Timeless style: 4 reasons why antique home interiors are making a comeback

Have you ever walked into a friend’s home to find “Live, Love, Laugh” decorations and tacky IKEA prints strewn across the walls? Did their brand new leather lounge suite inspire a sense of insipid, existential dread in you? And were the plants a little too on the plastic side?

If so, you’re probably one of the many people looking to make a stand against tasteless home decor in place for something a little older and with a larger hint of timeless style.

Thankfully, you can still find everything from mid-century sofas to antique drawer knobs to give your home that fascinating, unique look.

Here are some reasons why it’s the best way to go in this age of kitchy nonsense:

1. Antique designs are timeless

Oscar Wilde once said that “fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that you have to change it every six months”.

The same goes for modern furniture. What might be an appealing coffee table one season seems to be thrown into the dustbins of decor history the next, and for this reason alone you can see that contemporary designs are often simply naff.

Conversely, antique furniture is completely timeless, a stunning ode to a bygone era that will never cease to beguile and delight all those who enjoy its presence. With classic designs for everything from chaise longues to door handles and crockery cabinets all still available, in great plentitude and for great prices, why on Earth would you want to fill your home with cheap, unsightly junk?

2. It is of the highest quality

Unlike the cheap, warehouse bought stuff that is plaguing Australian homes from Margaret River to MacKay, antique furniture retains its quality over a very long time period.

Antique hardware and furniture are well-built and designed to last the test of time - hence why they are still available for purchase after, say, 100 years of existence.

Modern consumerism has made the home design industry replete with cheap knockoffs of once-sturdy pieces; it is a place where you can buy a soon-to-be-torn up couch for a higher price than you can purchase one that has been intact for over 60 years.

Why would you want to go for something that is due for deformity in two years when you could purchase something that has maintained its fabulous design for countless años?

3. They are simply more stylish than modern pieces

You know the feeling you get when you sit on an antique, luxury design? It’s that knowledge that you are enjoying something that has been made with love, whether it’s something as small as a drawer knob or as lush as a king-sized bed.

Antique pieces are always made with an artisan’s hand - that is why they have lasted the test of time and that is why - when you come across them - you are always thrilled to find them in such perfect order.

4. They are pieces you may not find elsewhere

Of course, you could fill your home with those ghastly “Live, Laugh, Laugh” placards, but you might as well admit to everyone who knows you that you have absolutely no taste and no discerning interest in how your home looks.

Conversely, you could display a little of your own unique style through that of your home interior design through everything from antique lamps to vintage armchairs.

This way, your home will look like something you took the times to make yours, and not like something out of a catalogue, thrown into your mailbox and wet with three-day old rain…

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