Wednesday, March 23, 2011

re-purpose your antiques

We have been living vintage for years. When people step into our farmhouse they always say it's like stepping back in time. We enjoy our antiques. I do buy new things too, but most of my household items are from an era gone by. When it comes to my home, I am a bit of an organizing nut. I love to have everything in its place. Part of the fun of owning antiques are re-purposing them for the items we need today. Most bathrooms built in the early 1900's were constructed without a lot storage, a simple medicine cabinet was about all the space they afforded, our home had very little storage too.  We have had to be creative with our storage needs. Since we shop and buy in bulk, even dealing with extra toilet paper can present a problem, our  solution for extra paper is an old suitcase.

Yes, that's a purse holding facial tissues.
We also have hung many shelves throughout our home. In the kitchen, we have a small chicken coop for our pots and pans to hang upon. It works well for us. It's from the 1920's, it was found on our farm and we were able to put it to good use with a few screws. It fits well in our farm kitchen.




 Sometimes you need to add more storage to a room. My sewing/dressing room is without a closet. This white shaker cabinet has been wonderful to house my hair dryer and curlers along with some sewing supplies. Something as small as an old jar can hold pencils for school time. If you look around your home or visit an antique store, you may find new ways to store your items. Until later,

Have a wonderful vintage day!


Gina

19 comments:

  1. Hello Gina, I love the way you decorated your house, it looks very nice. At the moment we live in a very modern house, but around Adelaide we have some fantastic stone houses. These types of homes are very popular and very expensive.

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  2. Adorable thoughts manifested into adorable ideas! Functional, too!

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  3. I love that chicken coop/pan holder its really cool. And a suitcase full of loo rolls! Brilliant. Your home always looks wonderful. xx

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  4. Such creative ideas! I run into the same problems with our old row house. We have just one tiny closet. Love the shaker cabinet!

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  5. This is the way I decorate the cottage :-)

    Hello kindred spirit! :)

    M.

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  6. Adorable! How do you keep the tp from getting wet sitting there so close to the sink& tub?

    Your pics are beautiful. What kind of camera do you use?

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  7. Hi Anonymous- the tp has never got wet yet because the hand towel to dry your hands is on the other side of the sink, plus we don't use the tub very often in this bathroom. Thanks about your comment on the camera, its a canon G12 power shot.

    Have a happy day everyone!

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  8. Your house is so beautiful and you are incredibly resourceful! I love what you did with the kitchen and bathroom. Feel free to do similar posts on other rooms in your home.

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  9. Vintage Girl,

    I think that it would be fun to visit your home. The vintage decor in your home is lovely as well as unique. I like how you use everyday items for practical matters.

    I really enjoyed this post. :)

    -LR

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  10. Hi Gina I wrote two e-mails to your yahoo account did you see them? You won my contest on the paper doll fabric. Can you contact me and let me know. Thanks Nan

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  11. Sorry Nan, My email is new and I couldn't access it this week, hubby fixed the problem, Hooray, I am so happy to win!!

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  12. I absolutely love your home! I love all the clever ways you use vintage and antique things as storage utilities!

    Allie

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  13. Gina, your decor is just what I love!
    I'm old fashioned in so many ways, I should have lived 100 years ago lol!
    I see you have wonderful old furniture.
    My hubby is an antique furniture restorer by trade, so we own quite a few vintage pieces too.
    I love old fashioned decorating and I really like how you've used old things for storage!
    Your claw foot bath and pedestal basin is really beautiful:-)
    Thank you for sharing pictures of your lovely home.
    blessings..Trish

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  14. These are such wonderful repurposing ideas. Your home is very beautiful.

    Thanks so much for your sweet comment on my blog post about my pregnancy.

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  15. Love your home! I definitely need to learn more storage in my house, this may be a mess for me. Probably if I place the toilet paper just like you, it will be completely soaked with water from the sink in a second. If .... I need to learn from you ....

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  16. Hey Rosy, I don't know if it's the design of the sink but we have never got any of the toilet paper wet while sitting there and I also have two boys who are messy! It just seemed to work out, anyway thanks for your comments everyone!

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  17. So cute! You must have mad skills to make a wallet like that!

    Congrats on winning the beignet pattern on Tilly's blog, too!

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  18. Fabulous decorating ideas. I really love the idea of an old chicken coop holding pots and pans. Very pretty!

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