How to Mix Vintage & Modern Furniture

If you want to design a room with eclectic style, try mixing vintage and modern furniture. Combining furniture from different periods can make your room look like you've spent years acquiring the perfect decor, but figuring out the right mix of vintage and modern can be challenging. Follow a few simple guidelines to make your space look well-curated and tastefully designed, and to avoid creating a room plagued by an arbitrary assortment of décor.

1
Stick to one or two vintage pieces and use them as focal points in your design. If you focus on just a few funky furniture pieces, you'll avoid creating a design that looks too busy.

2
Find a transitional piece. If you can find an object that connects the vintage and modern elements in your room, it will give the design a more unified look.

3
Use color to tie your furniture together. Pepper your room design with vintage and modern pieces that feature a specific color. Color is a great way to create a unifying theme within your room design.

4
Choose pieces that are the same scale. If you decided to match a low-lying, modern coffee table with a tall, Queen Anne-style sofa, your room design will look awkward. The easiest way to avoid a mismatched room is to find styles that share a design ethic. For example, modern country furniture would look great with shabby chic vintage pieces. Mid-century modern, on the other hand, mixes well with Japanese-style antiques.

5
Make over vintage pieces to give them a modern look. Re-upholster or repaint vintage furniture with eye-popping colors to give them a contemporary feel. Just a little unexpected color will give your room vintage modern appeal.

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What Is Vintage Furniture?

By Linda Stamberger, eHow Contributor updated: June 30, 2010

Vintage furniture is not considered antique. Antique furniture is 100 years or older. Vintage furniture is under 100 years old. Antique furniture was made from wood, aside from upholstered material and fabrics. Vintage furniture is from the 20th century, when plastics such as resin and Lucite were invented. Metals were also used in furniture manufacturing. Metals used in furniture design include aluminum, chrome and steel. Furniture that is vintage was also designed during various notable furniture movements, such as the Art Deco and Modernist movements.

History
Art deco furniture was manufactured from 1920 to 1939. This furniture was designed after the Victorian era, when furniture was hand-made from dark wood. Tapestries and patterned silks were part of the adornment on chairs. Art deco furniture is the most important vintage furniture genre, because the pieces manufactured were made when plastics, metals and plywood were being combined to create both artistic and functional furniture--something never done before.

Significance
When Art Deco came into existence, times were changing in American history, due to the Industrial Revolution. With the advent of conveyor belts and mass production, gone were the days of furniture makers tinkering laboriously with hand-made furniture. Machines became even more advanced during the 1930s. Producing furniture parts by the hundreds, even thousands per day was commonplace. This led to a surplus of this style furniture, and popularity grew from the affordability of the furniture and its sleek design. Popular Art Deco designers in America included Paul Frankl and Kem Weber.

Time Frame
Art Deco had a resurgence after falling out of fashion in the war-torn years of WWII during the 1940s. There was also a new age in art and culture, and the furniture reflected the Cubist movement inspired by Pablo Picasso, Henry Matisse and many artists who set the trends in art in the 1950s.

Identification
There was a period of vintage furniture called Modern. Sometimes the furniture is also referred to as Retro Modern, or Mid-century Modern. Modern furniture was made during the mid 1950s, and was similar in style to Art Deco, with the use of lightweight metals, like aluminum for chair and table legs. Often the metal was bent in odd geometric shapes, and encompassed a design theme that complimented the Modern Art movement of the time.

Function
The furniture was both functional and artistic. Chairs were made from lightweight metals, but with rounded backs of resin plastic or plywood, they were also made for comfort. Plusher materials such as leather and fur were used as fabrics on chairs and sofas. The furniture was made to be used, yet it was bold and didn't lack in elegance or luxury.

Manufacturers
Popular Art Deco modern and Mid-century Modern furniture manufacturers were Heywood Wakefield, Charles and Ray Eames, Dunbar, Herman Miller, Florence Knoll George Nakashima, Paul McCobb, George Nelson, Alvar Aalto, Hans Wegner, Edward Wormley, Harvey Probber, Paul Evans and Frank Lloyd Wright. German modern furniture made during this time period from the Bauhaus School of Design is also prized by collectors.


Visit: ehow.com for related articles... Visit: nicolewoodinteriors.blogspot.com for Mid Century and Antique Furniture

THE BASICS! Here is a great article on refinishing antiques from: WWW.ICANFIXUPMYHOME.COM

Restoring Collectable and Antique Furniture:


A Detailed Cleaning and Using Hide Glue for Repairs Yields New Life

© 2008 by Kelly Smith all rights reserved




Read on for a step by step guide for the do-it-yourselfer on repairing and refinishing antique or collectible vintage furniture. This guide focuses on finishes, joinery techniques, and using hide glue.

A similar restoration topic that’s been popular recently is restoring vintage kitchen cabinets. Many people use cold winter months for these interior chores.


Antique Furniture is Just Built Better

Today, mass produced furniture made of particle board and veneer is everywhere. It’s cheap and has a short life span compared to older pieces. It’s nice to acquire hardwood antique furniture, especially if it has been handed down through the generations.

What constitutes an antique? As defined by the TV show Antiques Roadshow, it’s “an object of considerable age valued for its aesthetic or historical significance. In the antiques trade, the term refers to objects more than 100 years old.”

For someone lucky enough to have a piece or two of valuable furnishings, but could use a face lift or structural repair, there are several things to keep in mind. This article spells them out for you.


Keep Vintage Furniture Antique, Officially

Before rolling up your sleeves, the primary consideration is this: “Exactly how much restoration am I going for here?” The main reason to follow the rules with antique furniture refinishing and repair is that the key to keeping the antique designation and its monetary value is not altering the original materials like the type of glue.

For example, if a chair’s legs have loosened up and need to be tightened up. You absolutely may not use the modern powerful wood glues such as Gorilla Grip. The piece will lose its antique status. More on that later.


First, A Thorough Furniture Cleaning

The initial step to take in the restorative process is a thorough cleaning. You need to know what you've got to work with. Here is what you will need:

High quality wood cleaner/dewaxer. Read the instructions to ensure it’s appropriate for your piece.
Soft cleaning cloths
A Toothbrush
A bag of #0000 steel or bronze wool
A sharpened 1/4” dowel, if there is carving or crevasses. Hint: there should be a setting for this on your pencil sharpener.


The Cleaning Procedure

Begin with a light cleaning to remove wax, grime and dust. Use a steel or bronze wool pad very lightly if needed on stubborn areas, but not to the extent that it is noticeably different in adjacent areas.

Understand that some antiques have a painted finish, similar to a stain, to make the grain more pronounced. Obviously, you don”t want to use steel wool there. Instead, use the toothbrush.

Furniture sometimes features intricate carving. Begin by cleaning the low spots with the toothbrush. Gently massage the deeper areas with your pointed dowel when necessary.


How Does the Finish Look after the First Step?

Conduct an examination when you”re finished with the cleaning. Is it acceptable? Remember that it”s an antique and should have that look.

In other words, when the finish isn”t too bad, stop. Some tiny defects add character. Many times, vintage finishes achieve a cracked appearance, looking like crazed porcelain, that”s part of aging. This is not a bad thing.


Antique Furniture Structural Repair

In the case of things like missing chair legs, that must be matched or replaced, if you aren”t a competent woodworker with wood shop equipment, think seriously about taking that work to a nearby cabinet shop.

If it just has a case of the wobbles you can probably work it apart; it's loose already. The joint is probably mortise and tenon or tongue in groove in a leg. In a drawer, a box (finger) or dovetail joint.

Clean the mating surfaces well once the pieces are apart.


Use Hide Glue and Clamp

As mentioned above, you must duplicate the original glue. On true antiques, this is most likely “hide glue”. It's named that because because it is made from processed animal hides. Use this when reassembling the piece. It's hard to find locally, but it is available online. Just search in the Rockler text box widget on the right.

Although hide glue tends to be self-clamping once it starts to gel, it”s a good idea to use wood clamps anyway, just to be safe. This glue is still used to assemble wind instruments like violins because components can be taken apart without breaking the wood. Sometimes the old ways are the best.