Every single thing you place in your home tells a story. Antique accessories are how you can add layers of character, reveal your personality, and tell the story of you and your family at home.  Antiques compliment newer pieces, and work in harmony in traditional as well as very modern homes to give your home a lived-in curated look. Here’s How To Choose Antique Decorative Accessories for your home.

Antiques fill our need for a connection to the past, to bring a sense of history to our rooms, and to believe in a story. The juxtaposition of contemporary pieces with antiques keeps your home fresh and alive. Your rooms should be comfortable spaces with character and beauty.

Each time you come home, your rooms should elevate your mood, bring you pleasure, and be beautiful to you and up-lifting. A sanctuary,  a place for you, your family and friends to retreat to in comfort and joy from our busy often harried world.

There really aren’t any rules for finding the perfect antiques for your home. If you find something you love, you’ll always find a place for it at home.

Some Tips on How To Choose Antique Decorative Accessories

TAKE YOUR TIME

First of all, it takes time to add all the perfect and beautiful antique pieces to your rooms that give you joy. Accessorizing your rooms at home takes time so it doesn’t look like someone else’s home, or a showroom.

Often, our FrenchGardenHouse clients are looking for a special antique that speaks to their heart. An antique catches their eye because they have sweet memories attached to it: reminding them of their best friend’s parents house, or a vacation cottage in France where they spent many happy summer vacations.  Special pieces like that take time to find, to fall in love with, and to buy!

BUY WHAT YOU LOVE.

This is pretty much my advice for buying anything, but especially when decorating your rooms at home.  Choose antique pieces that make your heart beat faster, and make you smile, and not because it’s the latest trend. Trends come and go, but storied, well used and worn antiques are classics…and if you love them, they’ll bring you joy each and every single day.

You kitchen is a perfect place to add antiques, here at home we have antique ironstone that we use almost every day, antique wood spoons and mashers, antique French cutting boards that we use for chopping and serving a charcuterie, antique copper pans, antique linens, all work happily in our very modern kitchen. They bring the kitchen to life, and when I use these antique pieces, I get such warm memories of my grandmama’s kitchen in Europe, and most importantly of HER!

HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR

Don’t be afraid to show off something fun! Things that are quirky, and slightly ‘strange’ always add a little bit of fun and excitement to every home! Throughout my life I’ve been drawn to little, funny pieces. The first time I came home from a shopping trip with a small, wood toy horse meant for little people to ride on at 16 my Mom thought I was really odd. “ What on earth will you do with that?” was her question. Our family proudly displayed that little horse for decades, my girls rode on it as little ones, after that it had pride of place in all our living rooms. It was a fun addition, shabby, worn, but with great character!

If you love dolls and children’s toys, display them in your home! For years I had a shelf with little antique dolls and sheep in an antique armoire that held our silver and crystal collection. Just. for. fun. I loved it, and guests always seemed more than enchanted with the collection – it prompted many of them to begin their own collection to bring back sweet childhood memories.

CURATE COLLECTIONS

Often adding a few antique accessories ignites and excites a collecting passion. For many of our clients It becomes a lifetime obsession to find antique pieces to make a room one that makes everyone smile each time they enter. Flaunt it if you’ve got it! Collections of pottery or textiles make wonderful displays in any room, they make a statement about what you love.

Antique accessories have so much to bring to the table. They are well made, they have ‘ patina’ – that indescribable look of time with a few scratches, a glorious ‘ glow’ that only time can add to things.  Adding antique accessories to your home brings the past to life, it will capture your imagination! More than anything, the warmth that antiques can give your home s immeasurable—they make it feel lived-in and personal. They are pieces you want to pass on.

It’s the slightly quirky things that are not perfect that give your home character. My decorator friends, when designing rooms for clients, love to find and use antiques and vintage accessories because they give rooms instant character.

PS. We’re awaiting a major tropical storm “Hilary” today, so I’m not 100% sure I can reply to your comments today. As soon as I can, I will! Thank you so much for reading and for your kindest support of my blog and my business. I appreciate you!!

A BIENTOT

Shop for the best in French Antiques, furniture with the patina of age, vintage accessories to delight you and your family & friends, and French Country utilitarian pieces. Treasures that make your home fresh, beautiful, inspirational and above all uniquely yours. Visit our shop FrenchGardenHouse.com