Fresh Ideas for Vintage Linens

Flea Market Collection

Has your spring cleaning left you with a load of old fabric you don’t know what do with? Expert collector of international textiles Pandora de Balthazar has shared with us her top tips for decorating with linens:

FMD: What are some of your favorite unexpected ways to decorate with vintage linens?

Pandora: I love to create a white background and apply textiles of color to recreate my favorite moods or seasons. Another is to take antique shams and make slipcovers—instant gratification! Napkins make wonderful TV-tray covers. I use hand towels to make slipcovers, bed skirts, window treatments, and as floor cloths next to my bed and as hand towels. Now, that’s recycling!

FMD: Care to offer inspirations for using textiles in a home?

Pandora: There aren’t any “wrongs” when it comes to making your home beautiful. But it is terribly wrong in my opinion to neglect the comfort and rejuvenation of body needs. Vintage textiles provide the texture, color, beauty and art you need to create a restful sanctuary in your home; they can also absorb noise, create comfortable surfaces and provide tactile beauty that a rested body can enjoy. Make sure the beauty within matches the beauty on the outside.

What are you doing with your vintage linens this spring? Share with us in the comments below!


By Jickie Torres

Post Shared By Flea Market 

Decorating with Flea Market Finds

Tour these stylish rooms, filled with flea market finds, for great ideas on how to display your own vintage treasures.

Changing lampshades is an easy way to update a favorite lamp. And in long rooms, old doors can be used to divide living areas to create nooks.

An 1870s weathervane takes folk art to high style on an antique table still sporting its original paint. Don’t be afraid to mix high- and low-style items. Mixing things up will keep your rooms interesting.

To add character to the dining room, Susan simply propped two vintage doors against the wall. Their rustic charm provides texture and interest. When working with architectural salvage pieces, take a cue from Susan and think outside of the box.

Create vignettes with your favorite finds to infuse spaces with warmth and style.

Stacking this collection of 1800s-1920s blankets helps keep clutter at bay and makes a colorful display.

The weathered texture on this country table mixes well with modern chairs made from reclaimed wood.

If you prefer uncluttered spaces, keep your collections organized behind doors. This 1870s cupboard holds antique stoneware and glassware.

Timeworn pieces like the stool and oars mix beautifully with new linens. Make thoughtful choices when blending old and new, keeping in mind the overall look of the room you wish to create.

The blue hue of this vintage mirror is the result of natural copper aging. To age a new metal-framed mirror, use a patina gel, available at craft stores.

By Hillary Black
Photography by Mark Tanner
Styled by Jacqueline deMontravel

Shared by - Flea Market

Art and Architecture: America’s Gothic Revival

Descending from medieval Gothic cathedrals and England’s Gothic Revival, “Carpenter Gothic” is a visually playful American architectural style. In her book Storybook Cottages, Gladys Montgomery explores the history, people and technology behind this picturesque style still beloved today.

{Credit in caption: Photograph by Brian Vanden Brink, from Storybook Cottages by Gladys Montgomery, © Rizzoli 2011.}

In beautiful photographs, architectural renderings and illustrations from pattern books of the time, Montgomery showcases the style’s hallmarks: steep gables, pointed arches, windows and doors, and elaborate gingerbread trim. From the tiny cottages at Oak Bluff, Massachusetts, that began as a Methodist retreat to the lavish Lyndhurst high-style Gothic Revival residence in Tarrytown, New York, Montgomery offers a lot both to readers who know and love Carpenter Gothic and to those who are learning of it for the first time.

Montgomery includes a section on the Carpenter Gothic garden as well as a few ideas on incorporating the style into your home, such as imitating its architectural elements—for example, make a headboard, door frame, or window with a pointed wooden arch. For more ideas, check out Montgomery’s book: Storybook Cottages: America’s Carpenter Gothic Style, published by Rizzoli New York, © 2011. Visit rizzoliusa.com.

By Hillary Black

Source: Victorian Home

Bathroom Textiles and Linens

You may have spotted our Q&A on bedroomsandbathsmag.com with Pandora de Balthazar, a master collector and textile expert who’s been sharing with us her expert tips for creating a luxurious bedroom. Curious about her advice for a lavish bathroom? Read on!

B&B: In the bathroom, where people don’t often think of textiles and linens, what are some of your favorite ways to use fabric?

Pandora: Hand towels are in residence daily. They are softer [than paper towels], have many uses and are much more genteel.

B&B: Also much more practical and healthful for the environment.

Pandora: Yes. And in my home, café curtains are de riguer; I can recycle those for use in the bedrooms and as door treatments when necessary. I also make shower curtains or drapes from antique sheets or bedcovers that are too small for today’s large beds. It’s a beautiful and simple look.

By Jickie Torres

We Love: Flour Power

Reuse what you have in romantic ways. Pick up home decorating ideas from items you may already have around the house. Today, we shine a little light on vintage flour sifters for many purposes they fulfill. 

Not only do we love vintage flour sifters for their nostalgic and practical appeal, but they also make colorful utensil holders.

You can find them in an array of designs at antique shops and flea markets.

Display them on your kitchen counter or atop the cabinets and fridge for instant country charm. Then place your cooking utensils inside for a look that will serve you a smile as you reach for the spatula.

Photography by Jacqueline deMontravel

Tips to Take a Look from Work to Home

As a shopkeeper for an antiques store, Sally McNellis employs a few tricks of the trade in her own home. Here are a few of her tried-and-true secrets:

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• Start with the simplicity of white furniture and build from there.

• Use lots of fabric with basic white as the background, then bring in
floral prints to add pop to a room.

• Artwork adds personality to a space. Sally pulls anything from originals to antiques to fill her store.

• Be reasonable about how the item fits in with your lifestyle. Your
furniture and accessories should work for you, not against you.

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By Regan-Elyse Elder
Photography by Jaimee Itagaki
Styled by Jacqueline de Montravel

Shared by Cottages and Bunglaows

How to Enhance a Historic Home

The right architect and contractor will enhance a historic home’s aesthetic integrity.

The true value of the renovation of an old house is not being able to tell that any alterations were made. Architect Carol Tink-Fox chose to put the addition on Kara Kosinski’s garage instead of on the main house to maintain what she calls the “cute cottage character” of the historic home. “By making a separate small building, we kept the new space historically in context,” she says.

Home Cottages

Here is what she did to link the past and the present:

• A steep-pitched roof and attic were added to the flat-roofed garage, which also has a historic designation.
• The home’s exterior color scheme was repeated on the addition and garage.
• Heavy-timber beams along the breezeway with diagonal braces evoke the feel of those of the main house.
• Windows and French doors open the guest room to the beautifully landscaped backyard. Because the garage is on a slab, unlike the house, there are no steps to go down to enter the garden.
• The old swing-style garage doors, which looked like barn doors, were replicated. Contractor Scot Lewis custom built the fully weather-proofed doors using tongue and grove pine with solid brass oil-rubbed bronze hinges.

By Nancy A. Ruhling
Photography by Jaimee Itagaki
Styled by Molly Kosinski and Hillary Black

Shared By Cottages And Bungalows