Happy Friday! I am happy to introduce Eva as a guest post for today! She has some great inspiration for us, as well as some clarification for design styles!

Vintage with Elegance

Hello Simple Dwellings readers. I am Eva Stephen from Shop 4 Furniture and I am feeling so happy and excited about being guest here. I dedicate my guest post to the fans of vintage styling and decoration as I am also a vintage fan.

In recent years, the hot trend for bedrooms has often revolved around the ‘shabby chic’ style. Old pieces of furniture and well-chosen antiques have all held a place close to our hearts in our most intimate room in the house, and for once many of us have learned to accept the flaws and tattiness that comes with original pieces as part of their charm and have embraced the shabbiness of older furniture.

Image Credit: Pinterest

As time has moved on, so have tastes, and today it seems that the style to embrace in our sleeping quarters has more of a vintage flavour. You might be forgiven for thinking that vintage and shabby chic are one and the same, but when you start to scratch the surface of these styles, you will start to see that there are some fundamental differences in creating that perfect look for your contemporary bedroom.

Vintage vs. shabby chic – what’s the difference?
Over the past decade or so, vintage has risen from the depths of totally uncool to become one of the hottest trends around. In fact it seems to have swept up everyone from the old rockabillies of the 40’s through to the lovers of 80’s chic and emerged as a fairly dominant sub culture in the world of style. But what does ‘vintage’ mean, and how do you get the look?
Here are some key points about vintage style, which can relate to everything from clothing to furniture and even music:

• Vintage means ‘original’, so no reproduction items here!
• Good vintage items will capture the style of a period
• Vintage items can be anything from 30 to 100 years old, as long as they are original and represent the style of an era
• The hottest form of vintage style is definitely revolving around the 20’s to the 40’s, although you could focus on the 80’s and still be classed as ‘vintage’.

Image Credit: Pinterest

Shabby chic, on the other hand, has been a popular style of decorating and furnishing a home over the past decade or so. The style hasn’t really applied itself to clothing or music, and is really only used to describe furniture, soft furnishings and ornaments. The whole ethos of it is to give the home a pleasantly worn, distressed look and feel, whether the pieces in the room are truly old or not.
Here are the key points about shabby chic style, which you can compare and contrast with the vintage elements above:
• Shabby is all about looking old, worn and distressed
• Often pieces of ‘shabby chic’ are actually not period pieces, but more modern items that have been purposely fashioned to look older and more tired
• A typical shabby chic piece will be heavily painted, often in white but also sometimes in pastel shades, and frequently the finish will be rough and scratched in places
• Shabby chic allows for new creations and homemade styles, using old fabrics to customise or upcycle things like chairs and cushions to match your style

So, in summary, vintage items are period pieces, whereas shabby items can be non-period but customised to match the style.

Getting that vintage look in your bedroom

For many people, the vintage style holds lots of positive elements, particularly in the bedroom environment. Some householders may not relish the idea of having shabby looking pieces and peeling paint in their bedrooms, so the introduction of a vintage style allows them to create their own, unique look whilst still keeping everything clean and in good condition.

The elements of a vintage bedroom are easy to adopt, without spending a fortune. Soft colours, textured fabrics and delicate patterns all add up to create that vintage style you are looking for. The beauty of vintage styles is that you have the flexibility to create a style that is all your own, as there are no set rules or formulas to follow. However you choose to create your vintage bedroom, you are sure to be able to inject your own personality and style into the mix. Don’t feel like you have to spend a fortune on iconic pieces for your room, as many great bargains can be found in charity shops, car boot sales and online auctions. Once you know what you’re looking for, hunting out those bargains will be half the fun in creating your unique vintage bedroom style!

Thanks for being here, Eva! I love what you have put together. And great design definitely doesn’t have to cost a fortune! Classifying the 80’s as Vintage definitely makes me feel old!  🙂 Thanks for inspiring us today.