Us vintage loving people tend to concentrate on the beauty of our treasures in our home rather than creating practical spaces or clever storage. Let’s face it, most of the time we want our items out on display and often create a somewhat cluttered space, albeit one full of wonderful things! Here are some ideas for your home which look great but are practical too.
1. Create an outdoor washing area for your muddy boots, your garden tools or to simply fill the watering can without making a mess by adding an outdoor sink. We have made one using an old Belfast sink which stands on an old vintage coffee table which had a damaged top. This way the lovel splayed legs are still seen.
2. What about this clever way to display your kids toys? This is an old pull along cart with some extra shelves added and hung in our son’s room. It adds to the vintage vibe and it is upcycling something pretty tired too.
3. Hall spaces are often left bare or filled with too much stuff – sometimes it is hard to get the balance right. As it is the first thing you see when you arrive home, why not find a slimline vintage sideboard or display cupboard like this one where you can hide clutter away in? Our modern phone is tucked away in the cupboard while our vintage collection is shown off behind the glass doors.
image by Simon Whitmore for FW Media in Style Your Modern Vintage Home
4. We have so much bakeware which doesn’t fit in our kitchen so we have added a free standing kitchenette in the dining area. I love the fact that the kitchen now spills into the family space and what’s more, I have a cool bake station alongside my modern units.
5. Use off cuts of worktop or buy pieces of wood to make floating shelves in work areas such as these. This is our space between our house and garage so these shelves are perfect for storing bike helmets and other bits and bobs. We’ve added hooks so the kids bikes and scooters are off the floor.
6. Hide all your modern technology (especially if you have outdated technology!) behind a vintage bar. We have a record player, an ipod player, old CD player behind ours. Plus it doubles up as a DJ booth!
7. Got a trillion vintage handbags like me? To save space why not display your favourite ones on a wall – let’s face it, they are works of art after all! I’ve gone for a symmetrical pattern simply hung on nails.
8. Use vintage stacking kitchen baskets in your potting shed to store all your gardening gloves, small tools etc. Practical, thrify and also how wonderful to have zingy colours in a dark space!
9. Hide all your kid’s toys in a vintage ottoman or blanket box. We have this cute double lidded box in our daughter’s room which has so much stored away inside. Plus it doubles up as a seat and is pretty too!
image by Simon Whitmore for FW Media in Style Your Modern Vintage Home
10. We all need tonnes of storage especially for records, magazines and books. Instead of buying a book shelf, why not create this great vintage style shelving system made by my husband. The shelves are made from MDF and rounded at the edges, then painted white. The uprights used to be a broom handle! The retro vibe is accentuated by creating smaller shelves at the top.
