of those who didn't want to take their couch with them when they moved and it's also not the beautiful but possibly fragile aged wood of a prior century. It's also smart to select an era and stay with it. While mixing and matching to create a unique look might be fun, it also might end up looking more chaotic than eclectic and sticking to a consistent style might be more effective.

Luckily, furniture through the ages has been through many shifts in design. Art Deco can have smooth lines and simple but fun shapes of antique chests and more furniture, with unexpected curves and daring finishes with interesting trim. Slightly older pieces often boast rich wood grain and detailed carvings while mid-century pieces may even have involved plastic or metal hardware that look like an old-world vision of the future. Because many of our modern-day manufacturing practices had yet to be invented, most pieces were built by hand and built to last, thus being highly functional even 50 years later.

The key is to look for gently used items that might be scratched on the surface but otherwise in good shape, with no splits in the wood or damaged hardware. As long as the piece is sturdy, structurally sound and all drawers can open and close freely, small cosmetic problems can be easily repaired. Refinishing Mid century chests piece is always possible but simply throwing a coat of paint on everything to make it all match wouldn't be a great idea. There is an art and a history to these pieces and matching the original finish honors both. 

Mismatched garage sale items are not the crux of vintage decorating. There is a deliberate process to looking for an appealing era and shopping within that style. A table is much larger than a soda can and buying vintage is a form of recycling in addition to being a way to express personal style while finding high-quality pieces for less than the price of some new furniture. Art Deco tables and chairs, art deco chests and antique sideboards still exist, just waiting to find a new home to furnish in the good old fashion way.