Antique Furniture Hides Modern in Older Home

Tasteful decorating can become a nightmare fast if you are living in an older home without unlimited funds. Antique furniture is expensive to buy while modern lifestyles clash with the intended house design. There's simply no place to put a computer, television, or microwave inside of an older home so that it looks nice visually. Or is there?

How to use the art of blending today into yesterday: The very first thing that older home decorators realize is that they can not give up their modern lifestyles for the sake of interior eye-appeal; good lighting, appliances, and our faithful friend, "Mr. Computer", must all co-exist inside of our older home with us. Our goal must be to repackage the new inside of an old shell that will blend with our older home walls and intended architectural designs.

Almost free antique furniture: Not all beautiful antique furniture costs a lot of money. Start keeping your eyes on yard-sales, thrift stores, and trash piles for old tube-style radio and television cabinets.

These heavy early luxuries are hiding in attics and basements all over America today; too heavy to move, and too expensive at the time to throw out. Cabinets come in highly decorative cherry wood, mahogany, and other popular true antique furniture looks.

When finding one of these almost free pieces of pretty antique furniture, do not try to move it while it is heavy. Unscrew from the bottom or back, and slide the radio or television unit out of your antique furniture. Pick up the lightweight cabinet with one hand and leave the rest lying on the trash pile where you found it.

Another place to look for interesting modern lifestyle covers is in the trash piles of remodeling projects. Prior to the 1960's people used tall cupboards to store home-canned foods. These pieces of almost free antique furniture are normally free standing and come in either rustic or decorative woods.

When finding one of these canning cupboards, plan to spend some hours in cleaning before moving it into your home. It is easy to make a rustic antique furniture cabinet into a painted wood decorative antique furniture cabinet by gluing on wall trim scrolls and then adding paint. These cabinets come in double-wide to accommodate larger TV's.

Almost free antique furniture tricks for modern lifestyles: Inside of old home walls are wood parts called lath and plaster. Old lath boards can have the plaster Shop Vac'd off to show hand saw marks on the old wood. These vintage, thin, easily cut, and easily glued wood strips turn gorgeous when you dip them into a pan of polyurethane and hang like clothing to drip dry.

Use a product like wood glue or Liquid Nails to attach old lath strips in a nice pattern on your freezer, washer, new security door, or anywhere else that would look nicer in pretty old wood instead of the modern lifestyles look. These lath boards are always free to good home from remodeling or demolition projects. Always wear a dust mask around plaster.

During the late 1960's and early 1970's we had a brief revival period where hippies dabbled in making stained glass lamp shades; manufacturers soon followed the trend, but the important thing is: they were using old glass supplies up.

For stained glass lampshades to cover your modern lighting, shop eBay. 5.00 will buy you a hippie era hanging slag glass - stained glass lamp shade that is easily converted to a table lamp shade that appears to be as old as the glass they were using. When ordering, ask the seller to remove the heavy hanging chains and to throw them out before shipping.

Conclusion: The art of blending yesterday into today starts with the realization that you must package today into visual boxes from yesterday to make today fit into your home. When you start noticing what antique furniture pieces it is that shoppers are ignoring, it is easy to start coming up with ideas on how to redo those unloved oldies into your best loved antique furniture pieces while on a budget. Good luck with your projects!