Top 7 Tips for Buying Vintage Furniture

Vintage furniture is all the rage right now and filling your home with a mixture of styles from different eras is very chic and stylish. Heading out on your first vintage furniture hunt can be quite daunting – what are you looking for? How do you know it is genuine vintage? What is vintage in comparison to antique anyway? This blog covers the top 7 tips from Heritage Components on finding that vintage gem for your home. 1)   Vintage vs Antique: For a piece of furniture to class as vintage, it needs to be about 30 to 40 years old. Antique furniture is 100 years old or more. 2)   Find the source: Do a little research into the vintage shops in your area and go down to chat to the owner and look around. Don’t impulse buy on your first visit. Pop in regularly and see what turnover they have of new furniture and get a feel for what you like/dislike. Build a relationship with the owner and let them know your style and what you are looking for. They may be able to give you a call when a new piece comes in that you may like and so on. 3)    Good structure: The first factor you need to assess with a piece of vintage furniture is its structure. Remember that every era had its good and bad furniture designers, so not all vintages are worth it. Look for sturdy frames and drawers that open and close easily. 4)   Scratches: You want to look for furniture that has been kindly used over the years and isn’t too beaten up. This does not mean that you are looking for furniture with no scratches, as this would be very hard to do. You can always professionally refinish your vintage furniture or just leave the odd scratch as they add to the overall character of the furniture. 5)   Bargaining: Generally speaking, you can usually strike a deal with vintage furniture shop owners. Use those scratches and defects to your advantage and see if you can barter a little to get the price down. 6)   How will it look in your home? There is chic and stylish and then there is odd and awkward. You need to make sure that your piece of vintage furniture fits into the intended space you have allocated for it and that the other furniture in the room compliments the piece. Always correctly measure the area and the furniture so you don’t waste any time or money. 7)   Repurpose: Think about ways you can repurpose furniture whilst you are looking for vintage furniture for your home. There are lots of ideas on how to do this on Pinterest and unique updates can be really striking. What advice do you have for those looking for vintage furniture? Tell us over on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.