Decorating Your Home With Antiques

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working in a consignment furniture store that saw its fair share of antique and vintage pieces. The guy I worked for was a lover of wood furniture, just like I was, and taught me a few important tips:

• You don't have to decorate your entire home with only antique or vintage furntiture and decor. Mix up items from different eras to emphasize each other.
• When you use modern items to accent antique or vintage furniture, choose items that match the furniture in terms of colour, pattern, material, or visual or physical texture. Sometimes that's as simple as choosing the right throw pillow.
• A lot of classic furniture was designed for a society whose average height and size was smaller than that of today. Such furniture is often extremely uncomfortable - for example, chairs. Then add in wear and tear over the years. But instead of refinishing the item, maintain its value and supplement it with some other item of decor. For example, some seat cushions make a chair more comfortable, without having to be refinished or re-upholstered.
  

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://antique-collections.blogspot.com/

Technorati Tags: antiques, antique furniture, vintage furniture, home decor, decorating

Maintaining the Value of Your Antique and Vintage Items

TV shows like "The Antiques Roadshow" (and the Canadian edition) have sparked a great deal of interest in yesterday's treasures. But one of the biggest mistakes a new collector makes is having a piece refinished.

In almost every situation, refinishing a piece of classic furniture completely devalues it.
Suffice it to say that most collectors are sentimental types. So for most collectors, it is the existing condition, no matter how scratched up and worn out, that actually matters. In such a condition, the item is a piece of history.

If, on the other hand, you've acquired a lovely piece that you never intend to sell, refinishing it might be a consideration, for aesthetic reasons. If you are sourcing the item out, make sure that the business you hire knows the period, knows the piece or designer, and thus can restore the item with it's appropriate characteristics.

(c) Copyright: 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://antique-collections.blogspot.com/

Technorati Tags: antiques, antique furniture, vintagefurniture, home decor, decorating

Antique and Vintage Jewelry Designs

For those of you with an interest in antique and vintage jewelry, there is an excellent wire- and silver-crafting jewelry design book, replete with several dozen detailed designs. The majority of the designs are early 20th century. All are wire based.

The book is:

Jewelry Making and Design
An illustrated text book for Teachers,
Students of Design, and Craft Workers in Jewelry
Augustus F. Rose and Antonio Cirino
Metal Crafts Publishing Co.
Providence, R.I.
Copyright 1917

As I understand it, the book's copyright has expired, which means it is in the public domain. I have been sketching my own wire-work jewelry designs, influenced by this book. A few of the designs are over at my "RingBling - Chainmaille and Wire Jewelry" blog. However, that blog hasn't been updated in a while. I'll be posting more designs there in the future, once I can a bit of time to copy my pencil sketches into my computer.

Some Item Categories For This Blog

Here is a summary of the types of items that this blog and the main website (currently under construction) will focus on:

1. Antique, vintage, and collectible furniture, art, decor.
2. Antique and vintage silverware and china.
3. Antique and vintage clothing, jewelry, watches and other fashion accessories, or reasonable artistic replicas.
   

This list is subject to change. In the event that it does change, this blog entry will be reposted with a newer date.

Message to Collectors and General Consumers

We are in the midst of teaming up with several antique and vintage dealers. Watch this space for updates. A dedicated website is also in the works. The site will included tips on purchasing and caring for antique and vintage items, where to get salvage materials, information on replicas, and more.

Message to Antique, Vintage and Collectible Dealers

This blog is about antiques, and is both informative guide and catalog. We welcome dealers of household antique, vintage, and collectible items to join us by providing both tips on the purchase and care of items, as well as descriptions of items currently available.

Our focus is on household items (furniture, art, china, silverware, decor) and jewelry and watches. Clothing items are acceptable provided they are at least 50 years or older. We are not currently nterested in general pop culture items such as trading cards or TV memorabilia. (We will set up another blog/portal if demand warrants it.)

If you are interested in being part of this blog/ portal, please contact us at rdash001@yahoo.ca. To avoid being filtered out as spam, please put at least the phrase "Antiques Blogging" in the subject line of your email. We will respond as soon as possible and provide you with info about our rates (for hosting pictures of items as well as a profile page for each dealer).

Some Definitions of Antique, Vintage and Collectible Items

This is a very rough guide to defining the terms "antique", "vintage" and "collectible", and we reserve the right to modify this post as necessary.

antique: An item that is 100 years or older.

vintage: An item that is 50-99 years old.

collectible: An item that is 10-49 years old.

Welcome to the Antique and Vintage Collections Blog

The Antique and Vintage Collections blog is a hybrid blog that is a combination of both information and promotion. Antique and vintage item collectors are always looking for that special piece. What we done is team up with a number of antique/vintage item dealers (furniture, china, jewelry, art, etc.) to create a portal blog.

This blog will offer readers two things:

(1) General tips and information on antique, vintage, and collectible items.
(2) Specific descriptions of items that are available for purchase from different dealers and vendors.

There will also be advertising to support the publishers of this blog, who will be overseeing the daily posting of entries and photos, as well as profiles.

All item-specific posts will be written by the dealer offering the available item. So in essence, this blog is both catalog and guide.