Going Vintage

This post originally appeared as a guest post at Meridian Road in September.

Once upon a time, I used to go to Rod Works or Tai-Pan Trading and drool over the pretty home-décor items there. But then I was bothered that I would see the same things repeated in houses up and down the neighborhood.  The “blog world” has opened my eyes to a new kind of decorating, and over time, I have learned that I prefer to have unique items with a history in my home, rather than cookie-cutter tsotchkes!

Today I wanted to share some of the vintage treasures I am slowly collecting for my home. They are probably old, usually imperfect, but definitely loved!

I found these two pieces of baseboard at an architectural salvage stop. There are at least three layers of paint on them! I like to imagine what kind of building they must have been in…something very grand to have 12” baseboards!

I have a very small collection of doorknobs. Yep, those three are the entire collection! I found the little wrought-iron piece at an antique store for $5. I don’t have a clue what it was originally for, but it makes my tiny collection a real conversation piece!

The three jars are vintage European canning jars. There capacity (in liters) is pressed into the bottom. Yes, these are the same jars that Pottery Barn sells for a couple hundred dollars. I found mine at a flea market for considerably less! Inside the smallest is my set of letterpress blocks. If you could see all the way around, you would see that they spell out “Harvest” on the bottom. I absolutely love typography (I don’t supposed that’s a big secret anymore)!

My rustic wooden bowl was a belated birthday present this year. My husband had tried to buy me something I wanted at a local vintage consignment shop, but it was gone by the time he got there. So he gave me a gift certificate instead! About a week later, this small dough bowl came home with me!

The bowl is filled with four hand-knit pumpkins I made a few years ago. I like the juxtaposition of textures.

My newly-created suitcase wall is a collection in and of itself!  But it’s also a fun place to display other treasures—like the folding yardstick I got from Suzanne that sits next to my grandfather’s cloth-and-metal tape measure.

If you thought three items was a small collection, how about two? To this day, my husband cannot remember what these are: wire flower frogs. And when I tell him, I think he’s still at a loss as to why they’re sitting next to his lamp.

Because I like them, that’s why!

The big wooden “pedestal” is actually a leg off an old German piano. It’s another treasure from my favorite consignment shop…it spoke to me! What’s a girl to do??

Oh, look, another collection of three! I found three glass insulators FOR FREE on my birthday! They’re probably not real collector’s items…but they were obviously meant for me.

Oh, that enamelware pitcher in the back? Well, you caught me out…it’s from IKEA!

Thanks for sharing my treasures with me. I’m curious…has the blog world affected your decorating style? I would love to know!

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Linking up at The Shabby Nest, My Repurposed Life, Simple Home Life, Coastal Charm, From My Front Porch to Yours, House of Hepworths, No Minimalist Here, 2805, A Little Knick Knack, Common Ground, and My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia.