Whether you stumbled across a have-to-have treasure at an antique store or inherited the motherlode of cherished family heirlooms, the question of how to work it into your modern decor without creating a muddled mishmash remains the same. And we have answers. 

Tips to Mix Old & New

• To create a cohesive look, strive to keep about 80% of your decor in the same style. As for the other 20%? Play around and have fun layering in your heritage pieces. 

• Consider shapes as your guiding light for blending old and new designs. Heirlooms with ornate details and rounded, curvy features will go well with traditional, glam, or formal styles. Clean lines and streamlined features pair beautifully with modern decor. 

• When choosing new-to-you old pieces to complement your decor, look for commonalities like shapes, wood and color tones, and similar materials. 

• Red wood tones can be prevalent in antique furniture; pair them with natural materials like stone or marble. 

• It can be challenging to mix reddish wood pieces with other woods. Light blonde wood tones offer a pleasing relief. To make red tones work with wood floors, a rug with similar tones creates visual separation and redistributes the red throughout the room. 

• If your heirlooms are substantial in size, offset the weight with lighter, slim lines. Same goes for color. Contrast visually dark and heavy pieces with lighter colors.

Room-By-Room Ideas 

Add touches of vintage to every room with these quick and easy ideas. 

Living Room

Pair an antique sofa with uber-modern tables and accents to shine the spotlight on your vintage treasure.

Reframe antique maps, art, and signs in new streamlined frames to add a modern vibe. Mix and match vintage art with modern art, sculptural wall decor, and wall shelves to create a gallery wall with a collected-over-time look.

Bedroom

• Give your feet a soft landing each morning by layering a thick, modern patterned rug over your vintage rug.

• Antique side tables with fun, quirky lighting gives your bedroom style a sense of history without being stuffy about it. 

Kitchen & Dining 

• Display all sizes of vintage jars and canisters filled with cookies, spices, and dry goods on open shelving to create a homespun market vibe.

• Place modern chairs, or a funky mix of old and new chairs, around a vintage table.

Bathroom

• Store cotton balls, swabs, soaps, and other bathroom necessities in an eclectic collection of ginger jars. 

• Place antique wire baskets of rolled towels on open shelves for easy grabbing.

Looking for more style inspo? Browse our blog for more unique design tips and tricks!