My passion for vintage began in 2011. You can read how I got started in vintage in the article “Adventures in Vintage – My Vintage Story” here on the blog. But I have always appreciated vintage items.
As a kid growing up, while I never really thought about the quality of my parents furniture or furnishings, or the comfortable sheets on my bed, or really any of the things we had in our house – I appreciated all those things. I also loved the things that were in my Grandma’s house – her desk and one of her old swivel chairs were always my favorite.
When my husband and I got engaged, we built our first home that was finished by the time we were married. Like most young married couples, we had very few furnishings – maybe even less than most couples, since my husband rented a room in a friend’s house and I still lived at home with my parents. We had our beds, our dressers, a few bookcases, a desk, a small television, a rocking chair, a few stacking end tables, and a beanbag chair. That’s pretty much it. We were excited to start furnishing our new home and had a blast shopping for new and modern living room furniture. We received many practical and generous gifts for our wedding, so we were set with everything we needed in the kitchen and dining room. Eventually we purchased a new bedroom set, then furniture for the family room, my office, and other rooms in the house. All new, contemporary and very modern for the time. I had never been to a thrift store (I had never even heard of them), and had never been to a garage or yard sale. I knew nothing at the time about estate sales, flea markets, or auctions. After having children and realizing we wanted to live in the country, we built our current home and had new rooms to find furniture for. Again, all new, all modern.
By the time our new-at-the-time and not that old end tables from our previous house were falling apart, I had already discovered vintage. And flea markets. And auctions, estate sales, and thrift stores. When I looked at furniture such as end tables that were made in the 1950s and 1960s, it was at that time that I really started appreciating the high quality of vintage items versus the furniture we bought in the early 1990s. The difference in quality was significant! That’s not to say the furniture we bought in the 1990s was cheap – it was high-quality among other furniture made at that time. But it certainly didn’t compare to vintage! Piece by piece, things are being replaced in our house now with pieces from the past. I know these pieces will be around for a long time, and hopefully things we can pass down to our kids.
QUALITY VINTAGE:
- If you’re not convinced that vintage is better than new, I wrote an article called “5 Myths About Vintage Items Many Think Are True” for Vintage Unscripted – a blog that my friends and I created. Go take a look.