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By Eric Nelson


It can seem overwhelming to furnish a home, especially if it's your first house or apartment. You may not even know where to start. Visiting a giant furniture warehouse may allow you to get all the basics at one time, but will that really create a home that reflects your personality and still satisfy you in a few months? Instead, visit a vintage furniture store Paradise Valley AZ way and see if all the things you truly love come from yesteryear.

First, what makes a piece of furniture or an accessory 'vintage'? It must be of good quality, a fine example of its period. It must be at least thirty years old, while one hundred years may have passed since the item was new. It can be either handmade or mass-produced; there are many things considered collectible today that were made for tract houses in the fifties. If you find something you like, you can research it on your phone while you are standing in the store.

Things that were made over a hundred years ago are true antiques, could very well be hand-crafted, and will be priced accordingly. You may be surprised, however, at how affordable vintage things can be. Especially if you have the skill or the vision to see how a piece will look if restored and in new surroundings, you may be able to bring home real bargains. Even getting a chair upholstered or a sofa slip-covered may be cheaper than buying equal quality new.

Older furniture is often very well made, especially in comparison with new pieces. Newer bureaus often have plywood backs, plastic runners for the drawers, and crudely wrought drawer pulls. Their glue-on feet may fall off in a year or two. Older pieces may be solid wood throughout, without a trace of plastic anywhere.

Do you want to save the planet? Keeping older pieces out of the landfills is a worthy goal, so re-use and re-purpose things from yesteryear. You can luxuriate in exotic woods without worrying about cutting down the rainforest. Older finishes and fabrics will have long since off-gassed any harmful toxins, so you home's interior spaces will be healthier, too.

Using vintage pieces will surely make your home stand out from others in your neighborhood. You might want to stick to one style, choosing furniture for every room from one period. You can even accessorize to match, using lamps, china, and glass from the period. It isn't hard to find fabrics for pillows and curtains, rugs, and pictures that invoke period rooms.

You can also make your home unique by using older things you like no matter what era they come from. If you like them, chances are they will all fit together. When you learn about them, you can tell your family and guests what makes each thing special. You can pull it all together with color, or find a certain theme that will unite the whole.

Think about getting your basic furnishings at an affordable price and then slowly developing your taste as you stroll through shop after shop. Once your eye is trained, you can find treasures at thrift shops, bargains at second-hand furniture stores, and unique pieces at specialty shops. It's amazingly fun to live with things that have a rich history of their own.




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